Planning “Exceptionalism”? Political Economy of Climate Resilient Development in Bangladesh

State Bureaucracy and the Management of Climate Change Adaptation in Bangladesh

“…The secretary is the official head of the ministry and is responsible for its administration. He or she is also the principal accounting officer of the ministry (K. Alam et al, ). Meanwhile, various subordinate departments are attached to the ministry and work distinctly to implement policy decisions at the grassroots.…”

“…With regard to the four dimensions outlined by Biesbroek and others (), the state bureaucracy in Bangladesh can be categorized as follows: Law and management : The state bureaucracy of Bangladesh follows codified rules and procedures regarding the allocation of tasks among bureaucrats concerned with policy implementation (Zafarullah, ). Linkage between state and social actors : The scope for non‐state actors such as interest groups and civil society organizations to contribute to policy making and implementation has increased in the last few years, but it remains limited (K. Alam et al, ; Zafarullah, ). Uniformity in the creation and implementation of policy : Members of the administrative cadre develop, implement, and administer policies and are in charge of carrying out policy evaluation and impact assessments (Zafarullah, ). Organization of scientific advice : Policy advice, in general, comes from the upper echelons of state bureaucracy: the generalists. The generalists, however, lack technical expertise (Huque, )—we will return to this point in the subsequent paragraphs. …”

“…Of course, this mechanism works best in mature democracies with well‐functioning institutions, but focusing events have also been found to affect policy making in emerging or dysfunctional democracies. A case in point is Bangladesh, where the occurrence of two devastating climate‐related disasters in 2007 opened up space for climate change planning in Bangladesh (see e.g., K. Alam et al, ; Ayers et al, ). This kind of policy change could happen since the climate‐related disasters raised the public’s awareness of this problem as well as brought in new actors (international and non‐state actors) and created a new policy image (i.e., climate change as a threat)—changes that are typically accompanied by “policy punctuations” (Baumgartner & Jones, ), that is, large‐scale changes.…”

“…The post‐2007 climate regime is marked by increased political commitment, the rise of new ideas for tackling climate change, the emergence of new non‐state actors, greater influence from international actors and processes regarding national policy making, and the realization of the resources needed to make the country resilient (K. Alam et al, ). In more abstract terms, the focusing events of 2007 created a new policy regime.…”

“…While many least developed countries qualify as candidates for analysis, in this study, we examine the case of Bangladesh, a densely populated country that is affected by climate change and its consequences (K. Alam et al, ; Ayers, ; Ayers, Huq, Faisal, & Hussain, ; Brouwer, Akter, Brander, & Haque, ; Haque, Khan, Uddin, & Chowdhury, ). More specifically, while acknowledging that there also exist local and private initiatives (Araos et al, ), we concentrate on the state‐bureaucratic arrangements in place for adapting to climate change by implementing and managing nation‐wide projects (Aurenhammer, ; Rahman & Giessen, ).…”