In 2000 the global development community adopted the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals. The MDG’s give measurable targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. The goals range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. Bangladesh has made remarkable progress on several MDGs and is already on the verge of achieving the targets in gender parity. It also has a good chance of reaching other targets in areas such as under five mortality and consumption poverty. Other MDG’s such as those related to improving maternal health, water, sanitation and environmental degradation are going to be much harder to achieve. On June 5-6, 2006 a workshop entitled Towards a Strategy for Achieving MDG Outcomes in Bangladesh was held at the World Bank in Dhaka. Academics, civil society representatives, government officials and development partners were present to discuss ways in which the MDGs could be attained. At the workshop many speakers pointed out that if MDGs are to be met, government and donor funded programs in health, education and infrastructure development need to be implemented more effectively.
To do this means increasing the involvement of local government (Union Parishads) and local communities in ensuring the quality of service delivery. However, it is the Government of Bangladesh that remains ultimately responsible for better implementation. Another theme that emerged was the plight of the urban poor. Dhaka is the fastest growing city in the world and by 2015 it is expected that almost 35 per cent of the country’s population will live in urban areas, the vast majority in the capital. The urban poor often live under threat of eviction, and with little access to education, water or sanitation. In a country geared to providing services to rural populations the mechanisms to reach these people need to be improved if the MDGs are to be attained. The workshop looked at the regional variations in progress towards the MDGs and tried to explain the factors behind these variations. Income levels were not always the cause, with the level of education helping determine the attitudes and demands of the population. An example of this is the chronic problem of malnutrition. In Bangladesh, as elsewhere in South Asia, nutrition indicators for even the highest expenditure quintile are quite poor. Evidence was presented which showed that the malnutrition problem is effectively reduced when the mother is educated through at least the secondary level. Throughout the workshop participants stressed the need for improved governance as a way of furthering progress to MDGs. Accountability and transparency at all levels of government and among other service providers such as NGOs, must be increased. This process should go hand in hand with the empowering of the poor and the poorest of the poor , by giving them the opportunity to raise their voices in determining the services that they require.
The World Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy focuses on two key aspects of governance. Core governance includes areas such as improving public financial management and procurement, strengthening institutions of accountability, supporting legal and judicial reform and enhancing access to information. Sector governance looks at governance in every program that the World Bank is involved in. This means its operations in infrastructure, health, education, or any other sector, will be as much about governance as they are about sector performance and delivery. If the World Bank funds an education program, the progam will not just be about building schools, but about creating the institutional and fiduciary arrangements to ensure the success and sustainability of the program. For example, that teachers are suitably qualified, that staff turn up to class, that text books are procured in a transparent way, and that corruption is rooted out. Christine Wallich, Bangladesh Country Director for the World Bank said: “The examples given at the workshop showed that governance is not an abstract concept. If absenteeism is rife among medical staff, if ‘real health care’ is provided outside the public health centers in the doctor’s private consultations, what access do the poor really have to medical services? If electricity doesn’t reach homes or water pumps because of corruption, lack of consultation and poor implementation, then Bangladesh is going to struggle to reach its MDGs." “Bangladesh has made great strides in reaching several of the MDGs but I think the workshop has shown that Union Parishads and local communities are vital in ensuring that poor people actually receive the health, education and infrastructural service they need and are entitled to.” June 2006
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Contacts:
Rezwan Alam (8802) 815-9015, Ext 4242
E-mail: salam3@worldbank.org
For more information on the World Bank in Bangladesh, please visit : www.worldbank.org.bd
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