Research, Policy, and Governance (RPG)

Research, Policy, and Governance (RPG) is a flagship program of BIGD, which aims to build institutional capacity and produce rigorous research in order to uplift the quality of evidence-based decision and policy-making in Bangladesh.

Background

For the last two decades, a culture of innovation and evidence-based policy-making is growing in Bangladesh. Yet, the actual use of rigorous evidence in policy-making and innovative program designing is still uncommon in the country, mainly because of two reasons: 1) lack of awareness and capacities to generate and utilise evidence, and 2) lack of context-specific evidence on what works. In this context, there is good reason to believe that Bangladesh is a country ripe for further investment in building sustainable national/institutional as well as human resource capacities to continuously support context-specific evidence generation and utilisation. RPG was conceived with the objective to fill this evidence-policy gap.

Objective

RPG aims to re-establish the relationship of trust and partnership between researchers and policymakers by enhancing evidence-based policy, ultimately improving the quality of decision-making.

Approach

There are four main pathways to achieving RPG’s objectives. We call these the four pillars of RPG. These are:

i) Rigorous research and effective scale-up of innovations in governance and development;

ii) Sustained capability created for high-quality, timely and relevant research;

iii) Engaged excellence for co-creation of research agenda and research uptake strategies; and

iv) Enhanced demand for improved data analytical capabilities in public organisations, civil society organisations, think tanks and universities.

RPG team consists of a group of young Research Associates (RAs) trained in basic quantitative and qualitative research skills. As capacity building is the main focus of RPG, each RA is working on research projects guided and mentored by a senior academic since 2018. By 2021–2022 the team aspires to disseminate and publish research results, intensify engagement with policymakers with strong evidence, pilot and propose innovations in public service, and update the Masters in Governance and Development (MAGD) curriculum of BIGD. RPG does its research work in close collaboration with government counterparts and builds the capacity of government officials in strategically important positions on different aspects of evidence-based policy-making. Through this approach, RPG aims to ensure the government’s full ownership and effective research uptake.

Focus Areas

RPG’s target for 2019 was to start at least two research projects under the following topics:

i) Equitable and effective scale-up of digitisation in public service delivery;

ii) Innovations in social accountability;

iii) Making land markets work better for citizens;

iv) Macro-economic policy analysis;

The initial plan was to publish four working papers based on the research on four topics. However, given the complexity of each of these topics and high interest in further research, we decided not to publish these pieces as stand-alone research papers. Instead, each of these research pieces will be used to formulate more focused research questions and do further work on these topics. Based on the learning from our research and feedback from stakeholders, we initiated the following research projects under RPG:

Benchmark survey on digital literacy and access to public service delivery

Digital literacy is seen as a common barrier to using the new digital services introduced by the government of Bangladesh. Uptake rates are low, and even when digital services are used, citizens have to go through middlemen who are digitally literate. To investigate this issue further, we are doing a national survey (sample representative at division level) to answer the following questions: a) What is the state of digital literacy in Bangladesh and is it linked to access to digital public services? and b) What is the process and cost associated with accessing digital public services?

Social accountability in social safety nets

RPG is planning two research studies on social accountability. The first study will use mixed methods to look at the impact of social accountability measures on targeting the effectiveness of social safety net programs. For this, we are collaborating with the Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF). In partnership with the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), MJF has introduced a range of social accountability measures (such as community scorecards, community groups, hotline, complaint box, etc.) in 12 districts to improve social safety net delivery.

The second research under this topic is focused on citizen engagement in public service delivery. The Government of Bangladesh is implementing Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) with support from the World Bank. Under this initiative, there is a component that promotes citizens’ engagement in monitoring local projects. The RPG research will use field reports, field officer diaries from DIMAPPP, and collect additional qualitative data to analyse the changes in norms and local political dynamics with the goal of understanding the changing role of citizens due to this initiative.

Land services and citizen’s experience

The land market is one of the most complex markets in Bangladesh. While land transactions are integral to most citizens’ lives, land management is highly inefficient, with several layers of informal mechanisms that negatively affect the experience of availing land services. The government is progressing towards the digitization of land services, starting with e-mutation. Our research on e-mutation shows that even with digitisation, challenges remain. The objective of this study is to take stock of all costs (formal and informal) of all land services (digital and manual) and citizens’ experience of these services.