No.16 Toward Improving Governance in Bangladesh: Insights from Experience in Supporting City Governance

Since the 2000s, Bangladesh has experienced consistent economic growth, yet significant challenges persist in public sector governance. In particular, the political upheaval that occurred in August 2024 highlighted the reality that the benefits of economic growth have not been sufficiently distributed across the whole society. The interim government has established several reform commissions, including the Public Administration Reform Commission, and is currently examining fundamental institutional reforms.

This paper reviews the challenges in city governance identified through JICA’s technical cooperation for governance improvement of City Corporations and examines issues related to the civil service and human resource development system in Bangladesh. In the area of city governance, multi-layered challenges were identified, including the lack of legal and regulatory frameworks, ambiguous fiscal systems, rigid personnel management and organizational operations, insufficient citizen participation, and shortages of professional staff. In addition, several underlying factors were identified as contributing to these challenges. These include a highly centralized personnel system that relies heavily on senior civil servants from the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) Administration cadre, a career development approach with limited emphasis on specialization, and limitations in existing human resource development systems.

Drawing on these insights, this paper recommends three key directions for future cooperation. First, it emphasizes the importance of continuous support for the institutional and structural foundations that sustain local administration. This includes not only strengthening the functions of local government through legal and regulatory reforms, fiscal system improvements, and encouraging citizen participation, but also establishing international platforms to share knowledge and best practices from Japan and other countries. Second, to support civil servants in further developing their abilities in policy formulation and implementation, it is essential to enhance the human resource development system by introducing training programs with a stronger focus on problem- solving and practical experience, using real cases as learning materials. Third, the paper suggests the importance of collaborative approaches to the redesign of career plans, with the aim of enhancing specialization within the civil service, including consideration of a cluster system and specialized training frameworks.

The direction of civil service system reform proposed in this paper aligns with the framework of reform initiatives developed by the Public Administration Reform Commission under the interim government. As these reforms are expected to move toward implementation, Japan’s “co-creation-based cooperation” is becoming increasingly important. Through comprehensive collaboration across three levels—institutions, organizations, and human resources—Japan can play a meaningful role in strengthening governance in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Bangladesh; City Governance; Administrative Reform; Civil Service System; Human Resource Development