Explaining Bangladesh’s development puzzle: Government’s approaches and civil servants’ accountability

Abstract

Bangladesh has been marching on the development highway at a pace which is often referred to as an ‘unbelievable puzzle.' Once a water-logged over-populated delta region, affected by regular floods and calamity, it is now in the upward steps of economic growth to achieve the dream of a developed nation. This chapter has attempted to explain the puzzle by identifying various contributory approaches of the government for economic and social progress, though with a poor level of governance. It has further attempted to deal with a newer area of discussion in the context-the civil servants’ accountability. This has been done in terms of the factors like the introduction of the medium-term budgetary framework (MTBF) and annual performance agreements (APA), enactment of new consolidated statute for public servants to ensure their performance and accountability in delivering government services for ordinary citizens, digitization of office activities by using e-Nothi; simplification of government services through innovation, long-term plan horizons with a focus on targeted future, and encouragement of self-financing of mega projects for nationwide expansion of infrastructure.