Dr. Bashir Uddin Gharami practises medicine in Pyarpur village, Bangladesh, and serves as the elected General Secretary of a local Civil Society Organisation (CSO). His focus on children’s health is personal as much as professional — he has a young daughter. Through Right2Grow, a multi-country alliance in which Max Foundation is a consortium partner, Gharami attended Budget Monitoring and Expenditure Tracking (BMET) training that gave him the tools to engage with government budget processes for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and nutrition services. 

Before the training, Gharami found it hard to believe that community members without political affiliation could engage with Union Parishad (UP) committees — the smallest rural administrative unit in Bangladesh — and make demands on public services. “It was unbelievable to me that without political identity people could go to the UP to claim or avail any service,” he said. 

Following Right2Grow courses on BMET, CSO capacity building, gender, and leadership, he began organising community meetings on WASH, health, and nutrition, focused on children and young mothers.

He was subsequently appointed to the standing committees of his Union Parishad and represented his community at the open budget meeting for 2022–23. He now has a formal role in monitoring how WASH and nutrition budgets for children are allocated and spent. “This course enabled me to raise my voice in the presence of government officials. Together with other CSO members we are now jointly working to raise our voices for the rights of children under 5,” he said. 

In Bangladesh, Right2Grow is working across 40 Union Parishads, reaching more than 165,000 people. To date, 21 UPs have increased their annual budgets by 2.6%, resulting in improved access to WASH and nutrition and better mother and child care. Gharami’s work in Pyarpur is part of that broader pattern: community members equipped with budget knowledge engaging government as informed participants.