Participatory local governance and sustainable development in Bangladesh: mechanisms and outcomes

Bangladesh is at the crossroad, aiming on the one hand at implementing bold 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, and on the other hand at putting stronger system of local governance in place to ensure that the democratic roots of the country are well-established. Whether the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be effectively localized is more and more becoming determined by the institutional capability and responsiveness of the Local Government Institutions (LGIs). This paper questions this interconnection of these two national requirements locating the meaningful citizen participation as a possible game changing mechanism that would lead to successful realization of sustainable development at grassroots level. Although a new national policy has been favoring participatory governance, a tremendous gap still remains between the de jure and de facto participatory policies as it concerns a citizen engagement. The exact role of citizen participation in the concrete developmental outcomes is yet to be empirically investigated. Thus, the key research question of this study is the following: How significantly, and by which channels of causality, can citizen involvement in local government planning, budgeting, and monitoring processes lead the local settlements in Bangladesh towards the achievement of the targeted Sustainable Development Goals? At policy level, this study suggests leaving the phase of tokenistic participatory forms of participation behind, to institutionalize actual citizen empowerment. It proposes certain reforms directed towards enhancement of ability of state and societal layer to pursue constructive interaction. Theory Although the literature on participatory governance and decentralization already has a rich and well-developed history, that is, both conceptual and empirical, the proposed research will make meaningful contributions of theory to the field and its comprehension as it will present a subtle empirical evidence with regard to the background of a developing South Asian country, outlining the crucial mediating factors (such as political will, vitality of civil society and social capital) that shape the effectiveness of citizen engagement as a means of sustainable development.