Consumer International (CI), the worldwide alliance of national consumer representative organizations was invited by UNIDO to visit Bangladesh to assist the Consumer Association of Bangladesh and BQSP to plan and organize the development of the association to be more effective in protecting consumers’ rights in Bangladesh. The following article is an extract from their report.
The Consumers Association of Bangladesh was established in 1978 - very early in the worldwide history of consumer organisations in developing countries. It has a substantial record of action across a range of consumer issues and has worked closely with Consumers International throughout its life. For example, it campaigned and promoted public awareness about pesticides and infant feeding from its early years (issues which both became prominent in the region at this time) while most recently addressing the safety of street food, counterfeit and fake foods (labelling) and traditional and complementary medicines.
The CAB is a not-for-profit organisation registered under the Societies Act but does not at present qualify under ‘Section 28’, which would confer limited liability. It is in the process of altering its constitution and structure to enable it to obtain Section 28 registration.
The CAB is a membership-based organisation, with currently 250 ‘general’ (voting) members and about 500 associates. In addition it has formed a network of local committees, now in place in 47 of the 64 districts of Bangladesh. To be operational a district committee has to have at least 100 members; these are not individually members of the CAB, but are represented in its governance through the district committees, each of which is an institutional member of the national body, with its own voting rights. Direct and indirect membership thus totals several thousand consumers. This level is typical of community-based consumer groups in many developing countries and the framework of local committees is more extensive than many others have achieved.
The CAB has a democratic governance structure under which the board (Executive Committee) of nine is elected by the voting members. The Committee serves for two years and members can be re-elected.
The resources available to the CAB have always been severely limited and although they have gradually grown they remain modest. Income comes from membership payments, occasional donations, and programme grants, of which the last remain essential to support anything beyond what volunteer activists might achieve. General Members pay 300 taka (about US$4) a year, associates less. The CAB estimate their average total annual income in recent years at about 5,400,000 taka (US$75,000), of which more than 90% is from grants. Currently, most support comes through a grant under the ‘For People’ programme managed by a consortium of donors - the Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust (BLAST), CARE Bangladesh and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Previously, Oxfam supported the CAB for several years.
Costs in Bangladesh are low, and the CAB is able to maintain an office space of about 1000 sq. ft (100 sq. m) and a paid staff of nine. Two further people, including the Executive Director, work full time for much less than a full-time salary. The office itself is under-equipped for the number of staff; there are just three computers, only one telephone line and no photocopier.
The staff are organised into a small project team, one of whom concentrates on price surveys, with others providing accounts and office and information support. Board members and other volunteers contribute substantial time, especially on communications and advocacy.
The focus of the organisation has been, through deliberate choice, on raising public awareness, through consumer education initiatives and issue-based advocacy/ campaigning. This reflects the professional backgrounds of some of the leading figures, which is strong on communications (the Chairman is a newspaper editor, the Executive Director a journalist, for example) but weaker on research. Some projects have included laboratory testing, though experience of this is limited.
As well as using newspapers and broadcast media for publicity, the CAB publishes its own bi-monthly newsletter, sent to its own members and also distributed widely to government officials and other opinion-formers.
From the stakeholders met during the review visit, the CAB has a high level of recognition with government, standards and business communities and is acknowledged as the principal ‘voice’ of consumer interests. Formal consultation requirements however are limited in the absence of a Consumer Protection Act (below). It was not possible to assess wider public awareness.
The CAB is directly engaged in standardisation. It is represented on the Board of the BSTI, and there are consumer representatives on a range of technical committees. In addition they are aware of international standards developments through their membership of Consumers International and its standards network which operates through an e-mail list-serve to distribute information and promote and facilitate policy debate.
