Abstract
Through implementation of the Act of 2009, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) created a number of public forums in the Union Parishad (UP). The main intention behind these public forums was to create opportunities for the demand-side (i.e., the service receivers) to become involved in the decision-making process as well as holding the supply-side (i.e., the service providers) responsible for their actions. The main aim of this chapter is to analyze the outcome of the participatory planning (PP) and participatory budgeting (PB) practices. An effort is made in this chapter to explain the extent to which different public forums have been successful in ensuring social accountability at the local level. In addition, this chapter discusses the prospects and problems of the processes since civic engagement and the accountability of the power-holders. Obtaining maximum outcome from any new mechanism is difficult due to the existing social, political, and administrative obstacles in Bangladesh. Therefore, a modest attempt has been taken to measure the outcome of the PP and budgeting practices.
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- 1.
The public hearings were conducted in 28 Upazila (sub-district) of 27 districts and some offices in Dhaka (capital of Bangladesh), namely Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (a development authority for the capital of Bangladesh, RAJUK), Bangladesh Road Transportation Authority (BRTA), passport and immigration, three assistant commissioner (land), and three sub-registrar offices.
- 2.
Since the implementation of the provisions of the Act of 2009 regarding people’s obligatory involvement at participatory planning (implementation started in FY 2011–2012), the intention was to explore whether people had received information regarding the WS or not.
- 3.
A type of veil that Muslim women wear to protect them from being seen by others.
- 4.
The female participants of FGD sessions in the Rajshahi district did not mention these reasons for not participating at the WS. Restricted mobility of women was been revealed to be a reason in the Sirajganj and the Lalmonirhat district. The local inhabitants of the Lalmonirhat district have been found to have access to LGIs. However, immigrants from Mymensingh, in the Aditmari Upazila of the Lalmonirhat district, maintained strong purdha culture.
- 5.
Although NGO officials have been involved with the planning and budgeting process of the Hariyan and Gogram UPs, this statement is true for all of the WMs of all six UPs (except for the WMs of Ward 4 of Kakina UP).
- 6.
Appendix I - The actual income expenditure statement of Kakina UP revealed that the expenditure of organizing an OBM was shown there.
- 7.
She has been selected as a FWM once and elected twice as FWM in Ghurka UP.
- 8.
The researchers were investigating whether the concerned WMs organized actual WS or only collected signatures of the voters.
- 9.
Appendix K shows the revenue earning trends of all UPs. It has been revealed that income from each UP’s own source is very limited.
- 10.
As has been in the case when the UP chair was a member of BNP and he did not instruct the WMs to organize WS.
- 11.
It has been revealed from FGD data that when informed, people did not avoid attending the meeting.
- 12.
The FWM acted as advisor at the WS since it has been specified by the Act of 2009.
- 13.
These opinions are based on the opinions of people provided through interview sessions and from people who participated in the WS.
- 14.
This project list has been compiled by the author through documentation review. While interviewing the respective WMs, questions were asked about the implementation of those specific projects.
- 15.
The UP chair is a supporter of BNP and the FWM is a supporter of AL.
- 16.
The OBM is the formal space for receiving replies from UP functionaries.
- 17.
Local businessmen have provided money to the UP functionaries for election purposes and the chair and WMs have provided UP services in favor of those businessmen.
- 18.
These contractors have been found to receive all of the projects from the UP chair. In an interview session with one of the WC members, it was revealed that the WC member did not know anything about that committee, rather it was revealed that most of the projects had been implemented by him.
- 19.
The prioritized demand list was displayed at the OBM.
- 20.
It is evident that maybe the general public that did not receive a reply from UP functionaries, did not participate at the OBM.
- 21.
Eleven respondents out of 39 participated both at the WS and OBM and the researcher interviewed eight more people who attended the OBM. It is revealed from data analysis through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) that 27 citizens attended the OBM.
- 22.
Total people participated at OBM.
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Chowdhury, S., Panday, P.K. (2018). Ensuring Social Accountability Through Public Forums. In: Strengthening Local Governance in Bangladesh. Public Administration, Governance and Globalization, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73284-8_6
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