Bangladesh

Through the LOIprogram, over 20,000leaders participated ininterfaith dialogues tostrengthen traditions oftolerance, diversity,and social harmony.

PROMOTING FREE, FAIR, AND SAFE

ELECTIONS

Elections are a cornerstone of good governance inBangladesh, and for most voters, the principalmode of engagement in political affairs. Despitea past record of free and fair elections, furtherchallenges remain to strengthen and safeguard theculture of democracy and ensure the integrity offuture elections. With technical assistance fromThe Asia Foundation, the 32-member ElectionWorking Group (EWG) coalition implements acomprehensive national program for parliamen-tary and local government elections. EWG pro-gram activities facilitate dialogue among theBangladesh Election Commission, law enforce-ment agencies, political parties, the media, andcivil society to ensure a level playing field, reducethe risk of election violence, promote more sub-stantive election campaigning, and encouragepopular demand for enhanced democratic repre-sentation and accountability between elections.The EWG also conducts studies on public perception of the present environment and facili-tatesstakeholder inputs in shaping the electoraland broader governance reform agenda. For theDecember 2008 parliamentary and followingupazila (subdistricts) and 2011 Union Parishad

elections, the EWG conducted stationary and mobile monitoring, voter education, and advocacy activities.

ENHANCING THE EFFECTIVENESS AND

TRANSPARENCY OF PARLIAMENT

In the three decades since independence,Bangladesh has made tremendous progress inextending basic infrastructure, social services, andeconomic opportunities to a population of morethan 145 million people. While the economy hasgrown at a consistent pace for the last decade, thebenefits of economic growth have been slow toextend to the population at large. Weak gover-nance has stood as the greatest obstacle to broad-based national development and poverty reduc-tion through a combination of factors thatinclude partisan political tensions and lack ofpublic participation in decision-making. The AsiaFoundation is implementing a five-year programon Promoting Democratic Institutions andPractices (PRODIP) in partnership with the StateUniversity of New York Center for InternationalDevelopment (SUNY-CID) with support fromUSAID. PRODIP is designed to improve theeffectiveness and transparency of the parliament,while also increasing the constructive participa-

The Asia Foundationhas been programming

in Bangladesh since 1954.

In 2010-11, the

Foundation donated

113,000 books and

journals through the

Books for Asia program.

The Asia Foundation’s programs promote fair elections, effectiveness and transparency of the parliament,give policy voice to rural micro enterprise, assist the disadvantaged in accessing justice, build trustbetween police and communities, engage religious and secular leaders to advance national developmentefforts, and promote pragmatic dialogue on Bangladesh-India relations. Since 1971, the Foundationdonated over 2 million books and journals across the country through its Books for Asia program.

BANGLADESH

In Bangladesh, The Asia Foundation works with local partners in government, civil society, and the private sector to advance goodgovernance, economic growth, women’s rights, public security, and regional dialogue.

PRODIP is a five-year,$23.2 million program

launched in 2011engaging with the

policymakers throughthe Parliament.

HEADQUARTERS465 California Street, 9th FloorSan Francisco, CA 94104 USATel: (415) 982-4640Fax: (415) 392-8863info@asiafound.org

WASHINGTON, DC1779 Massachusetts Ave., NWSuite 815Washington, D.C. 20036 USATel: (202) 588-9420Fax: (202) 588-9409info@asiafound-dc.org

BANGLADESHHouse 3/BRoad No. 50Gulshan 2Dhaka-1212, BangladeshTel: + 880 (2) 882-6941 to 44Fax: + 880 (2) 882-6134tafbg@asiafound.org

www.asiafoundation.org

tion of civil society in the public policymakingand legislative process. Working closely with theHonorable Speaker of the Parliament, Membersof the Parliament, and other international donors,PRODIP will assist Bangladesh’s national parlia-ment, the Jatiyo Shangshad (JS), to become moreeffective, transparent, and participatory by build-ing institutional capacity in the areas of policydevelopment, legislation, oversight, and represen-tation, while focusing activities on MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDG)-related issues. Toimprove law-making, the project willfacilitate colloquia, forums and public hearings;sponsor workshops on policy development andbill drafting; and develop in-house, as well as out-side capacity for expert legislative research andpolicy support.

PROMOTING ENHANCED LOCAL

ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE

The Bangladesh private sector has an importantrole to play in generating income and employ-ment opportunities for the poor. Small and microenterprises, which represent the largest proportionof private enterprise, face special challenges.Baseline research by The Asia Foundation foundthat many of the obstacles to the growth potentialof rural and small town micro entrepreneursreflect an unresponsive public sector. Nationaland local government officials’ capacity to delivernecessary market reforms is low, and small busi-ness owners and the informal associations, orsamities, that represent them have only limitedability to demand and influence reform initiatives.Foundation programs strengthen the advocacycapacity of business samities to articulate andto demand reforms to the business environment,and assist local government officials to bettermanage their resources to successfully implementreforms. Additional Foundation programs com-plement this work by building linkages betweennational-level economic development institutionsand the subnational business community.

IMPROVING PUBLIC SECURITY THROUGH

COMMUNITY-BASED POLICING

Public security in Bangladesh has deteriorated inrecent years, with increases in robbery, extortion,assault and intimidation, violence against women,political conflict, and extremist violence. At thecommunity level, a widening gap in mutualunderstanding, trust, and communicationbetween police and citizens has further under-mined public security. The Asia Foundation hasbeen collaborating with police and citizens since

2004 on this effort at the community level in theBogra district in the northwest, and Jessore andMadaripur in the south. Building on past experi-ences, in January 2011, the Foundation launcheda new three-year Community-Based Policing(CBP) program with the generous support of theU.S. Agency for International Development(USAID).

The goal of this initiative is to continue to work with police and citizens, as well as in collaboration with other international donors, toimprove public security through increased citizen-police cooperation. As part of this effort, particu-lar emphasis is being placed on CommunityPolicing Forums (CPFs) in 518 villages andmunicipalities evenly distributed across all 124subdistricts in the northwestern Rajshahi andRangpur Divisions.

ENHANCING THE ROLE OF RELIGIOUS

LEADERS IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Community and civil society leaders can beinstrumental in realizing national developmentgoals at the grassroots level. Trusted locally, theirknowledge and experience of public affairs intheir communities can also serve the critical function of communicating local developmentneeds to government and development practition-ers. With funding from USAID, The AsiaFoundation began reaching out to influentialcommunity leaders in 2004, starting with morethan 5,000 Muslim religious leaders. The four-year Leaders of Influence (LOI) program,launched in 2007, grew to include more than21,000 diverse participants, including Buddhist,Hindu, and Christian leaders as well as imams,local elected officials, community service clubmembers, women and youth leaders, and professionals such as lawyers, doctors, educators,business-people, and journalists. A network oflocal NGO partners worked to engage these var-ied groups, and helped to mount a series of orien-tations and workshops designed to familiarizethem with USAID-funded development projectsand practices in their communities in areas suchas health, education, religious harmony, environ-mental conservation, and women’s empowerment.

In Bangladesh, The Asia Foundation’s programs are also conducted with the support of several bilateral and multilateral agencies and diplomatic missions, including the Asian Development Bank, the Australian HighCommission, the Canadian International Development Agency, the RoyalDanish Embassy, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the United KingdomDepartment for International Development, and the United States Agency forInternational Development.

12/2011

The Asia Foundation

is a nonprofit international

development organization

committed to improving

lives across a dynamic

and developing Asia.

Headquartered in San

Francisco, The Asia

Foundation works through

a network of offices in

17 Asian countries and in

Washington, DC. Working

with public and private

partners, the Foundation

receives funding from

a diverse group of

bilateral and multilateral

development agencies,

foundations, corporations,

and individuals.