Decentralization in Bangladesh

Over the years, the Government of Bangladesh has taken some steps towards decentralization. However, the country remains one of the most centralized large countries in the world.

In many aspects, Bangladesh has the right conditions for decentralization to be useful and to take place.

• A series of political decentralization has taken place (The Local Government Commission in 1996 recommended specific steps which resulted in three new acts - the Local Government (Union Parishad) Act 1997, the Upazilla Parishad Act 1998, and the Zilla Parishad Act 2000. The Government has approved direct funding of union parishads in 2004, which is a major step to devolve fiscal power to local governments.)
• Donors have supported decentralization and worked on improving the ability of local governments to do more at the local level.
• Nongovernmental organizations have played a positive role to empower grassroots organizations and are actively supporting decentralization.
• Bangladesh has a large population, which is a characteristic of countries that have chosen to decentralize their governance and fiscal systems.
• Communications across distances are difficult, making the current practice of centralized decision-making an inefficient proposition.

Obstacles to decentralization remain:

• Legal framework is still weak;
• Local governments have little fiscal and administrative autonomy;
• Political conflict weakened institutional capacity.

Featured Project

The Government of Bangladesh has identified strengthening local governance as an important element of poverty reduction strategy, and the Bank funds the Local Governance Support Project, which aims to develop accountable local governments to meet community priorities, and to ensure sound and transparent fiscal transfer system.