Improvement of local governance or decentralized governance is increasingly being recognized as a tool to achieve good governance at all levels. In order to make public institutions more accountable and aligned with the needs of poor people, it is necessary to promote public support for the reform and accountability of public institutions at all levels.

Since 1997, WAVE Foundation has been working with special emphasis on local governance and civil society empowerment to address issues related with good governance. At present, the organization implements the program activities in 11 districts directly and in partnership approach.

Objectives:
• To build capacity of the local government, civil society organizations and partners for strengthening local governance and ensuring responsive public services.
• To establish micro-macro linkages at national level to form/ reform policies for strong and decentralized local governance.

Following are the projects of WAVE Foundation on responsive governance:

In the light of its previous experience of strengthening local government institutions and forming people’s alliances named Loak Morcha, WAVE undertook this DANIDA funded project. The aim of the project is to ensure demand driven and responsive delivery of four public services viz. education, health, agriculture and village court in 112 Unions under 22 Upazillas of 11 Districts of Bangladesh through mobilizing communities and strengthening standing committees of Union Parishads and Village Courts.

The objectives of the project are: 1) To provide women and youth with the information and support needed to vote safely and independently, participate in public affairs, and monitor the performance of elected representatives in meeting their priority needs and interests and 2) To encourage political parties, candidates and elected representatives to engage and address the priority needs and interests of women and youth.

The project aims to improve maternal and neonatal health practices and utilization of quality maternal and neonatal health care and services particularly among the poor and excluded through creating an enabling environment where the rights and voices of the beneficiaries are protected and heard.

The proposed action aims to strive towards a congenial policy context where progressive socio-economic and political policies are adequately translated into concrete actions to transform the position and condition of the hardcore poor citizenry of Bangladesh. The purpose is to influence policy mechanisms to be more coherent and to facilitate effective implementation of the Social Safety Net Programmes i.e. VGF, VGD and Employment programme for the hardcore poor of the government of Bangladesh.

The project aims to conduct voter and civic education activities in support of the national voter registration process undertaken by the Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) to update the 2008 national electoral roll.

Prioritizing the issue that overall development is impossible unless we give equal importance on the upliftment of both men and women giving simultaneous emphasis on the social and legal perspectives; WAVE Foundation has been working in the field of women rights. As reduction of disparity between men and women is considered to be the prime concern to ensure the rights of women, the local communities are made aware on the rights of women especially the social and legal rights. WAVE has been working in collaboration with different advocacy groups with the inclusion of NGOs, representatives of civil society, cultural clubs and women groups. WAVE Foundation is also facilitating different women association and Self-Help Groups which are involved in analyzing the causes responsible behind violence, torture and oppression against women. Accordingly, capacity building initiatives are being taken as an essential measure of stopping violence against women and establishing the rights of women.

Objectives:
• To increase community awareness on women rights and to decrease women trafficking.
• To empower women for establishing their rights and preventing violence.

With a view to achieving the above-mentioned objectives WAVE Foundation is implementing the following projects under this program:

Women empowerment and poverty reduction are inextricably linked. This equality will be achieved when the women will be able to act on their own behalf and can ensure that their views are heard and taken into account. From this perspective WAVE Foundation is implementing “Promoting Women Empowerment through Proactive Social Actors Emphasis on Violence Against Women” project with the assistance of ActionAid Bangladesh. The project has been working on violence against women, domestic violence, victims of violence, and livelihood opportunities for hardcore poor women and children.

Child Rights is one of the priority programs implemented by WAVE Foundation which has been recognized potential to play significant role in establishing the rights of children prior to their development at the early stage. It is imperative to nurture the children with proper care, support and attention on the way to ensuring a resourceful future generation. At the same time, establishment of their rights is a pre-requisite so as to find them confident, capable and leading in the days ahead. The program facilitates the establishment of the fundamental rights of children with special concentration on their cognitive, mental, social and cultural development.

Objectives:
• To increase community awareness on child rights including education and to decrease child labour, abuse and trafficking.
• To facilitate the establishment of fundamental rights of the children

Project under the program:

Though education for all is a constitutional right but the hardcore poor children are often deprived of enjoying the right because of many reasons. The parents of the hardcore poor children are reluctant to send their children to school. Instead they are interested in sending them to any work place to earn for the family or use the children to assist them in their work from their very childhood. On the other hand the children who go to school do not get assistance from their parents in preparing their lesions as they are illiterate. So to facilitate education for the hardcore poor children, an initiative of pre-schooling for them has been undertaken by WAVE Foundation. The objective of the initiative is to create opportunity for the hardcore poor children to enter into such an environment at the age group of 4 to 5 from where they are developed as interested learners for the primary school level. The center through which WAVE Foundation has been providing the pre-schooling support to the hardcore poor is known as Shishu Udyan. The center is also being used as the learning and recreation center for the community children. Besides, the parents of the hardcore poor children are also sensitized regarding the necessity and importance of education for their children through the center.

WAVE started its microfinance activities in rural area under a project in 1993. After partnering with PKSF in 1996, the organization gradually evolved as one of the biggest microfinance program implementing organizations.

The main objectives of WAVE Foundation’s microfinance program are:
• To create access to financial services for the poor emphasizing women and hardcore poor.
• To assist potential micro-credit borrowers in developing as entrepreneurs for sustainable development

WAVE has now been implementing microfinance program in both rural and urban areas through 55 branch offices. The components of microfinance program are: 1) Microcredit, 2) Micro Entrepreneurship Development and 3) Microcredit for Ultra Poor

The poor and the marginalized do not have access to natural resources, education, health services, credit, technology and other social support or their extent of access to these resources are influenced by their vulnerability. WAVE Foundation, since its inception, has been working with these people to create access to these resources by them.

Objectives
• To raise awareness of the poor and the marginalized about their rights and to sensitize about health, sanitation and hygiene.
• To build the confidence and develop skills through formal and non-formal education and training
• To provide credit, transfer technology and assets.
• To generate employment on a regular basis and to link them with production and marketing channel

WAVE Foundation has been implementing the following projects under livelihood development program:

Though some positive changes have been made as a result of various development activities, but there are questions as well with regard to targeting the poor and the poverty situation. Various study findings reveal that 10% to 15% population who remains at the bottom of the poverty line are deprived of receiving any development intervention though various development initiatives are taking place at the government and NGOs’ levels. These people are called the extreme poor or the hardcore poor. WAVE Foundation successfully implemented a pilot project from 2003 to 2007 on livelihood development of the hardcore poor with the financial support from World Bank and Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF). The main services for them were to provide financial support and skills development training. Armed with the successful experiences from the project, WAVE Foundation has been closely working with the hardcore poor with a package of interventions for their sustainable development.

The overall objective of the project is livelihood improvement of the poor community including vulnerable/destitute women, children, poor and marginalized farmers. The specific objectives are: to aware and sensitize community people on nutrition, sanitation, hygiene and use of safe water, to facilitate education, physical and intellectual development of poor and the poorest children of the project area, to improve the livelihood status of hardcore poor women, poor and marginalized farmers through IGA/skills development and providing inputs for undertaking IGAs and income enhancement and to transfer assets.

WAVE Foundation with the financial support from Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation under its Learning and Innovation Fund to Test New Ideas (LIFT) Project has established a breeding center at its own farming complex at Kosaghata, Chuadanga. There are 100 does and 10 bucks at the breeding center. WAVE Foundation is also motivating and encouraging poor people including the hardcore poor in rearing Black Bengal goats at household level and also to develop small scale goat farm to earn more income and thus eliminating their poverty

The overall goat of the project is promoting just and sustainable development. The objectives of the project are: 1) To increase annual income and nutrition of participating families; 2) To sensitize community on gender equity and environment conservation and 3) To strengthen community cohesiveness for reciprocal cooperation.

The country’s economy is based on agriculture and about 80% people live on Agriculture profession. But the vast number of farming community is deprived from improved technology and good seeds. Lack of marketing and financial support is hindering the growth of commercial production of high variety poultry birds and livestock.

Objectives
• To introduce new technology and quality seeds for increasing production and improvement of livelihood of the poor farmers.
• To build capacity and establishing rights of the farmers for developing and strengthening farming system.

Project of Agriculture Program

WAVE Foundation has been supporting the farmers on rice seed health technology to recover the production losses since 2002 and succeeded in demonstrating 10 – 15% increased rice production in the same land in same treatment and environment through producing quality seeds by the farmers using improved technology, better seed management and reducing pest pressure. WAVE, in association with national and international organizations, has also been conducting researches to develop high yield variety rice seeds, producing rice seeds through contract farmers after successful invention of new variety and disseminating those to local farmers. Besides, it has been providing credit support to the contract farmers in producing rice seeds.

WAVE Foundation initiated this program in 1993. With the production and supply of sanitary latrines and safe water supplying equipments WAVE performs different motivational activities for creating awareness among the rural people of the south-western region.

Objectives:
• To improve the status of hygiene practices on a sustainable basis.
• To reduce mortality and morbidity of the poor people caused by water-borne diseases.
WAVE Foundation has been implementing the following project under water & sanitation program:

The objective of this project is to improve the standard of hygiene practices and behaviour particularly for the poor on a sustainable basis. The project is being implemented in Gangni upazilla of Meherpur district with the support from DPHE & UNICEF.

WAVE Foundation believes that education is the basic for all development and literacy for all is a human right. If a person becomes educated, he/she can go for further development. The ability of reading, writing and counting help to mitigate the thirst of knowledge of a person. Education also helps a person to develop technical knowledge which ultimately helps for better living. Considering the necessity of education and literacy, WAVE Foundation has been implementing both formal and non-formal education program since 1991.

Objectives:
• To provide pre-schooling support to the hardcore poor students and to provide education for the drop-outs.
• To ensure quality primary education.
• To provide skills training for livelihood improvement.

WAVE Foundation has been implementing the following projects under Education Program:

The purpose of the project is to provide post literacy and continuing education to the neo literate. In the post literacy course the objective is to consolidate, upgrade and fine-tune the acquired skills of neo literate and in the continuing education course the objective is to provide them with skill training from the list of available and suitable skills considering the market demand and supply situation. The post literacy course will virtually work as a bridge between basic literacy and continuing education and will facilitate the basic literate to go for continuing education. The project is being implemented in Chuadanga Sadar, Mujibnagar and Gangni upazilla of Meherpur district with the financial support from Asian Development Bank and Bureau of Non Formal Education, Government of Bangladesh.

WAVE Foundation has been implementing the project in Damurhuda Upazilla under Chuadanga District to ensure inclusion of all children specially the poor and hardcore poor children in primary schools. The project aims to build the community capacity for monitoring the quality of primary education, governance and financing to make sure that the primary education is of equitable standard. Introducing flexible school calendar, community teacher recruitment and to replicate the locally adopted good practices into other schools are the other objectives of this project.