 |
| | |
|
|
| Perspectives |
|
|
Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) pursues a mission to create conditions for increased access of the target groups and the communities within which they live, to public and private services and enhance capacities of such communities to maximally utilize such services particularly in four interconnected areas of Education, Livelihood, Health and Human Rights & Social Justice, with Environment being a crosscutting theme.
|
|
The Mission is reflected in the figure , where the top represents the living condition of family symbolized by a child, a woman and a man and the pillars represent sectors for intervention through which the family will enjoy a satisfying standard of living. 
|
Beginning initially with mostly philanthropic programs DAM gradually emerged as a nationally and internationally well accepted non-profit and non-government development organization working on a wide range of and diversified innovative activities in different area of development at the grass roots level as well as national and international level.
DAM made paradigm shift in the mid-seventies from welfare to development approach with programme operation primarily in education and human development sectors.
Over years DAM has diversified its development interventions with expansion of programme coverage both geographically and in population.
With its multifaceted and diversified programmes and activities DAM is now in a very unique position among many development organizations in Bangladesh to work with the people, particularly the disadvantaged, with need-based services towards improvement of their living conditions.
|
| Guiding Principles |
|
The organizational guiding principles are largely guided by its founding motto and aims focusing on ‘Divine and Humanitarian Services’. These principles have strong bearing on how DAM works.
|
Founding Aims of Dhaka Ahsania Mission
- Develop the social and spiritual life of the entire human community
- Annihilate the distinction between human beings
- Cultivate unity and peace and inspire divine love
- Teach one one’s insignificance and shun one’s pride
- Enable one to recognize and realize the relation between the Creator and the creation
- Enable one to realize the duty of human being to the Creator and fellow beings
- Render all possible help to the suffering humanity at large.
|
|
The spiritual element in the motto and aims are translated into ethical norms and values in all DAM activities.
|
|
|
The selection of target groups is on the basis of needs and rights consideration only, irrespective of religion, political allegiance, ethnicity, and so on.
|
|
| Broad Approaches : |
|
- Human resource development approach as the heart of development.
- Activities based on community needs analysis and managed by community.
- Multi-sector and multi-level result-oriented initiatives.
- Learn Micro-Apply-Macro.
- Environment as cross-cutting.
- Mainstreaming of gender equity.
|
Human resource development approach underlines that the interventions consider the development and utilization of human potentials to be the major focus area, particularly for poverty elimination, which is a national priority in economic growth and social development policy and programming.
Community-based approach underscores that intervention at community level starts by a process of community mobilization for the formation of action groups, thematic committee or any other type of community-based organization.
DAM programs are built on establishing a synergy of activities undertaken in different sectors to produce best results reflected in comprehensive development of the community, benefiting particularly those trapped in multi-faceted and complex poverty situation. Planning and implementation processes for achieving comprehensive community development seeks to ensure coherence among the multi-sector coordinated interventions.
DAM is a learning organization. It learns by doing – implementing programmes at the field level to demonstrate good practices through a learning process. It seeks to increasingly engage in replicating models or good practices of development initiatives, sometimes designed and tested as innovative pilot ones, for wider application.
Environment is considered as highly important for the standard of living conditions of target communities, but is not treated as a separate programme area. Instead, all interventions in education, livelihood, health and human rights & social justice are supposed to be designed and implemented with due consideration to the issues of environmental protection and preservation for sustainable development of the communities and the nation.
Gender equity is explicitly dealt within the context of Human Rights & Social Justice. At the same time DAM ensures that its other programmes are developed and executed in a gender sensitive manner for balanced human development and social well-being.
| Management |
|
|
An Executive Committee consisting of 21 members, elected by the general body for two years term provides policy guidelines to DAM. The President and Chief Executive is the DAM’s chief functionary who acts under the guidance of the Executive Committee.
|
|
|
|
|
|
DAM sponsored institutions are managed by the institutional heads under the guidance of the respective governing bodies and within the broad framework set by the DAM Executive Committee.
|
|
The Monitoring Unit and the Internal Audit Unit work independently of but closely with the functional divisions to ensure programmatic quality assurance, financial transparency, accuracy and accountability.
|
Consolidation & Efficiency: DAM is nearing its 50th year and by now it has widened its sphere of activities to a considerable extent. To increase coherence and efficiency in its interventions, DAM continuously keeps trying to improve its institutional efficiency. In the year 2005-06, a series of organizational development steps were taken to strengthen capacity in human resource management, improvement of financial management system, increasing scope for effective communication across the organization. Besides, in line with the Perspective Plan and the Programmes, resource mobilization strategies have been formulated to increase efficiency in tapping in-country and external resources. Through a participatory process of interaction at various levels, the strengths and weaknesses of the current systems have been identified followed by mapping the future needs. At the request of DAM management, Plan Bangladesh supported this initiative and provided financial as well as technical support through MDF South Asia (a speclialised firm on organization development). As follow-up of developing various organizational capacity building packages throughout the year, respective divisions have prepared details action plans in phased implementation of those. The year 2006-07 will mark part or full implementation of these systems contributing to systemic improvement within the functioning process of DAM.
