NGO EXPANSION AND THE FIGHT TO REACH THE POOR - GENDER IMPLICATIONS OF NGO SCALING-UP IN BANGLADESH

The gender implications of a growing trend of NGO competition and encr oachment in rural Bangladesh are discussedusing case studies of the Gr ameen Bank and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). The exam ples demonstrate how these organizations' quests to rapidly expand and scale-up their programmes, particularly women's credit schemes, can i n fact, have detrimental effects at the field level for small local NG Os. Their target-driven preoccupation with growth, and the differing p ressures of the expansion process, appear to be diverting organization al priorities away from development of 'others' (women), to developmen t of 'selves' (the organization).