Civil Society In Bangladesh Research Articles

Transition from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Blueprint of Bangladesh for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030

Introduction: The Sustainable Development Goals 2030, titled “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” with 17 goals and 169 targets (including 43 means of implementation) were adopted at the United Nations in September 2015. The Seventh Five Year Plan of Bangladesh (SFYP), “Accelerating Growth, Empowering Every Citizen” for the years 2016-2020, produced by General Economics Division, Planning Commission, can be regarded as the blue print for the early critical phase of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation.
 Materials & Methods: This Review Article was prepared based on updated International Newsletter, Journal and Data from Bangladesh Government Planning Commission.
 Discussion: Challenges of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 7th Plan include resource mobilization, tapping population momentum, managing unplanned urbanization, natural disasters and climate change, utilization of resources, skill development and quality education, improving competitiveness, governance, taming inequality and regional disparity. Bangladesh prepared its own post-2015 Development Agenda and contributed to the international discourse through UN.
 Conclusion: The General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission, based on a consultative process initiated in 2013, goals and targets were developed in the context of Bangladesh. Through this process, 11 goals along with 58 targets with corresponding 241 measurable indicators were proposed. Civil society in Bangladesh also produced what is described as “a people-centred, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable Post-2015 Development Agenda.” It came up with 13 Goals,50 Targets and 199 Indicators.
 Medicine Today 2019 Vol.31(1): 46-59

IS THERE CIVIL SOCIETY IN BANGLADESH?

Сivil society is a group of people excluded from the government and the army and providing a counterbalance and control of the state at the national and local levels in the country. In Bangladesh, since independence in 1971, civil society organizations have been successfully involved in social development, but they have been criticized not to be able promote democracy in Bangladesh because of their support for political parties. Therefore, it impedes strong opposition to corruption and non-democratic activities in the country. In this article, using the historical method, the author analyzes the features and role of civil society in Bangladesh.

Politicized Civil Society in Bangladesh: Case Study Analyses

Although civil society in Bangladesh is recognized for its vibrant performance in social development, it is often criticized for its inability to ensure good governance and democracy. The aim of this paper is to point out the reasons for this failure of civil society. Through performing case studies upon five civil society organizations representing different sector and level of the civil society, the paper concludes that civil society organizations in Bangladesh are often politicized and co-opted by different political parties. In a typical scenario, civil society can provide a counterbalance or even monitor the state both at the national and local level. However, in Bangladesh, often the civil society organizations have compromised their autonomy and politicized themselves to certain political parties or political block. In such a vulnerable position, civil society can hardly play its expected role to ensure good governance and strengthen democracy.

A Genealogy of Society: Mapping the Relationship between Samaj and Civil Society in Bangladesh

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the anxious and sometimes hostile relationship between modern forms of civil society and non-modern institutions in Bangladesh. I argue that an uneasy relationship arises from civil society's inability or lack of initiative to identify and negotiate with ‘pre-modern’ social institutions and their remnants, which I conceptualise here as samaj. Such dissonance and disengagement have been historically constructed largely with regard to the way in which the roles of the state, capital and market forces have been conceptualised at the interface between ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’. This proposition demands a genealogical understanding of the relationship between civil society and samaj, in which the latter is represented by religious institutions such as the khanqah and the madrasa.

Problems of Development in Bangladesh: Causes and Remedies

The word development has become a blazing topic in the milieu of scholars, think tanks and civil society in Bangladesh for the last couple of years. Even some development experts claimed to modify the present development approaches in Bangladesh. The purpose of this paper is to identify the problems of the conventional development system in Bangladesh and to provide a model of development that will serve the people best. To address the aims of this study both qualitative and quantitative method is used. Where both the primary and secondary data used for this study, after analyzing the data, this paper argues that a number of flaws remain in conventional growth based development system in Bangladesh. Such as, not all growth is positive, an increase of personal income does not translate into well-being, and absence of inclusive development. In addition, the faults can eradicate by introducing freedom of choice. Because if the freedom of choice ensues then the inclusive development, human development, as well as good governance, would develop in Bangladesh.

The Transnational Project and its Implications for Migrant Civil Society in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, overseas labor migration plays a vital role in the development strategy promoted by government agencies, international donor organizations and civil society organizations. Civil society organizations facilitate the migration process, respond to exploitation facing migrants while overseas and assist migrants upon their return to Bangladesh. Organizations in Bangladesh are pursuing a ‘transnational project,’ whereby their activities, missions, and objectives are now focused around transnational work in order to assist migrants. The transnational project is driven by foreign development agencies and the legitimating actions of local migrant organizations. This paper demonstrates the different ways transnationalism has moved from a radical concept to a banal development practice, by critically analyzing contemporary development practices of migrant civil society organizations in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Also addressed are the implications of the transnational project on migrant organizations, development, and migrant political inclusion, arguing that the transnational project creates new power structures and paradoxes within organizations.

How Vigilant is the Vibrant Civil Society in Bangladesh? A Survey-based Analysis

Although international development organizations and donor countries regard civil society organizations (CSOs) as the best instrument for institutionalizing democracy in third world countries, few of these organizations have successfully influenced government policies or played a role in consolidating democracy. Based on survey data and empirical observations, this article will argue that civil society in Bangladesh may be noteworthy for its contributions to development and social welfare but that it can hardly contribute to democracy. CSOs participate in vibrant grassroots social services. However, they lack the necessary participatory attributes for proper interest articulation and monitoring of the state, resulting in a less vigilant civil society. The article links civil society's non-vigilant nature to co-optation and politicization by political forces.

Higher Education and Civil Society: Compatibility Re-Examined.

Last couple of decades, some developed countries emphasized to develop civil society in developing countries. The main goals were to promote democratic norms and values among citizens who will not be thinking about democratic society otherwise. To establish democratic norms and values, many view that higher education is necessary. The relationship between higher education and civil society is not clear to many. Some believe that higher education seems to gear toward building career. For some, main motto of higher education is to motivate students for providing public service that would establish a democratic civil society. Higher education system in universities of Bangladesh failed to meet people’s expectations because of its poor shape. Higher education serves as the engine of growth for a nation’s economic and social development. The products of higher education run the country, spearheading all the state mechanisms and areas of expertise. This paper is an attempt to explore the relationship between higher education and commercialization which leads constraints of building civil society in Bangladesh. Key words: Higher education, developed countries, civil society, commercialization, Bangladesh

Civil Society and Good Governance in Bangladesh

Many of the recent ideas and concepts of ‘good governance’ and ‘civil society’ in Bangladesh have been generated by the international aid agencies and their ‘good governance’ policy agenda in the 1990s, but there are also local meanings to the terms derived from the independence struggle and the construction of a Bangladeshi state. This article aims to obtain a clearer analytical understanding of the processes and institutions of civil society in Bangladesh that can develop workable strategy to improve governance for helping the poor and moving beyond the patron–client relationships on which they have depended historically. It also focuses attention and debate on those aspects of civil society which can enhance the quality of governance and democracy by overcoming the western top-down approach; and can strengthen the role of civil society organisations to further enhance their impact on better governance for fair distribution of public goods and ensuring social justice for the poor.

Corruption, Accountability and Political Parties in Bangladesh: Connections and Consequences

Irrespective of its size or character, corruption distorts decision-making, with negative effects on competition, market efficiency and development. All of these issues are related to governance. Low-income countries, like Bangladesh, suffer from ‘political illness’, with weak governance manifested in ‘improper policies, weak bureaucracies, inadequate supervision, illegitimacy of the laws and regulations, and a lack of independent spheres of power. This work, highlighting the problems of corruption in Bangladesh as perceived in the recent TI survey, endeavours to understand the political system and accountability mechanism that help perpetuate corruption in the country. The second part of the work analyses corruption in the political parties. Faced with the inaction of the law enforcing agencies, many local communities have taken some pragmatic steps in resisting corrupt practices of the bureaucracy or the members of the political party in power. The work includes discussions of two such cases. The chapter at the end concludes that a major factor perpetuating corruption in Bangladesh is the intentional failure of successive governments to ensure the constitutional requirement of independence of the judiciary. There has been international failure, as well. For example, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (2003) has been effective since 14 December 2005 after being ratified by the required 30 countries in the two years (between September 2003 and September 2005). Only two countries, France and Hungary, with a credible system to implement the Convention have ratified the Convention. No other donor country, no country with large business dealings with Bangladesh, and no country topping the BPI list has ratified the Convention. There is an assumption that civil society may monitor government actions and help raise citizens' consciousness to address the problems of corruption. Civil society in Bangladesh, being divided along the political party lines, and having less or no interest in advocacy, is unlikely to become successful in this matter. Unfortunately, it seems, it will be a while before the political parties address the issue of corruption in Bangladesh, and the world takes the task seriously.

Democratic consolidation and failure: Lessons from Bangladesh and Pakistan

The long transitions from military rule in Pakistan (1977–88) and Bangladesh (1975–90) have been almost completely ignored in studies of democratization. They deserve more attention, partly because, from the methodological point of view, the many similarities between them help us to isolate the most important factors that lead to successful transitions and democratic consolidation. The contrast between Bangladesh, which successfully consolidated its democracy in the 1990s, and Pakistan, which did not, demonsrates the general importance of three factors. First, it lends support to Alfred Stepan's argument in Rethinking Military Politics: Brazil and the Southern Cone (1988), that cases where the ‘military as institution’ is threatened by continuing in power ‐ as in Bangladesh ‐ will be more likely to make a successful transition. Second, the contrast between Bangladesh and Pakistan brings out the critical importance of an autonomous civil society ‐ which exists in Bangladesh but not Pakistan ‐ during a transition from authoritarian rule. At crucial moments in 1987, 1990 and 1996 civil society in Bangladesh forced reluctant and corrupt politicians to unite in opposition to the military government and then to successfully reform the new democracy's political institutions. Third, ethnic polarization. Ethnic polarization ‐intensified, ironically, by several consociational policies designed to reduce conflict ‐is a major factor hampering the development of a non‐ethnic civil society capable of pressuring the military and politicians to democratize.

Structural adjustment and the response of civil society in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe: A comparative analysis

Structural adjustment and the response of civil society in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe: A comparative analysis