Policy In Bangladesh Research Articles

An assessment of the legal and policy framework for participatory forest governance in Bangladesh

A robust and well-designed legal and policy framework is vital for ensuring successful public participation in forest management and engaging local governments and communities in conservation efforts. However, despite the presence of various policies and laws aimed at protecting environmental and biological resources, Bangladesh continues to experience significant depletion of its forest resources. This can be largely attributed to inadequate implementation of forest laws, a weak institutional structure, and a bureaucratic approach to forest management. This article undertakes an analysis of Bangladesh's policy and legal framework concerning participatory forest governance. It specifically examines the incorporation of participatory elements within the country's legal and policy framework for forest management. The assessment encompasses forest tenure, land use, and the practice of participatory forest management (PFM). Furthermore, the effectiveness of social forestry and co-management, the two primary approaches to achieving participatory forest governance in Bangladesh, is evaluated. Additionally, the article identifies the challenges hindering the successful implementation of these approaches. The argument put forth is that despite the apparent support for participatory forest management within Bangladesh’s policy and legal framework, the actual implementation of PFM and sustainable forest management (SFM) remains ineffective. This ineffectiveness can be attributed to poor policy execution, prioritization of profit-generation over sustainable management practices, lack of coherence within the legal framework, and the centralized decision-making process regarding state-owned forests.

Socioeconomic, demographic, and nutritional factors associated with cesarean deliveries among childbearing women in Bangladesh

Cesarean section (CS) delivery significantly impacts mother and infant health and could be harmful if done excessively. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors (socioeconomic, demographic, and nutritional) for CS delivery among childbearing women in Bangladesh. This study was carried out using a cross-sectional study, and the data was collected in two phases. In the first phase, a sample of 404 observations was collected and 193 observations were also collected in the second phase. A convenience sampling technique was applied to collect data. Data were collected between June to September 2022. This study used Pearson’s Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression model to identify the association and impact of explanatory variables on CS delivery. The prevalence of CS was 73% among women in Bangladesh. Multivariate logistic regression showed that mothers (OR: 4.16) and fathers (OR: 2.139) with higher education are approximately four and two times more likely to have CS than parents with primary schooling. This research also demonstrates that a family history of ASD has a higher chance (OR: 2.654) of having CS deliveries than those without such a history. Moreover, any specific maternal illness during pregnancy such as diabetes (OR: 2.377) significantly raised the odds of giving birth mostly through CS. The current study recommends that proper medical guidelines, awareness-raising, doctor commitment, government policy, and stringent supervision of private health institutions are required to manage high cesarean birth rates. Bangladesh's policy guidelines on CS births are desperately needed to minimize unnecessary CS deliveries.

Considering the shrinking physical, social, and psychological spaces of Rohingya refugees in Southeast Asia

Refugees experience shrinking social, economic, political, and physical spaces at astonishing rates. However, these shrinking spaces are challenging to trace simultaneously and are rarely considered in policymaking or analysis. Using the Rohingya case study, this paper implores policy analysis to include these spaces, conceptually categorizing them into physical, social, and psychological spaces. Here we chronologize the plight of Rohingya refugees and identify how their spaces have changed over time. Our findings reveal four primary causal relationships linked to Rohingya refugees' fluctuating spaces, including: (I) Bangladesh's policy framework has kept the Rohingya largely isolated, yet their public-private partnerships have expanded their space; (ii) Bangladesh has a robust social policy framework, which has contributed to expanding refugees' spaces; (iii) Myanmar's foreign policy framework contributed to justifying war crimes, severely restricting Rohingya's space, and (iv) The lack of a social policy framework in Myanmar lead to a severe lack of protection mechanisms for the Rohingya.

Domestic bases of foreign policy: The case of Bangladesh’s policy towards India

Foreign policy is often regarded as an extension of domestic policy. Bangladesh's foreign policy, like that of any other state, is primarily a reflection of its socio- economic and political compulsions within international politics. Therefore, the task of tracing how such domestic factors influence foreign policy poses a significant theoretical challenge. To date, the majority of studies on Bangladesh-India relations have been descriptive, chronological, and devoid of any fresh insights. Furthermore, little systematic effort has been made to study the domestic factors in Bangladesh and their implications for India-Bangladesh relations. The present paper, therefore, constitutes a modest attempt to fill this gap. The focus of this paper is not on providing a complete framework for researching domestic compulsions within Bangladesh foreign policy, but to uncover appropriate explanatory propositions for understanding the domestic roots of Bangladesh's foreign policy with regards to India. The findings of this paper highlight how Bangladesh's foreign policy has often become a device for enhancing the sectional and group interests within the domestic political and factional infighting. Various regimes in Bangladesh have not only used different internal factors to promote their own sustenance and survival but have also internal factors like external relations. Unsurprisingly, successive regimes in Bangladesh have willingly induced a dependency relationship to remain in power or deny power to their political opponents.

Bangladesh's Policy on Rohingya Refugees: Securitization or What?


 
 
 This article adopts Copenhagen School, and Paris School approaches belonging to the broader framework of securitization theory in explaining whether Bangladesh‘s policy on the 2017-18 Rohingya refugee influx from neighbouring Myanmar has been securitized. In doing so, it analyses how the political discourses and governmental actions in Bangladesh have transformed over time. The findings suggest that human security-focused discourse, which was sensitive to the refugees, prevailed in Bangladesh during the initial days of the refugee influx. However, the national security-focused discourse has started to dominate the country‘s refugee policy as Bangladesh‘s early repatriation-oriented refugee policy has failed to yield any development for more than two years. Moreover, the lack of sincere efforts from Myanmar to provide security assurance and necessary civil rights to the displaced Rohingyas has made them reluctant to go back. As a result, the refugee settlement in Bangladesh is likely to persist for the foreseeable future. In such a situation, newly imposed securitized actions taken by Bangladesh as restricting the refugees from movement, mobile communication, internet, and livelihood opportunity could be counterproductive. It recommends Bangladesh to develop a comprehensive policy on the refugee issue that will address the country‘s security concerns and facilitate sustainable repatriation of the Rohingyas to Myanmar.
 
 

A critical assessment of employing democratic and deliberative ideals in the environmental planning process in Bangladesh

In the 6th (2011–15) and 7th (2016–20) Five Year Plans (FYP), Bangladesh's policy makers have set ambitious national environmental targets and goals to move the country towards more a sustainable economy and society. The goals were dictated by the economic, social and political interests of the political elites. This has resulted in limited stakeholder participation in environmental policy formulation. The 6th FYP aimed at achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7: ‘Ensure Environmental Sustainability’. It failed due to shortcomings in local implementation and due to a lack of community participation. The 7th FYP is based on the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 13, 14, 15. The obvious paradox within Bangladesh's environmental planning is the big gap between central government's policy making and community participation and local government involvement. This paper examines environmental policy formulation, implementation and monitoring in the last two FYPs in Bangladesh. Contemporary deliberative democratic theory provides important theoretical and applied insights that are often unexamined in the environmental planning literature. A theoretical framework is developed to analyse to what degree environmental planning arrangements incorporated deliberative elements and how they contribute to decision-making. A case study of the environmental planning process tests its effectiveness in explaining observed outcomes. Elsewhere, deliberative democratic approaches have been central to the success of the environmental planning process. The central government's failure to apply this approach produced a policy gap. Plan targets cannot be met unless local participation is ensured through the deliberative framework.