Local Government In Bangladesh Research Articles

Women in Urban Local Government in Bangladesh: A Study on Narayanganj City Corporation

Women's equal participation in politics is critical to women's advancement. This determination, however, is not to be made uniformly across the globe. Yet, in contemporary periods, it has witnessed a significant shift in women's political participation globally. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of women's overall participation, their socioeconomic status, and their valuable role in urban policy formulation and implementation in Bangladesh. In this analysis, primary and secondary data are integrated. Primary sources are referenced to substantiate theories and arguments asserted in the secondary literature, which are based on the case study of Narayanganj City Corporation. It is completed with the assistance of theories and contentions gleaned from secondary sources. Additionally, this study concludes with an examination of Bangladeshi women's position in the decision-making process. Another pressing need is to broaden the participation of women in political culture at the grassroots level. In urban areas, the City Corporation must interact with various government, autonomous, and semi-autonomous bodies. The situation of female ward councillors has deteriorated to the point where there is some ambiguity. Women's involvement in politics has been limited by a decline in financial capital and family support. Women can appeal to low-level politics thanks to a patriarchal viewpoint. In Bangladesh, women continue to struggle for equal rights and face political challenges. Societal norms enforce gender stereotypes. Religious restrictions are the most severe concern among Bangladesh's status issues, which have a complicated structure. Women are not politically socialized enough to participate in the political life of their country. The City Corporation's institutional rules and responsibilities are of little concern to women, and the existing regulations are insufficient. Therefore, the paper can reveal the actual scenario of women's representation and obstacles in the urban level of Bangladesh.

Decentralisation and Democratisation in Local Government Focusing Key Development Programs in Bangladesh

The local government system is considered to be the main regulator of good governance in a country. Although the local government system in Bangladesh is very old, it has tiny achievements in terms of its effectiveness, decentralisation of power, democratic practices, and public participation. After the country's independence, almost all the governments have come up with the innovation of different levels of local government structures was just nomenclature. They never allowed the local people to enjoy autonomy by their elected representatives in the way directed by the constitution. On the other hand, various local and international development partners have been implementing various programs to strengthen the local government system in Bangladesh, decentralise it and ensure public engagement in local government. Through which some positive elements have been added to the issue of autonomy and participation of the people in the local government system; however, it is significantly minor than required. This research paper seeks to understand the process of democratisation and decentralisation in the local government system of Bangladesh by fieldwork-based research knowledge and review various initiatives taken for the development of the local government system. Besides, drawing on literature and the observations and research on Union Parishad (the lowest tier of local government in Bangladesh), the interrelationship between local government elections and power structure has also been analysed in this article. Ultimately, this paper argues that the process of decentralisation and strengthening of the local government system in Bangladesh through development interventions. Though the interventions of development programs could have been mammoth achievements in the path of democratisation and decentralisation, the party politicisation has made massive impediments to attain the targets.

Service Delivery and Accountability of Urban Officials: Evidence from Urban-based Local Government in Bangladesh

This study compares the state of city government service delivery for communities living in different areas with different level of affluence in Rajshahi City in Bangladesh. Based on the results of a qualitative study, we found a significant service disparity between the affluent and the poor communities. This disparity is due to the inability of the poor to hold service providers accountable, attributable to a lack of knowledge about services and a lack of social status. Lack of quality monitoring and a marked bias in the quality of interactions between the poor and the affluent contribute to the service disparity This disparity is largely invisible to the poor who, instead of comparing themselves with the affluent citizens, compare themselves with a similar class of people.

The roles of elected female members of reserved seats in union parishads :

Union Parishad (UP) is the lowest tier of the Local Government of Bangladesh which bridges between people and government to ensure people’s participation in governance system. Therefore, from the last two decades government has been emphasizing on enhancing political emancipation of women in local government. To promote female leadership in grass-root level, Ministry of Local Government established a provision in the Local Government Act of reserving 3 (three) seats for women in UPs. This reformation enabled the female leaders to be elected in the UPs by a direct vote of the people. This research intends to explore the roles played by these elected female members of the studied UPs. It was conducted following a qualitative method and interview technique. Face to face interview has been taken from 45 female members of 15 UPs in Dhamrai Upazila, Dhaka with semi structured questionnaire. The study found that most of the respondents are contributing to development related project, social safety net program, controlling early marriage and dowry, family planning and female health-related program, awareness building of hygiene and sanitation, adult literacy etc. At the same time, it is found that significant numbers of the elected female members are not conscious about their responsibilities and even though they do not have any idea about UP manual. Finally, it revealed the obstacles in their workplaces, the challenges in their families, local societies, and recommended probable measures to overcome such situations. Besides, securing female leadership and active representations in the UPs can include the backward women in the mainstream of development and decision-making process which will undoubtedly contribute enormously to women empowerment.

Traditional mode of services versus digital e-services at local government in Bangladesh: A study of union digital center

Traditional mode of services versus digital e-services at local government in Bangladesh: A study of union digital center

Effectiveness of the Standing Committees of Local Government in Bangladesh: A Study of Union Parishad

Effectiveness of the Standing Committees of Local Government in Bangladesh: A Study of Union Parishad

Decentralization of Public Services and the Role of Local Government in Rural Development: Findings From Bangladesh

Over the past few decades, decentralizing public services and rendering administrative power to the local government institutions has become a popularly followed strategy to accelerate development in the rural areas. Since its independence till date, Bangladesh has taken quite a number of decentralization initiatives in the areas of health, education, agriculture and small industry promotional activities. This study has adopted secondary data analysis method to examine the degree of rural development made through decentralized public service delivery by the local government institutions of Bangladesh. The study suggests that, despite some improvement, the local governments in Bangladesh have not managed to bring significant changes at the rural level due to political supremacy, administrative and financial incapacity. The study concluded with identifying the changes that are necessary in the areas of resource accumulation and management, financial and administrative decision making system, political and bureaucratic capacity.

Fiscal Autonomy of Local Government in Bangladesh: A Study of Union Parishad

This research focuses on the fiscal decentralisation and central-local relationship at Union Parishad (UP). The research draws on the study of several unions through a questionnaire survey of 100 people on the basis of purposive sampling. The findings of the study show that UP has no autonomy in terms of financial, functional and administrative issues. The lack of financial decision making power as well as fiscal autonomy has made the UP a weaker and less effective local government institution. Limited powers, functions and jurisdiction of local government are delegated by the central government, thus, retains a high degree of control over local units. In reality, central control always presents there. There is no substitute for financial autonomy for wide-ranging development at the local level. People perceiveUP should be enabled as an autonomous institution financially to ensure local development.

PARADOXES OF PARTICIPATION OF THE WOMEN LEADERS IN THE UNION PARISHAD IN BANGLADESH: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

This paper discusses obstacles of participation of the women leaders (WLs) in the grassroots based local government in Bangladesh, i.e. Union Parishad (UP). Since its inception (1870) till date (2019), local government of Bangladesh has a history of 149 years, but women's representation has been ensured since only 2 decades ago. After enacting reservation quota for women leaders in the sphere of Union Parishad (UP) in 1997, women leaders had to struggle hard to ensure their participation in the UP affairs. Within the span of 2 decades, WLs fails to ensure their effective participation because of some built-in problems of the UP. Against such a context, the paper is aimed at unraveling the research questions: What are the problems WLs are facing in ensuring their participation? The paper is based on phenomenological approach which was supported by case study, content analysis and observation methods. The findings of the paper revealed that women leaders (WLs) identified 3 major challenges towards playing their active role and participation in the UP such as i) patriarchy or male domination, ii) corruption and iii) faulty legal provision imposed upon them. All these problems are problems of local government in particular and Bangladesh society in general. Solution might be changing the legal and structural arrangements in the UP. Improving overall governance couple with reducing malpractices and corruptions can promote having women's rights and privileges better in the UP. More affirmative action such as education facilities should be expanded in the society to enhance women's participation and to modify value system as traditional values help perpetuate patriarchy and other social ills.

Public participation in local governments in Bangladesh: experience, challenges and the future

Despite constitutional guarantees of a clear separation of power between the central and local governments in Bangladesh, problems continue to lie in politicians not upholding the spirit of the decentralisation of power to the local level. This is one of the very few areas where consensus building among the ruling and opposition parties is possible, which could result in public participation in local governing processes becoming more active and meaningful than it has been to-date. The challenges involved have hindered the possibility of local governments contributing efficiently and effectively to the overall development of the country.

Inquiring Autonomy of Local Governance in Bangladesh: The Case of Union Parishad

This paper examines the autonomous status of local government, particularly Union Parishad, in Bangladesh based on the review of secondary sources of information. In doing so, four different dimensions of local autonomy, such as fiscal, administrative, functional and institutional have been identified in the context of developing countries to assess the present status of autonomy of the Union Parishad. The findings of the analysis show that although Bangladesh has legally and constitutionally democratic and autonomous local government system, but practically, Union Parishads enjoy minutes of fiscal, functional, administrative and institutional freedom to perform their functions and jurisdictions effectively and independently. Moreover, the Union Parishads merely carry out the delegated tasks of national government. In fact, the government exercises a high scale of control and interference over the Union Parishads which limit the autonomy and efficiency of the institutions.

Impact of globalization on good governance: An analysis on Local government in Bangladesh

Impact of globalization on good governance: An analysis on Local government in Bangladesh

Analysis of the Link between Central Government and Local Government in Bangladesh: A Case Study of Union Parishad

<p><em>Local government is one of the most significant parts of the central government. In the past, the control of central government over local government was minimal. Afterward, several presidential orders were notified to raise the power of local government. However, power and authority of local government were increased with pen and paper but not in practice. In this study, the scenario of the Union Parishad was analyzed as a part of local government, since it has to perform many activities with the scarcity of resources. The objective of this analysis is to investigate the nature of the relationship between the effects of limited resources to the activities of Union Parishad. In this research, data was collected from some local government representatives and some personnel of Ishwardi Upazila, Bangladesh through questionnaire and interview. First, the study reveals that local government always faces several particular problems due to lack of resources in case of distribution of relief cards to the poor villagers, a donation in disaster and exceptional circumstances, a contribution in educational and religious institutions, etc. The graphical analysis demonstrated the scenario between the requisitions of the Union Parishad to the central government and the percentage of those requisitions actually fulfilled. The outputs of this study summarized that the actual supply from central government was minuscule than the demand of Union Parishad. Hence, it could not deliver services accurately. Some recommendations have been provided to overcome the problems of a Union Parishad, which include that the government should enhance Annual Development Programme (ADP) allocation to ensure people’s participation in formulating and implementing development projects, and the control of the Union Parishad over the local resources has to be increased.</em></p>

Women’s Participation in Decision Making Process of Local Government in Bangladesh: A Study of Nine Union Parishads

To achieve any development initiatives role of women’s are indispensable especially country like Bangladesh which have huge numbers of women’s human resource. The recent local government reforms initiate to empower women’s in the grassroots level and has had create reserved quotas for women’s in the Union Parishad and they elected through adult franchise in competitive election. In context of local government, women’s concerns had surfaced intermittently and were highlighted in the government reform agenda as evident in the last Local Government Reform of 1997. As a consequential effect Local Government (Union Parishad) Amendment Act 1997 was promulgated. It provides 3 directly elected women members in the Union Parishad from 3 reserved seats. However, there are serious lacunas in gender balancing both in terms of governance policy and reform agenda. Union Parishad is the most popular democratic institution at the grassroots level. Therefore, the state of women’s participation at this level is crucial and deserves special attention to empower them as participation and empowerment are closely related. In Bangladesh, women’s are always deprived in their field of work. The social structure of Bangladesh still work pessimistically regarding political participation of women’s as consequence women’s do not participate in resolution construction process actively. The research find out causes of mistreating women’s regarding their duty and their role. And find problems that faced by the women’s representatives during execute their task in the Union Parishad. The study also provides necessary steps need to solve the problem to ensure women’s participation and to ensure proper development in Bangladesh.

Challenges and Coping Strategies of Women Leaders at the Local Level in Bangladesh

This research aims at uncovering the struggle and coping strategies adopted by the women leaders at the grassroots based local government namely, Union Council, in Bangladesh. Although local government in Bangladesh is 145 years old but women’s representation began only about two decades ago. Since their entry into the Union Council in 1997, the women leaders have been struggling to ensure their full participation in all sorts of activities and decision making process. Against this backdrop, this research focused on the major threats against women’s participation in the Union Council and how do woman leaders cope with the challenges for ensuring their participation in the Union Council. Using interpretive qualitative research approach, it was found that the women leaders usually face three major challenges towards ensuring their participation such as male domination, corruption and faulty legal provision imposed on women leaders. On the other hand, women leaders adopted various formal and informal coping strategies in order to overcome the threats of participation. The formal means were debates, meeting, seeking help from local administration and other legal means. Informal means include using of social capital such as; contacting with local member of parliament, political leaders, seeking assistance from other woman leaders, local NGOs, community people and media to ventilate their grievances and deprivations. Finally, some interventions were suggested such as; democratization of Union Council structure and making it more inclusive so that women leaders can participate in the overall governance of the Union Council.

State-owned Fund Rasing Entrepreneurship at Local Government of Bangladesh for Socio-economic Development

State-owned Fund Rasing Entrepreneurship at Local Government of Bangladesh for Socio-economic Development

Do legal prescriptions ensure public accountability? Insights and lessons from local governments in Bangladesh

This article, which is based on qualitative research, addresses legally-prescribed mechanisms of public accountability and the extent of their use and effect at the lowest level of local government in Bangladesh. The findings are that, while various mechanisms have been established, they have not been effective in holding local representatives to account for what they do and achieve. The main reasons for this have been the unresponsiveness of the representatives, as well as the inability and/or reluctance of local residents to exercise their formal rights of participation and control. These matters pose fundamental challenges which must be the focus of comprehensive change and reform aimed at significantly strengthening local governance and democracy.

Mainstreaming Sustainable Development Goals into Local Government of Bangladesh: An Exploratory Study

Sustainability, in general, and sustainable development goals (SDGs), in particular, have lately been in the forefront of discussions and debates concerning development and local government. Local and regional governments have been put at the heart of SDGs to accommodate the rapidly changing rural background and can play a diversified and efficient role in achieving the correlated targets on a long-term basis. In this context, the present research endeavours to develop a practical framework that links the SDGs with the local government activities, especially in the context of Bangladesh. The key research methods include secondary literature and official documents review, key informant interviews and personal observation. The core contribution of the study concerns development of the planning framework matrix which is expected to facilitate and inform the process of local government planning in sync with SDGs.

Maiden Partisan Rural Local Government Elections: Bangladesh Experience

A paradigm shift in the political system has been taken in Bangladesh on 12 October, 2015 with the final approval by the Cabinet to hold local polls on partisan basis. The long historical practice of non-partisan local polls has been shifted to first ever partisan poll that brought major challenges for the existing confrontational political parties of Bangladesh. Ruling Bangladesh Awami League considered demonstrating its popularity at grass-root level and controlled all political institution through this election while Bangladesh Nationalist Party had opposed these partisan local government elections as a political trick with an ill motive by the government. For the first time in Independent Bangladesh, 9th Union Parishad[1](UP) election hold on partisan basis at six phases across the country from March to June 2016. The articles tried to explore the experiences of this maiden partisan UP polls and what are the immediate consequences on the local governance as well as electoral system through reviewing seceondary materials specially the Daily Newspapers. Unfortunately massive violence, record deaths and uncontested elected Chairman, election fraughts & irregularities, reluctant role of Election Commission, strong dominant of ruling party over electoral system were common phenomenon in this maiden partisan election.[1] Lowest tier of rural local government in Bangladesh.

Citizen’s Charter for Improved Public Service Delivery and Accountability: The Experience of Land Administration at the Local Government in Bangladesh

ABSTRACTImproved public service delivery and accountability have increasingly turned out to be important issues in public sector management. In Bangladesh, there has been noteworthy progress, including the introduction of citizen’s charter since 2008. This article explores the contribution of citizen’s charter in improving public service delivery and accountability at the local government land administration, adopting a qualitative longitudinal study. Analysis of the findings reveals that most of the service recipients are ignorant about the charter even after 8 years of its introduction. The charters are mainly producer dominated and their grand rhetorics are far away to achieve in reality.