Before tourism in the Haor region got nationwide attention a few years ago, it had been a mostly community-based local ecosystem with its distinct financial structure and marketplace.
When tourism blossomed there, the vast capitalistic investment drove the local boatmen and businesses away, and they had no way to survive in the market since the outside investors did not trust the local market components.
This felt unjust to Magfi Reza Siddique, so he decided to help the locals through a community-based organisation. Thus, Daahuk was born in 2016.
Daahuk is a research platform established in 2016. The organisation has been working in the extremely climate-vulnerable rural areas of Tahirpur, Dharmapasha and Madhyanagar (Haor region) in Sunamganj District since 2016.
It collaborates with marginalised and disaster-affected communities to increase inter-community cooperation, build disaster-resilient integrated networks, and improve the local population's livelihood through behavioural and economic development and changes.
Magfi Reza Siddique believes that most development projects are not locally uplifting, so he wants a bottom-up approach to uplift the rural people.
"We do not believe in the total greatness of a global solution if local communities do not complement it," said Magfi Reza Siddique, the founder of Daahuk, "our villages have sustained themselves for thousands of years by relying only upon their internal resources. So we asked ourselves - why can we not uplift the villages and the rural society to rise to their full potential, utilising their own methods?"
The journey had been thoroughly strategic from the very beginning. Daahuk had decided to upgrade the mass community resources in alignment with the balanced integration of human effort to shape up two major livelihood areas in the haor region.
They wanted tourism and traditional farming to complement each other socially and financially.
"Most of our boatmen are farmers in the winter and fishermen in the mid-season, so we had to consider a holistic alternative development approach to make the ecosystem respond," said Magfi Reza Siddique.
"We have worked hard to create and care for the integrated boatman network, which is now competing in various fields. By December 30, the local stakeholders will be facilitated with their own community product and service reselling platform (www.daahuk.org)," Magfi Reza Siddique showed the first ever boat-based tourism marketplace.
"Our reach has gone international too," he added, "We host the highest number of foreign tourists in the Sylhet region. This is a global enterprise now."
Daahuk has introduced its stakeholders to the concept of socially complemented and diverse payment procedures. Daahuk operates its finances on 'Sweat Currency', which means integrating social responsibilities and labour rights into the owner-worker dynamics.
It takes on all the responsibilities of the workers and the locals. Daahuk has also used seasonal cycles. This is because they want to reduce the stress of loans and the microcredit dependency of the locals.
"We have seen that the locals need finances during the winter for farming. And we need them to operate our tour boats in the monsoon. So, we started to pay them in advance, and thus, we reduced the operating cost."
Their work has left a positive impact on society as well. The villagers have acquired valuable training and technical know-how, and these skills are transitional. Furthermore, Daahuk has facilitated the creation of a trade-based professional union of Tahirpur boatmen named 'Tahirpur Nou Parjatan Samabay Samity Limited', the first community-based organisation.
One of the focal points of Daahuk is the conservation of nature. Therefore, they have collaborated with the Bangladesh Tourism Board to create a waste-management programme in the greater region, which is an ongoing project. It has resulted in capacity building, waste treatment, and increased local awareness.
Covid-19 has taken a toll on the Bangladeshi tourism industry. So, how did it affect the business of Daahuk?
Magfi Reza explained, "Covid-19 was a hard time for all of us, and Daahuk is no exception. But we have benefited from our synthesis with the local society, and it helped us endure the pandemic. You see, our investment was stuck at that time, we paid the boatmen in advance, but in the monsoon, tourism was off. As a result, we were able to recoup our investment by raising livestock.The locals used livestock to pay off the advance payment, and we even made a profit!"
The flexibility of the business model has been shown to have alternative uses. For example, the boatmen network was used to create a logistics pathway during the 2022 Flood. Team Daahuk developed a logistics pathway through the flood-affected region to quickly and efficiently send relief to the affected people. The path has been used by thousands of relief workers and rescue operators.
The success of Daahuk has not gone unnoticed. Magfi Reza Siddique and Daahuk have been chosen for one of the country's most prestigious project management professional awards, "Project of the Year - Social Impact," in the "Bangladesh Project Management Symposium and Excellence Awards 2022" in 2022.
The award recognises and honours the best practitioners of project management and their achievements in the project management arena.
Policymakers and development experts have lauded their development concept. In addition, they have been selected for demonstrating exceptional organisational project management capabilities and adding value to society with successful strategic initiatives.
Daahuk's creed is "We consider one individual to carry the whole universe. So, to ensure alternative development in rural Bangladesh, Daahuk has been working relentlessly. They are now working in four districts, and their goal is to promote their idea of a bottom-up social development approach across the country to create a better future for the rural people.
shadique.mahbub.islam@gmail.com