The New Nation - Internet Edition

aDo the health programs benefit those who need it the most? One way to ensure voice and participation is to complement regular monitoring and evaluation of these programs with so called Reality Checks. The Reality Check initiative in Bangladesh was started by Sida in 2007 with the overall goal of listening to and understanding the perspectives of people living in poverty. This method is based on poor people describing their common problems and opportunities. Their responses provide a clear picture of where input is most needed, with the focus on primary education and health care.

The Reality Check initiative is structured as a qualitative listening study and runs over five-years, covering urban, semi urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. The approach provides an opportunity to reveal the faces and give voices to the numbers, as well as some answers to 'how' and 'why' the sector programs provide, or fail to provide, poor people with services based on their needs.

This initiative of Sida's aims to reflect the differences in experiences and perceptions between the people involved, and focuses on households and their neighbors rather than on public. This is in order to include voices which are rarely heard such as those of the elderly, the young and people with disabilities or belonging to minorities. This tool is only the beginning of a process; the challenge is to integrate it into a good method for monitoring, evaluating and identifying partners on the scene; the goal is to ensure that poor people's perspectives, problems, needs and interests on development are integrated in policy dialogues of education and health programs.

Photos & Text: Sida

Text Edited By:

Humaira Fatima / DrikNEWS