Effective responses to COVID-19 depend on citizens cooperating with government in the lockdown, testing and treatment regimes. This report summarizes findings from rapid qualitative research in 20 communities across Bangladesh about local responses to COVID-19 undertaken between 6-15 April 2020, designed to inform government and its partners about how their policies and communications are being received and acted upon by communities. Three broad topics covered in the telephone surveys conducted for the research were: experiences of the lockdown; community needs; and institutions, key actors, and trust. The research was designed and undertaken by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and Development Research Initiative (dRi) in Bangladesh, in collaboration with researchers from the Accountability Research Center at American University and Georgetown University in the United States. The research implications stated that people are responding positively to the lockdown, people are relying on government assistance, frontline health service provision is evidently under significant pressure, punitive measures by the army, police, local authorities, or local virus-vigilantes need to be discouraged and rights violations and abuses investigated and stopped.
Authors: Ali, Tariq Omar; Hassan, Mirza; Hossain, Naomi; Hoque, Md Mahan Ul; Rashid, Md. Mamun-Ur; Matin, Imran; Rabbani, Mehnaz
Type: Policy Brief
Year: 2020
