Download The People`s Republic of BANGLADESH

The People's Republic of BANGLADESH
Surface Area (1997)
144,000 km2
Population (1999) in million
127.669
Population Growth (1999)
2 % p.a.
Urban Population (1999)
24 % of total
Population Density (1997)
950 inh./ km2
GDP (1999) in billion
US$ 45.779
GNP (1999) in billion
US$ 46.96
GNP per capita (1999)
US$ 370
Government Revenue (1999)
9.0 % of GDP
Government Expenditure (1999)
17.0 % of GDP
Monetary Unit
Bangladesh Taka
Human Development Indicator (1998)
0.461
HDI Rank out of 174 countries
146
A. General Information
Geography, Topography and Climate
Bangladesh borders on India for 95 % of the total land boundary, while the rest faces
with Burma (Myanmar) in the Southeast. In the South, the country fronts on the Bay
of Bengal (in the Indian Ocean), to which the main rivers, the Ganges (the Padma)
and the Brahmaputra (the Jamuna) flow. The topography of the country is
predominantly characterized by the delta of flat alluvial plain (less than 10m above
sea level) which represents more than 90% of the land area, with some mountainous
areas in the Southeast. The temperatures range from about 20°C to 35°C, through
the dry/cold season (mid. October to February), hot season (mid. March to mid. May)
and rainy season (May to early October). The two sub-seasons of cyclone are
observed in May to June and October to November. Together with the dominant
topographical characteristic of the low flat land, the tropical-monsoon climate causes
massive scale of flood, cyclones and droughts countrywide. While approximately
70% of the country is arable fertile land, the natural calamities make the country
vulnerable and unstable, particularly in terms of socio-economic activities associated
with agriculture and food security.
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Characteristics and Recent Evolutions of Political System
Following the independence in 1947 from British India and in 1971 from Pakistan, the
People's Republic of Bangladesh adopted a constitutional republic system. The
executive branch consists of President as Head of State (elected by Members of
Parliament to serve for 5 years), Prime Minister as Head of Government (typically,
leader of the largest party in the ruling coalition) and Cabinet as Council of Ministers
(selected by Prime Minister and appointed by President). The legislative branch is
undertaken by unicameral Parliament staffed by 330 members (300 members elected
from single territorial constituencies, and the rest, reserved for women, by the elected
Member of Parliaments). Judicial branch is undertaken by the supreme court
consisting of Chief Justice and other Justices, who are all appointed by President to
serve until the age of 65. Main political parties include Awami League (ruling party in
the first government after independence during 1972-1975 and current coalition
government since 1996), Bangladesh Communist Party, Bangladesh Nationalist
Party (ruling party in the 1991-1995 coalition government), Jamaat-E-Islami and
Jatiyo Party.
There are four basic administrative entities in Bangladesh, namely (1) 64 zila
(districts); (2) 490 thana or upzila (sub-districts, thana was upgraded into upzila as a
governance unit in the decentralization program in 1980s), (3) 4 451 unions (clusters
of villages); and (4) 59 990 gram (villages). Local government institution at each of
these levels is called parishad in the official language of Bangla/Bengali. Urbanized
areas are categorized as (semi-autonomous) municipality, counting 119. There are
two kinds of municipal governments: pourashava and city corporation, although the
distinction between them are not so clear. At district level, hill tract areas are
specifically categorized, where tribal communities inhabit. They are administered
under the provision of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Manual issued by the Ministry of
Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs. The entire country is divided into 6 'divisions' at a level
equivalent to 'region' i.e. Batisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet.
Agriculture in Bangladesh
Representing about 30% of the GDP, agriculture continues to be the most important
sector in Bangladesh. This is in a sense that it plays significant role in the production
of food for, and the provision of employment and income to, the poor. The vast
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majority of the Bangladeshi or 83% of the total population reside in rural areas, of
which more than half live below the poverty line, and 66% of the total labor force are
engaged in agriculture. Bangladesh is yet to be able to fully exploit the potentials of
its fertile soil and water resources for agricultural development to ensure food
security. Main agricultural commodities include rice, wheat, jute, tobacco, sugarcane,
pulses, oilseeds, spices, potato and some vegetables and tropical fruits. While it is
relatively self-sufficient in rice (Boro Rice), the country depends upon imports for
about 14% of its food requirement. This is largely owing to the nature of agricultural
production in Bangladesh, which is prone to massive-scale and -magnitude of natural
calamities, besides degrading natural resources. Despite the considerable food grain
production, which even exceed the population growth, the country has been unable
to solve mal- and under-nutrition of its people, particularly women and children. The
poverty situation of the country requires enhanced efforts on sustainable agricultural
production and food entitlements for food and nutrition security of the people,
particularly the rural poor across gender and generation. According to the country's
fifth five-year plan (1997-2001), a strategic emphasis is placed on improving the
agricultural output values and producers' income levels by encouraging more
participation from agro-industrial and agribusiness sectors. Private sector
participation is a key policy strategy of the Government in the field of agricultural and
rural development, with special reference to small and marginal farmers.
Economic Situation
The Government of Bangladesh has undertaken a series of comprehensive structural
reforms since early 1990s. The reforms include liberalization of foreign trade,
exchange rate regime, industrial sector restructuring, strengthening of fiscal and
monetary management and encouragement of private sector investment. The GDP
growth rate was on the rise, from around 4% in 1970s and 1980s to over 5% during
FY 1995/96 to FY 1997/98. The country did not have any significant impacts from the
1997 Asian Economic Crisis, but from the natural calamity: the extensive floods in
mid. 1998. Between 1997-1999, the GDP share of the central government
expenditure rose from 7.1 % to 17% due to the additional food imports and flood
rehabilitation expenditure, whereas the GDP share of the revenue dropped from
9.8% to 9% due to the loss of tax revenue from the economic sectors hit by the
floods. While the manufacturing sector has not yet recovered, the agricultural sector
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has demonstrated its strength in recovery. Provided that the socio-economic impacts
of such a natural calamity is felt more harsh and even fatal at the community,
household and individual levels, the endemic poverty situation and the associated
vulnerability of the poor poses a fundamental agenda for the government to improve
the economic benefit-sharing by accelerating public sector structural reforms,
amongst other measures.
B. Process of Decentralization in Course
History, Objective and Responsible Agencies
Beyond the political instability and turmoil since the independence in 1971, the
Government of Bangladesh (GOB) has made some policy efforts to make
devolutionary change to the parishad, or the local government institutions, in several
steps: The district governorship was established under the 1972-1974 Government;
The gram sarkar or village-level governance units were set up under the 1975-1981
Government; The thana (equivalent to sub-district) was upgraded to upazila with new
functions, responsibilities and fund allocation, and thus the 'upazila system' was
initiated under the 1982-1990 Government; and the Thana Development and
Coordination Committee (TDCC) was established under the 1991-1996 Government.
Despite the continuous efforts, the public administration system remained to be
centralized and inefficient. In 1996, a positive sign was emerged, when the military
regime was overthrown in a peaceful manner by civil society movements on a broad
political consensus for democratic and participatory governance. Gathering the
political momentum, the Awami League, the ruling party in the current government,
included the decentralization policy and devolution of powers in its election
manifesto, assuming that empowering local government consolidates the
democratization process in the Republic. The Public Administration Reforms
Commission was established in 1996 as a main agency to oversee the
decentralization process. It is composed of Members of Parliament, university
professors, civil servants and NGO representatives. The Commission is empowered
to make recommendations on the local government system, particularly the
relationship between central and local governments, and the functions,
responsibilities and administrative and financial powers of local government.
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Functions, Resource and Autonomy of Decentralized Entities
The functions of each parishad (local governance institutions) at four levels are
similar but at different degrees of responsibilities and authorities on resource
mobilization to finance local-level activities. The functions include project/program
planning (e.g. agricultural production increase, drinking water supply etc.),
infrastructure maintenance, natural resource development, management of primary
education institutions, awareness raising on health and health care,
cooperative/associations development for various socio-economic activities,
statistical data collection and registration on socio-economic aspects of households
within each jurisdiction (e.g. birth, death, marriage etc.). In legal terms, the parishad
are capable to collect taxes, fees and charges from local communities, rents and
profits from public properties, returns from public investment and so forth. With these
independent sources of revenues, parishad can enjoy a certain level of autonomy.
The autonomy of parishad is, in reality, substantially compromised by the grants and
subsidies from the Government, which are the most important source of the revenue.
For upazila parishad (sub-district government), for instance, most of its development
fund was allocated by the central government, from the Annual Development
Program (ADP). While the decentralization program transferred a number of
responsibilities and associated decision-making and planning capacities to parishad,
it left the central administration, particularly the Ministry of Local Government, Rural
Development and Cooperatives, with the means to control the local administration of
finance and personnel.
C. Decentralization and Rural Development
Decentralization and
Agricultural and Rural Development Policies
Rural development policy was originally designed to be an instrument for agricultural
development in 1960s, and the strategies, developed for rural development projects
in 1984, include (i) physical infrastructure development in rural areas, (ii) water
resource management (irrigation for agriculture, drainage and flood control) and (iii)
rural poor-targeted production and employment programs. In these basic strategic
components of agricultural and rural development, local governments are assigned to
play a certain role. For Component (i), local government is expected to be the main
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implementing bodies, to which the Local Government Engineering Department
(LGED) provides supports. For Component (ii), local government is an associate
agency while the Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) and the Ministry of
Agriculture (MOA) play a major role. For Component (iii), local government, the
BRDB and other concerned public agencies collaborate in operation, expecting nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to play some assisting roles. These strategies
are more or less succeeded in the 3rd and 4th five-year plans (1985-1990, 19901995), and some modification and addition were made into the current policy
strategies, keeping pace with the political decentralization schedule since 1996 e.g.
more involvement of local representatives at union and other levels in the process of
rural infrastructure development activities, and enhancement of participatory
planning-based rural development activities through strengthening local government
institutions and resource mobilization capacities.
Agricultural Support Services and Decentralization
The limited or lack of agricultural support services is one of the major constraints to
agricultural development in Bangladesh, be it effective financial services, marketing
and extension supports or weak water/irrigation management. In view of these
constraints, the government policy, specifically the 5th five-year development plan
(1997-2002), emphasize private sector participation in agricultural development
process as a coping strategy, in line with on-going liberalization/structural adjustment.
Minor irrigation sector has been undergoing liberalization, encouraging private sector
agencies to supply related equipment. International trade and domestic marketing of
machinery, seeds and fertilizers are being opened up for market forces. For
fertilizers, private dealers are the only distributors to farms, to which government
provides no subsidy. Besides private sector, NGOs are also recognized as a main
development partner at policy level. The successful experiences by Bangladesh
NGOs in rural micro credit schemes, for instance, are widely known. However, while
liberalization strategy seems to be in full swing in the agriculture sector, the sectoral
policy does not fully incorporate the administrative and political decentralization
process. If sustainability and accountability of agricultural support services are to be
pursued, however, the role of parishad at each level could be more recognized and
emphasized. Market operation by private agencies and facilitating development
activities of NGOs could be more oriented towards collaboration with local
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governance institutions, while enhancing the locality- and gender-sensitive resource
mobilization and agricultural and social services.
Enabling Policies, Constraints and Evaluation of
the Decentralization Process
Established in 1996, the Public Administration Reforms Commission was expected to
play an enabling role to further the comprehensive decentralization process, by
making policy recommendations on local governance system. However, its practice
has been insignificant, if not absent. Overall political instability is a basic negative
condition in making progress in the pace and effectiveness of decentralization, which
has been worsening and increasingly involving violence. At national level,
administrative system is still highly centralized, and at local level, widespread corrupt
practices hinders the social and political environment for effectively empowering local
governance system and its functioning.
Prospect
Although the democratic change of the government in 1996 renewed the
decentralization efforts in the past, the following 4 years project a pessimistic
prospect. Administrative and political conditions are fundamental in making efforts to
counter a number of problems that the country has long been facing, including
frequent and severe natural calamities, chronic mal/under nutrition status of its
people, widespread and deep-rooted poverty, amongst others. There should be no
delay in proceeding reforms in the governance system, and the process would be
required to strike the balance between on-going sectoral liberalization and
governments' role at national, and particularly, decentralized levels.