Mobilizing District Committee Members

11. Organize seminars to bring all committee members together

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The Persons with Disabilities Rights and Protection Act, 2013 (DRPA) identifies the Deputy Commissioner (DC) as each district committee’s chairperson. But in reality, most DCs chair over one hundred different committees. As such, it is not unusual for DCs to overlook their responsibility to organize quarterly meetings of the full district committee. Sometimes DCs might also erroneously believe that the district committee’s designated secretary, the Deputy Director (DD) of the Department of Social Services is responsible for convening and running these meetings. Both competing responsibilities and also role confusion can prevent district committees from meeting four times each year as required by the DRPA.

The experience of USAID’s EPD program is that DPOs can jumpstart the district committees’ operation by organizing seminars and inviting the DC and/or an Additional DC as chief guest, along with other prominent committee members. Although ultimately it the repsonsiblity of the Government of Bangladesh to ensure that the DRPA is followed by local government officials, and although district committees should not rely on private actors to carry out core government functions, DPOs should consider convening district committee members at a large, formal event if they do not do so. Also, DPOs should pressure committee members to fix their next meeting date before the conclusion of these events.

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