Research and Dialogue

On

Governance Priorities to Sustain Growth in Bangladesh  

The global financial crisis has brought to the fore the vulnerability of developing countries attempting to move up the value chain, to protect jobs and to raise productivity to achieve higher wages for working people. The standard governance agenda (the so-called good governance agenda) is not likely to directly address these problems. The international evidence also suggests that developmental success in the past has not been related to the achievement of standard good governance goals (stable property rights, good rule of law, low corruption, high political accountability). These are all desirable goals but i) they are not immediately achievable in poor countries to any significant extent and ii) small improvements on these indicators are not likely to make a significant impact on the challenges of sustaining and accelerating growth. 

New research carried out by a number of research teams has identified that success in achieving growth and technological progress in developing countries in the last twenty years has been based on a number of accidental and lucky governance capabilities that some countries have had at the micro-level. Looking at successful sectors in countries like Thailand, India and Bangladesh suggests that success has been based on very specific governance characteristics combined with fortunate international market conditions and international opportunities. Relying on these fortunate accidents is not a good strategy. Countries like Bangladesh have to identify strategies for moving up the value chain and they have to develop specific governance capabilities, public administration capabilities and regulatory capabilities to assist technology acquisition, productivity growth and the opening up of new sectors.  

This dialogue is intended to begin a process of exposure of senior Bangladeshi public administrators, politicians, business associations and other stakeholders to the challenges of developing pro-growth governance capabilities. There is no blueprint that the experience of other countries can offer to Bangladesh because each country has specific technological, institutional and political conditions. But for Bangladesh to begin to develop its own agenda its policy-makers need to be exposed to the most current thinking and research on governance from different perspectives. This dialogue is intended to be the first step of a long-run engagement involving SOAS, the Ford Foundation and possibly other partners over time to assist Bangladesh to develop a pro-growth governance agenda. 

First Dialogue – 8 December 2009 - Key Resource Person  

Professor Mushtaq H. Khan

Professor of Economics, SOAS, University of London and

Member of the Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) of the United Nations.  

Format

The meeting will begin with a presentation from Professor Khan on some of the challenges of sustaining growth based on the experiences of developing countries including Bangladesh. Governance and public administration capabilities have been weak in all developing countries in the area of growth policies, but an examination of how growth was actually triggered and sustained in growth sectors suggests critical areas in which governance needs to be strengthened to replicate success in other sectors and to sustain growth in existing growth sectors. The meeting will then proceed to provide an opportunity to participants to provide their own insights about how governance in Bangladesh was assisting or impeding economic and social development of the country and the most important areas in which governance and public administration capabilities need to be developed.  

Expected Outcomes

A better understanding of governance challenges and administrative capability building in Bangladesh from the perspective of sustaining growth. If there is significant interest in taking this further, a discussion of next steps for further collaboration and work. 

Participation Criteria

Mid to senior level civil servants with an interest in or experience in departments connected with managing growth (this is broadly defined as many different departments can have activities that affect labour, capital, technology, land, trade, investments and other factors relevant for growth).