USAID: Bangladesh: Democracy & Governance


	Democracy & Governance

Bangladesh is a signatory to most international human rights conventions, including the Child Rights Convention and International Labor Organization Convention 182 against the worst forms of child labor.

Bangladesh's garment industry employs some 1.6 million workers. 85% of them are women. The industry now accounts for 75% of Bangladesh's export income. Out of 3,300 garment factories, less than 1% has active factory level trade unions with collective bargaining agreements. Enforcement of labor laws is weak.

The Muslim Family Ordinances of 1961 and Prevention of Women and Children Repression Act of 2000 (Amended in 2003) established many important legal protections for women and children. However, awareness and implementation of these protections are still very limited among both men and women.

A new Women in Development (WID) Policy has been developed. This policy will ensure equal status of women in economic opportunity and property rights.

Pervasive corruption and the need for better governance are fundamental constraints to Bangladesh’s development. Transparency International (TI) consistently ranks Bangladesh near the bottom of its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Although TI has recently ranked Bangladesh as the 10th most corrupt country in 2008, systemic corruption continues to prevail and to permeate the economy of the country in every sector and weaken its governance structures at all levels.

Supporting Documents

Issues and Priorities for Bangladesh: The 2000 IFES National Survey (PDF)

Anti-Corruption (PDF)

USAID/Bangladesh: Child Labor Summary (PDF)

USAID/Bangladesh: Elections Summary (PDF)

IFES Preliminary Findings of Bangladeshi Voter Survey (PDF)

USAID's Response: Democracy & Governance

USAID improves the lives of Bangladeshis by strengthening selected democratic institutions and making them more responsive to citizen needs. USAID and its partners help local government, parliament/parliamentary secretariat, political parties, and civil society organizations to:

build an active constituency for strong elected local government;
accountability and transparency in the public sector by enhancing civil society and organization participation;
increase political parties' responsiveness to citizen's input; and
provide training to leaders of influence to promote tolerance, diversity, social harmony and practices of good governance and modern development.

Strengthening Local Government

USAID builds knowledgeable "champions" for strong local government by reaching out to diverse groups and fostering informed regional and national debate on local government issues. The goal is to build a national consensus on local government forms and functions.

The USAID assisted Local Government and Decentralization program has helped strengthen democratic local governments to become more effective and responsive to their constituents. The USAID-assisted projects provided training to more than 12,000 elected officials, staff members, citizen leaders of 134 sub-national governments regarding the roles and responsibilities of Local Elected Bodies, administrative procedures and financial management. USAID also helps develop links between citizens and local elected officials to identify priorities, increase resource mobilization and monitor service delivery. With USAID support 134 local governments (120 Union Parishads and 14 Municipalities) increased their revenues by 50% in 3 years.

USAID is currently implementing a 30-month project in 159 local governments in five southwestern districts most affected by cyclone SIDR to enhance local government’s capacity for disaster preparedness, mitigation and post-disaster economic and social rehabilitation. Through this project, USAID will provide training and technical assistance to local governments in budgeting, planning, developing specific skills of local governments for disaster mitigation and post-SIDR reconstruction efforts.

Promoting Transparency and Accountability

Reducing corruption through greater transparency in the management of public resources is a key area of intervention for the U. S. Government. USAID’s approach has emphasized transparency in public management and combating corruption by increasing the watchdog capabilities of civil society organizations and the media.

Starting in 2007, USAID and its partners have begun work to help:

increase Parliament’s capacity to analyze, monitor and influence national policy and budgetary priorities and strengthen its oversight capacity
increase the effectiveness of internal procedures of selected public institutions dealing with public finance monitoring and auditing
build new and strengthen existing civil society coalitions, networks and public-private partnerships to increase awareness of corruption practices
increase opportunities for citizen participation in and oversight of the national budget and government decision-making processes
increase media capacity to report on transparency and corruption issues and advocate for legal reforms
improve the dissemination of information by selected public institutions at both the national and local levels to increase citizen access to improved government information

The primary objective of USAID’s anti-corruption program is to bring together government agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs), NGOs and media outlets on the same platform to promote improved governance of public resources and work together toward a fairer, more just, and better governed society.

Increasing Political Party Development

USAID-assisted program is engaging eight key political parties in dialogue crucial to reform and timely restoration of democracy.

Although a roadmap to transition to democracy has been in effect, restrictions on political party activities, a drive to apprehend corrupt politicians, and growing suspicions of the government reform agenda put limits on political party reform. In this changing political situation USAID provided political parties with a unique forum to discuss proposed electoral reforms with the assistance of technical experts. USAID also facilitated dialogue between local political party officials and election administrators on technical aspects of a massive voter registration drive. In addition, USAID provided technical assistance in polling and public opinion research to the parties to encourage the development of responsive policy platforms.

Fostering Tolerance and Understanding

USAID has designed a unique civil society program has been designed to promote the values of tolerance, diversity, social harmony, and understanding in Bangladeshi society by Leaders of Influence (LOI), primarily religious leaders, and to provide education in modern practices of development and democracy. Starting in 2007, training and orientation will be provided to 20,000 LOIs in four years. Many of these LOIs will subsequently participate in USG funded field level development activities.