Government and non-government officials as well as people’s representatives working at the grassroots will have to be accountable and transparent to speed up the ongoing development work across the country.
Experts while making the observation said, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is working relentlessly to build a ‘Sonar Bangla’ to fulfill Bangabandhu’s dream through various development programmes, the government and non-government officials and people’s representatives will have to work hard in this regard. They came up with this observation at a roundtable in the capital’s BRAC center.
However, they added, it is very unfortunate that the concerned officials, upazila and union council chairmen and members are reluctant to work hard. A research paper of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) titled ‘State of Social Accountability and Deliberative Democracy in Bangladesh’ was presented at the seminar by Dr Mirza M Hassan, lead researcher of the study.
The study found that non-governmental organization interventions actually create a synergy, a positive sum of outcome for all actors and improve effectiveness of existing social accountability and deliberative democratic forums-institutions. However, NGO interventions are time bound; and when it is over the nurtured social accountability forums start losing steam. The study recommends that institutionalizing a robust and effective social accountability process is certainly not easy, especially where the majority of citizens are still none/semi –literate and marginal with almost no experience of participating in social accountability and deliberative forums. A sustainable solution perhaps lies not in donor –funded short-term NGO projects, but in permanent arrangement leading to synergy.
It also suggests that state-NGO collaboration is significant for sustainable development. Regular funding allocation in the national budget will not only signal the government’s strong commitment, but also help sustain the activities of social accountability and deliberative institutions in a more effective and inclusive manner. Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Md Tajul Islam was also present at the programme with notable civil society members and researchers.
The experts said, if the grassroots officials and people’s representatives do not become serious in their respective jobs, and have no accountability and transparency, all the government’s initiatives for the betterment of the people, will go in vain. Proper implementation and monitoring must be enhanced. Marking the goodwill of a project and learning from a project should be applied to the next projects, said Badiul Alam Majumdar. Noting the role of media in social accountability, Badiul Alam Majumdar said that citizens also receive benefits – robust forums helps them to get better information , which they can use for holding the leaders accountable via media.
State actors hardly have the capability to manage or micro-monitor these processes, and thus will benefit from smartly designed state-Ngo collaboration. Importantly, a sustainable process needs protection from hostile local political interests, experts mentioned.
