These points were made by Zafar Sobhan in his Daily Star column on March 24. Referring to the Citizens' Dialogue kicked off under the auspices of the Centre for Policy Dialogue and the national daily newspapers, Prothom Alo and Daily Star, he rejoiced that civil society had got off the fence and expressed its willingness to get its hands dirty in politics.

It would be strongly disputed by many that everything ever achieved in Bangladesh is attributable to NGOs and the private sector. I would like to underscore the other point that Sobhan made. As he put it: "As good as the NGO sector and the private sector may be ... it is government that builds roads. It is government that provides sewerage system and water and electricity. It is government that must maintain law and order and provide justice. Even if we outsource services such as education, we nevertheless need government to set up a curriculum and ensure that standards are maintained."

In the world today, with the winds of globalization blowing in a gale force, with growing acceptance of the civil society role in a democratic polity, and the flame of rising expectations of people being fanned by the information society, there is no alternative to mutual support and a strong partnership between the authorities of the state and the non-government actors in society.

There are many stories of success and accomplishments of government-NGO partnership in fields where Bangladesh has done well compared to South Asian neighbours and other developing countries. The micro-finance approach in poverty alleviation, originating from the genius and vision of Prof. Yunus and Grameen Bank, has prospered and spread with imaginative measures taken by the government. Palli Krama Shahayak Foundation (PKSF), was established by the government and serves today as the source of capital funds for most micro-finance NGOs in the country.

Collaboration between the Ministry of Health and BRAC and other NGOs, with encouragement of international organizations such as UNICEF and WHO, has been critical to Bangladesh's performance in child immunization and spreading the knowledge and practice of oral rehydration solution for preventing death from diarrhea. Government-NGO collaboration in these two activities has made it possible to achieve the much acclaimed reduction of child and infant mortality in Bangladesh. Success in improving contraceptive prevalence and the consequent reduction in fertility rate, another Bangladesh accomplishment, have also been possible through close cooperation between the government and NGOS. Sanitation and clean water provisions in villages and control of TB, especially of drug-resistant strains, are other examples in which progress is being made through government-NGO partnerships.

Recognizing the need for government-NGO cooperation, and inspired by the success of PKSF, a new NGO Foundation has been established by the government with an initial fund of Tk 50 crore provided by the government. Managed by a governing body representing the government, NGOs and civil society, the aim of the NGO Foundation is to provide grants to small NGOs for development activities. If it proves its effectiveness as a funder of worthwhile and effective NGO activities, it can be a means of support for local and community-based development initiatives all over the country.

The examples cited unfortunately are not the norm in all spheres of development. In education, for instance, one would expect great potential for partnership, given the importance of community and popular involvement in maintaining quality of services and ensuring accountability of institutions. There is also a good record of innovative work by NGOs in education, such as those in non-formal primary education of BRAC and the combination of vocational and general education for working children of UCEP, both of which have been acclaimed internationally. A number of other NGOs have pioneered innovations and established a track record of good work in education. There is also an excellent forum of education NGOs called the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) which includes members with recognized accomplishments in education. CAMPE's membership eligibility ensures exclusion of fake organizations which spring up solely to bid for government contracts (e.g. when government offered funds to NGOs for undertaking literacy and post-literacy courses).

The assets that the nation has in the form of effective and dedicated NGOs with good experience in education can be utilized in implementing national programs such as the Second Primary Education Development Program (PEDP II) and the sub-sector reform program at the secondary level. Local level and school level management, involvement of the community and parents, greater accountability of schools, effective functioning of the managing committees, better training and support for teachers, ensuring that the poor and the disadvantaged children are not excluded and helped to perform better in school are the ingredients of the reforms aimed for in these programs. These are precisely the areas where NGOs have a great deal to offer. These are the areas where conventional, bureaucratic and centralized approach, the hallmark of our public education system, left to its own devices, cannot deliver.

A good model of partnership in the education sector where the strengths of NGOs can be used, and not stymied by bureaucratic control over numerous details, has to be supported. In fact, there have been plenty of negative examples of government-NGO collaboration in the education sector. The focus has been on compliance of certain rules rather than actual learning outcomes. And true to expected contract-award practices of the government, corrupt and inept organizations, sometimes created overnight, have been awarded the contracts. The relationship needs to be of partnership, jointly determining the objectives, the monitoring process and assessment criteria, between government and organizations which are well-known and have a record of service.

The good examples of partnership between the government and NGOS need not be confined to a few activities cited above. The vibrant NGO sector can help the government achieve the goals of poverty reduction, education for all, improvement in health and nutrition, elimination of gender disparity and making the basic services more inclusive, the millennium development pledges of Bangladesh, but even more important, the obligation of the government to the people. The government, by embracing NGOs as partners, and by supporting, facilitating, and promoting their work, can claim credit for the success of NGOs and own, on behalf of the nation, the achievements of NGOs.

Dr. Manzoor Ahmed is director of BRAC University Institute of Educational Development (BU-IED)