Publication: Bangladesh: World Bank Country-Level Engagement on Governance and Anticorruption
Date
2011-12
ISSN
Published
2011-12
Author(s)
Wescott, Clay
Breeding, Mary
Abstract
Bangladesh is one of the world's
poorest and most densely populated countries, and subject to
annual cyclones and flooding. Despite these challenges, it
benefits from strong economic growth, good performance on
health and education, and poverty reduction, alongside weak
governance and pervasive corruption. The reasons include
strong macroeconomic policy, pro-poor spending, credible
elections, export growth and remittances, improved capacity
for managing natural disasters, and a stronger civil society
than comparable countries. After over a decade of intense
engagement with the Bank on governance, Bangladesh adopted
in 2006 a governance-oriented Country Assistance Strategy
(CAS) with four main objectives: to improve implementation
capacity; to 'tackle corruption' by fully
operationalizing the Anti-Corruption Commission; to lay the
foundation for comprehensive legal and judicial reform; and
to strengthen 'voice, empowerment and
participation.' The choice of a wide range of
instruments and areas of intervention was appropriate, given
the political instability at the time of 2006 CAS
preparation. The Bank signaled it was ready to engage in all
areas, and could scale up or pull back depending on emerging
political and bureaucratic commitment. The 2006 CAS yielded
mixed results, and the subsequent Country Partnership
Strategy (CPS) has been more selective on GAC issues. At the
project level, governance has been a key priority, in line
with the South Asia region's heavy emphasis on
GAC-in-Projects. Investments in GAC-in-primary education, a
local government project, anti-corruption efforts in the
power sector, and projects strengthening the investment
climate have yielded positive results. Investments in
GAC-in-roads projects have had mixed results in terms of
effectiveness. GAC activities were mainly adopted prior to
the 2007 GAC strategy. Although Bangladesh was a Country
Governance and Anticorruption (CGAC) country, the country
team chose not to use CGAC funds because the country had
already been intensively using GAC approaches well before
the GAC strategy was adopted.
Citation
“Wescott, Clay; Breeding, Mary. 2011. Bangladesh : World Bank Country-Level Engagement on Governance and Anticorruption. IEG Working Paper;2011/7. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/26679 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”