Community participation and local governance in Bangladesh

Waheduzzaman, Wahed; As-Saber, Sharif

doi:10.1080/10361146.2014.989194

Cited by 20 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Public participation has instrumental value in improving democratic decision-making that supports sustainability [3,4] as well as intrinsic value [5], and is recognized as a highly worthwhile endeavour [6][7][8][9]. It should be noted, however, that some authors have qualified such assertions in the case of highly stratified societies [10], or those characterized by corruption and patronage [11]. This is due to the danger of elite capture of participation processes and spaces, perpetuating inequity.…”

Section: Background: Participation In Urban Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional innovations in public participation for improved local governance and urban sustainability in India

Menon

Hartz-Karp

2019

Sustain Earth

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Background: Improving urban governance is an imperative for India, with its accelerated rate of urbanization, distrust of government, and inadequate public involvement in policy development and decision-making. Deliberative democracy initiatives in other parts of the world, and similar experiences in rural India have demonstrated their effectiveness at resolving complex issues with decisions that are acceptable to constituents, and are seen to be in the public good. Results: Learnings are drawn from two cases of action research in Pune, India about achieving inclusion and deliberation in public engagement efforts, and their influence on public decision-making. The stratified and complex socioeconomic and political context in India, power imbalances, inadequacy of decentralized governance structures, and information for civic decision-making makes public engagement challenging. From this experience, we inductively developed a potential framework for good governance, of deliberative democracy initiatives (induced participation), inclusive civil society (organic and invented) participation, overseen by an independent third party. It is contended that such a framework can enable city governments, in India and elsewhere, to resolve complex urban sustainability challenges with more implementable decisions. Conclusions: Based on what was learnt from the Pune case studies, this article suggests that a combination of leaders willing to pioneer good governance, capable third-party facilitators, and strong organic participation groups working together through the structured approaches of deliberative democracy can effectively integrate the public into civic decision-making. However, to implement deliberative democracy in urban areas in India, the framework proposed will require advocacy at multiple levels. It will be critical to find 'champions' within political, administrative and civil society willing to pioneer deliberative democracy initiatives, to build professional capacity to conduct high quality deliberation, and to ensure the outcomes of such processes are influential. Good governance will rely on an ecosystem supporting such democratic renewal.

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Section: Background: Participation In Urban Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional innovations in public participation for improved local governance and urban sustainability in India

Menon

Hartz-Karp

2019

Sustain Earth

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“…Subsequently, the demand for direct participation of targeted citizens in the governance process of the aid‐assisted development initiatives has become evident in the public domain. To meet such a demand and to fill in the aforementioned democratic deficit, IAAs have been encouraging developing country governments to introduce participatory governance at local levels for a number of decades (see e.g., Mansuri and Rao ; Waheduzzaman and As‐Saber ).…”

Section: Contextualization Of Participatory Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nyholm and Haveri () consider it time‐consuming and inefficient. Arguably, the real benefit of participatory governance is not always achievable and the effective participation by the poor and marginalized segments of the community have been questioned (Mansuri and Rao ; Waheduzzaman and As‐Saber ).…”

Section: Contextualization Of Participatory Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Politics and Policy in Achieving Participatory Governance in a Developing Country Context

Waheduzzaman

As-Saber

2015

Politics & Policy

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In recent years, "participatory governance" has emerged as an important concept within the governance domain. It is a policy that insinuates participation of local citizens to implement locally based propeople development initiatives. International aid agencies have been pursuing this agenda with an aim to provide greater legitimacy to development projects for economic growth in developing countries. In response, the government of Bangladesh has been trying to implement participatory governance policies for aid-assisted development projects for the last three decades. However, empirical studies reveal that the level of participation of local citizens in development projects has hardly been improved despite such attempts. Relying on six aidassisted project-based case studies, this article explores the reasons of such a failure and has found out that the dysfunctional political system and corruption in Bangladesh have compromised the role of the state in ensuring any meaningful participation of ordinary citizens in local-level development activities.En años recientes la "gobernanza participativa" ha surgido como un concepto de importancia dentro del campo de la gobernanza. Se trata de una pol ıtica que promueve la participaci on de ciudadanos locales para implementar iniciativas de desarrollo locales. Las agencias internacionales de ayuda han seguido esta agenda con el objetivo de dar mayor legitimidad a proyectos de desarrollo con fines de crecimiento econ omico en pa ıses emergentes. Como respuesta, el gobierno de Bangladesh ha intentado implementar pol ıticas de participaci on ciudadana en proyectos de desarrollo financiados con ayuda internacional durante las ultimas tres d ecadas. Sin embargo, la evidencia emp ırica revela que el nivel de participaci on de los ciudadanos locales en proyectos de desarrollo apenas ha mejorado a pesar de m ultiples intentos. Usando seis casos de estudio de proyectos financiados con ayuda internacional, este art ıculo analiza las razones de las fallas y encuentra que el sistema pol ıtico disfuncional y la corrupci on en Bangladesh han debilitado el papel del estado para garantizar niveles significativos de participaci on de ciudadanos comunes en actividades de desarrollo local.Since the 1980s, international aid agencies (IAAs), such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), have been maintaining a conditionality of direct participation of local citizens in aid-assisted development programs across developing countries (see e.g., Bertinelli and Strobl 2007;Shah 2006). By placing this condition, the agencies expect that the inclusion of local citizens during the planning and implementation of development projects would foster information sharing, joint decision making, and co-sharing control over the program between service receivers and service providers (Mohammed 2013). The World Bank alone allocated almost $85 billion during the past decade to enhance participation in local-level development activities (Mansuri and Rao 2013b). It is envisaged that this participatory poli...

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“…Participatory approaches aim to recuperate the declining role of community participation in international development programs [18,19]. Participation is identified as an inevitable denominator in development projects [20,21], natural resource management [22], and other local governance [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers in Participative Water Governance: A Critical Analysis of Community Development Approaches

Shunglu¹,

Köpke

Kanoi

et al. 2022

Water

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Participatory approaches within development programs involving common-pool resources are intended to revive a community’s role in managing these resources. Certainly, to ensure the successful and equitable use of such resources, community participation is essential. However, in many cases, attempts at applying a participatory approach often fail to genuinely engage all subgroups within a community due to assumptions of homogeneity and a lack of understanding of the deep socio-political divisions between people. As a result, development programs can be plagued by these pre-existing power relations, potentially resulting in tokenistic community participation and the continuation of elite capture of natural resources to the same extent or worse than before a development program has begun. This in turn can negatively impact good governance and the fair distribution of a common pool resource. This paper explores the use of participatory approaches in water projects, assessing to what degree power relationships impact water management programs. Using a qualitative approach, the paper identifies key challenges of participatory water governance through case studies from Turkey, India, and Sri Lanka, exploring: lack of social trust, elite capture of participatory processes, power heterogeneity and imbalances at the micro-level, and a lack of inclusive participation in decision-making. Based on the analysis of these case studies, this paper argues that it is essential for participatory development interventions to understand socio-political power relations within a community—an inherently complex and contested space. The so-called “exist-strategies” of a community project play a key role to decide the project sustainability that grants the “community ownership” of the project. Such an understanding can bring about greater success in development interventions attempting to address water-related issues.

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Community participation and local governance in Bangladesh

Cited by 20 publications

References 38 publications

Institutional innovations in public participation for improved local governance and urban sustainability in India

Institutional innovations in public participation for improved local governance and urban sustainability in India

Politics and Policy in Achieving Participatory Governance in a Developing Country Context

Barriers in Participative Water Governance: A Critical Analysis of Community Development Approaches

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