BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies organized a critical discussion on the governance realities in Bangladesh and beyond, based on the recent State of Governance (SoG) report, a flagship publication of BIGD. This year’s SoG report assessed the COVID-19 governance in Bangladesh during the first year of the pandemic—analysing how the government responded to the crisis and why, identifying the challenges, and based on the analysis, providing constructive recommendations at policy and programmatic levels. The report identified gaps in critical governance areas including healthcare, social protection, stimulus packages, and lockdown management, and explored these issues from a political economy angle.
With in-depth, mixed-method, comprehensive research across all major dimensions of Covid management, our research provides critical insights on governance challenges in developing countries in managing the pandemic. It also provides a governance analysis framework in the context of the dominant party system—a phenomenon found in many developing countries.
The study was led by Dr Mirza M. Hassan, Senior Research Fellow, BIGD and Dr Naomi Hossain Sr Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service, American University, who will also be presenting the findings at the webinar.
Sanchita Banerjee Saxena, Executive Director, Institute for South Asia Studies; Director, Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies moderated the session.
Nafisa Tanjeem, Assistant Professor of Gender, Race, and Sexuality Studies and Global Studies; Assistant Director of the CLAS – Honors Program; Lesley University also joined the event as a discussant.
