Exclusion, cohesion and health were formed—one comprised women, the other comprised men. The committees managed and maintained the water-point, paid bills to WASA, and made installment payments to the DSK. This second initiative was successful. Four years later, the DSK recovered the initial cost, WASA bills were being paid on time, and the community had a safe water-supply system. The DSK model prompted the water authority to allow communities to apply for water connections on their own behalf without the need for a guaran- tor. Eighty-eight water-points have been established since 1996 in 70 informal settlement areas. The wa- ter authority is also cooperating in the replication of the project in 110 community-managed water systems benefiting around 60,000 people who live in informal settlements, with plans to expand the arrangement to one of the largest informal settle- ments in the city with over 250,000 inhabitants (35). The success of the project shows the potential for residents of informal communities to be reliable clients, responsible, and willing to pay for services. The success draws on and further develops the capabilities of the residents, convincing the public and NGO sectors that the intervention could work in other areas. The residents have the intended benefits of a safe water-supply and the unintended benefits of generating cohesion (trust) with net- works beyond the informal settlement setting. NGO, public sector and civil society partnerships Civil society action is promoted as a mechanism to mobilize government accountability and relevance in service provision. There is a strong need for ac- tion to adjust distribution of public-sector funds to the health sector in Bangladesh where the wealthi- est 20% of the population receive over 26% of total financial subsidies provided by government health expenditure compared to the poorest 20% of the population receiving 16% (38). In addition, health service provision is plagued by negligence, unprofessional behaviour by service providers, poor maintenance of physical facilities, illegal user- fees, leakages of resources, and long waiting-times. While there have been internal systems in place to ensure the quality of care and accountability, they have been largely non-functional (39). In the Bang- ladesh setting, there is a possibility that increased civil society action could contribute to re-align- ing public healthcare service-delivery according to health rights and social welfare goals. 432 Johnston HB Stakeholder consultation committees for the Health and Population Sector Programme (40) The five-year (1998-2003) Health and Population Sector Programme (HPSP) of the Government of Bangladesh highlighted the importance of stakeholder consultation and participation. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare requested NGOs, with their strong networks at the commu- nity level, to establish stakeholder committees of local resident service-users to monitor the perform- ance of public healthcare providers at the local level. A national stakeholder committee, nine upazila (a subdistrict with a population typi- cally around 250,000) stakeholder committees, and 16 union (the administrative unit below the upazila) stakeholder committees were formed. An NGO—Nijera Kori—with a long history of social mobilization, was asked to arrange local meetings in different parts of the country to let villagers provide input into how the stakeholder commit- tees might work. Four NGOs—Nijera Kori, Volun- tary Health Services Society (VHSS), BRAC, and Mahila Parishad—formed local-level stakeholder committees with community representatives on an experimental basis. Despite some small successes in establishing dia- logue, the stakeholder committees lacked authority or political clout to enact decisions. An assessment showed that many community members were unaware of the committees and the opportunity they offered to provide feedback about the health- care system (39). Without strong social or political support from the community and public sector, the majority of stakeholder committees disbanded with minimal impact on public-health service-de- livery. Private for-profit sector action Although there are examples of corporations taking advantage of developing countries and marginali- zed populations, the potential impact of corporate and business actions should not be overlooked as mechanisms for alleviating exclusion. The follow- ing are examples of different types of private-sector interventions with potential to impact social exclu- sion and thus potentially impact health status. Women’s employment in ready-made garment industry (41) Joining the formal labour sector is widely recog- nized as an important path out of poverty (42). However, it is generally limited for excluded groups because of labour market segmentation (7). The Ready-made Garment (RMG) industry is an exam- JHPN