Change Leadership Watch

"Bangladesh cancels licences of 6000 charities" ~ Sep 11, 2012

On a day that the USA remembers terrorist acts, it's also useful to also remember what is going on in the world in some of our most impoverished areas of the world, where non-profits, NGOs hope to make a difference.

According to this post, thousands of charities are being shut down in Bangladesh over the past 3 years, attributed to power moves.  (See the Peter Drucker "There's no such thing as leadership" article for how effective that really is, long term.)

Excerpt:

Bangladesh has revoked licences for more than 6,000 charities over the last three years, an official said Tuesday, in a policy that critics slammed as a government attempt to extend its powers.

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"The government increasingly acts as though it is interested in controlling the NGO sector to a minute level detail, which will only stifle civil society activity."

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Masud Rana, spokesman for the social services department, said the licences for non-government organisations (NGOs) were withdrawn after charities were found to have collapsed or have changed their area of work.

"Most of these NGOs were sitting idle doing nothing or doing things other than they were permitted," Rana told AFP.

But the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) group said the closures were a deliberate move by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government.

"This is just a smoke screen to exert political control over civil society," said Brad Adams, Asia director at the HRW.

"The government increasingly acts as though it is interested in controlling the NGO sector to a minute level detail, which will only stifle civil society activity."

Read the full article here.