Discussants at a roundtable in Dhaka on Sunday said that steps such as actionable guidelines to minimise political influence in local governance, fostering transparency, empowering local government officials, and practical approaches for boosting people鈥檚 participation in governance should be taken to bring a decentralised system in the country.
Despite years of efforts toward decentralisation, local government of Bangladesh has remained heavily dependent on central government resources, limiting their autonomy in addressing community needs, budgeting and delivering essential services, they said at the roundtable titled Towards Effective, Transparent and Accountable Local Governance.
The event was jointly organised by UNDP鈥檚 Strengthening Institutions, Policies, and Services project and the Daily Prothom Alo, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, with research support from the Centre on Budget and Policy, University of Dhaka, said a press release on Monday.
The chair of the Local Government Reform Commission Tofail Ahmed delivered keynote speech at the event.
Stressing the formation of Comprehensive Local Government Act, so that districts, upazilas, unions can reform their organisational structure, funding and judiciary system, he said, 鈥榃e need a system which consists of relation between local and central government.鈥�
The dialogue was represented by stakeholders from government, civil society, academia, student representatives from Students鈥� Movement Against Discrimination, youth development representatives, media, local government representatives, including four members of the Local Government Reform Commission, and UNDP officials to identify actionable reforms aimed at decentralising governance in Bangladesh.