Urbanisation is a global phenomenon, and Bangladesh is no exception. Starting from a very low base, the country has about 42 million urban residents, one of the largest in the world, and it will continue to grow; half of the Bangladeshi population will live in urban areas by 2050.
However, the growth so far has been extremely uneven, concentrated in the country’s megacity Dhaka and, to some extent, its commercial and port city Chattogram. Dhaka is the largest and fastest-growing urban centre in Bangladesh. One-tenth of the country’s population and a third of its urban population (36%) live in Dhaka. It is the 9th largest city in the world and poised to become the 4th largest by 2030.
Fast-changing physical and socio-economic characteristics in the Bangladeshi cities—a result of unprecedented growth—have created a glaring vacuum in the systematic understanding of how to make the cities functional and improve the quality of life. Public policies in the cities are seldom based on rigorous research, and the non-state actors, who have focused so far on rural development, are unsure about how to tackle urban issues. BIGD is committed to making a meaningful contribution to filling this vacuum through continuous research in close collaboration with policymakers and practitioners.
BIGD has been publishing its flagship report the “State of Cities (SOC)” since 2012 to provide a high-level analysis of the country’s urban potentials and challenges with a forward-looking and solutions-oriented agenda. The first three reports focused on understanding the historical, economic, and political dimensions of urban governance in the areas of service delivery, transport provisions, and environmental challenges in three cities: Dhaka, Narayanganj, and Chattogram. Since 2015, we are focusing on liveability issues of Dhaka, considering its political and economic importance and the magnitude of the problems. We have also conducted a number of institutional analysis related to urban issues.
Going forward, BIGD aspires to develop innovative solutions to combat emerging urban problems in close collaboration with policymakers, practitioners, test the effectiveness of the solutions, and research on how to scaleup the effective solutions.
Photo credit: “Dhaka” is copyright (c) 2017 ASaber91 and made available under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license
BRAC Uganda is using para-skilled volunteer community health workers (CHWs) to extend the reach of the existing health system to underserved communities. The objective of this study is to evaluate, using a randomized control trial (RCT), the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness...
This experimental study is testing if depression therapy and cash transfers can break the cycle between poverty and mental health problems among young females. The intervention is implemented within the BRAC's Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program in 100...
This experimental study in Uganda (Wakiso area, Jinja town and in Iganga) seeks to investigate how barriers in access to information affect search efforts, labour outcomes and aspirations of young jobseekers taking their first step in the job market, and...
The refugee population of Uganda has been growing since 2013, currently amounting to a staggering 1.3 million. Though Uganda stands out in refugee hospitality, this huge inflow of refugees can place a lot of pressure on the country’s healthcare system. Against...
This feasibility study aims to develop and test the acceptability and feasibility of a mHealth app to deliver BA psychological intervention for youth within the Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) programme in Kampala and Wakiso district of Uganda. It…
This study aims to identify the potential to scale up a program for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) through partnerships with the government school system (and potentially, other providers) in an after-school setting in Mityana and Mubende districts of…
This study aims to investigate the barriers to women’s leadership roles in VSLAs in the Central, Western, Eastern and Northern regions of Uganda. A cross-sectional assessment in the formative phase will use a sample of 400 VSLAs to (i) analyze the…
This study will investigate the impact of BRAC’s Ultra Poor Graduation (UPG) program on poverty, livelihood, food security, and social participation outcomes of people with disabilities and their families in Kiryandongo, Gulu, Nwoya and Oyam districts of Uganda. It also…
This study will investigate the impact of BRAC’s Ultra Poor Graduation (UPG) program on poverty, livelihood, food security, and social participation outcomes of people with disabilities and their families in Kiryandongo, Gulu, Nwoya and Oyam districts of Uganda. It also…
This experimental study is being implemented in Masaka, Mukono, Mityana, Iganda, Mbale, Jinja, Kabarole, Kasese, and Kyenjojo districts of Uganda. It aims to assess the role of childcare services in improving women’s labour market outcomes and understand the role of…
This cross-sectional analysis assessment will involve preparation, delivery and analysis associated with household survey and focus group discussions (FGDs) across four refugee and host communities in Uganda. The World Bank will work with the office of the Prime Minister (OPM),…
This cross-sectional analysis assessment will examine how populations in Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Tanzania respond to and cope with the profound shock to their lives and livelihoods caused by Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The objective is to generate new evidence, which…
Many development programs that attempt to disseminate improved technologies are limited in duration because of external funding constraints or an assumption of impact sustainability, but there is limited evidence on whether and when terminating such programs is efficient. We provide…
This assessment in a formative phase was implemented between Feb-Mar 2021 in 23 districts of Uganda. It documented the level of representation of women in village saving and loans association (VSLAs) and the correlations of female leadership with members’ satisfaction…
This article analyses the factors associated with the educational and career aspirations of 2,473 young women and girls 10-19 in Bo, Moyamba, Kambia, and Port Loko districts in Sierra Leone. Findings indicated that over three-quarters of the study, respondents aspired…
This cross-sectional assessment surveyed 1,115 firms and 2,883 employees between 2018 and 2019 in the Central, Western, and Eastern regions of Uganda to understand the importance of the rental market to productivity in developing countries. It argues that rental market…
The Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa (IMCHA) initiative implemented research to improve maternal, newborn, and child health and adopted a research model that was composed of: Principal Investigator of an African institution; Co- Principal Investigator affiliated with…
The authors study how credit constraints affect access to a remedial education program for girls. An unconditional cash transfer was given to randomly selected households, then measured their Willingness To Pay (WTP) for the program. In the control group average…
Harmful social norms often persist despite legal and economic sanctions against them. Can the abandonment of a harmful norm be facilitated by the presence of a “mildly harmful” alternative that may act as a stepping stone in the medium run?…
This multilevel mixed-effect model estimated the influence of social recognition on Community Health Promoter’s (CHPs) performance by following 4,050 CHPs serving 134 BRAC branch offices in Uganda from 2016 to 2018. The findings show how the presence of an award-winning…
Leveraging a regression discontinuity (RD) design, this study evaluated the impact of the BRAC’s Agricultural Extension Program that was rolled out in Uganda in 2008 on forest loss. A sample of 7,206 households residing in 417 villages was surveyed successfully…
School closures are a common short-run policy response to viral epidemics. The authors study the persistent post-epidemic impacts of this on the economic lives of young women in Sierra Leone, a context where women frequently experience sexual violence and face…
To evaluate how the social structure of village economies affects policy implementation by local agents, this experimental study followed 1,714 workers from disadvantaged settings in 119 villages in Uganda between 2012 and 2014. Findings show that delivery agents favour their…
Through this experimental design, 3,522 females 14-20 from 150 communities in Iganga, Jinja, Kampala and Mukono district of Uganda were followed from 2008 to 2012 to assess the impact on women’s socioeconomic empowerment. Results found the BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihood…
