Missing link of development is local government

Bangladesh has been achieving impressive economic growth reflecting even major improvement in some of the key social indicators for quite some years. This is at a time when foreign aid regime has gone through remarkable changes for a crunch prompted mostly by global recession. Also armed conflicts and protracted violence giving rise to terrorism have caused a paradigm shift in development globally. The influx of refugees in recent time has further necessitated a priority departure from the earlier focus on aid utilisation.
It is against this backdrop that Bangladesh needs to get its priority right for its social and infrastructure development. Development on both fronts has been praised but clearly more could be done if only irregularities and corruption had been rooted out. The utilisation of foreign aid has not also been a plus point for the country. The reason why social indicators look more impressive than the development in the infrastructure sector is the involvement of multilateral agencies with the former and less so with the latter. So far as internal political considerations are concerned, there has been an emphasis on mega projects rather than on those that could help equitable distribution of the benefits of development all across the country.
All mega projects, including the Padma bridge are basically city-centric. But the country is now at such a stage of development where it needs urgently to focus on raising productivity and income generation in rural areas. True, rural economy has become stronger than ever, thanks mainly to remittance money sent by young migrant remitters who come from farming background to go abroad  mainly with menial jobs. But the money earned by them is not invested in enterprises where it can roll, spur production and disperse its benefits among the community members. Had it been the case, exodus of rural youths from their villages to cities or their perilous journey on seas would not have taken place. Those who have successfully migrated to the oil-rich Arab countries, some of the South-east Asian countries and even in Europe have only been an inspiration, a lure for unemployed youths from villages. Instead of education and skill, they have tried to explore family or other connections with the migrants or human traffickers.
The indication is clear: farmers and their sons often have to go extra miles in order to manage a job abroad. The lucky ones make it to the goal but others perish in seas or in forests. In this connection, it is worth noting that employment of women as domestic helps or housekeepers abroad, particularly in the Middle East has been more of a harrowing tale and disaster than a successful venture.
Quite clearly, something is missing from the development paradigm. That missing link is nothing but the local government. The importance of local government has not been recognised as much as it should have been. Although the framework is there, it has been rendered virtually non-functional. This is one of the reasons why the role of foreign aid has been declining since the 1990s. The country received nearly $55 billion of foreign aid in nominal terms in the last four decades and it accounted for 2.9 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The share of foreign aid came down to 1.9 per cent of the GDP by 2014.
There is no mistaking that more than half of the fund for social and physical infrastructure is still sourced from foreign aid. This means that some of the financing in the two areas is indispensable because the government cannot pull enough internal resources for the purpose. Even more intriguing is the fact that despite the aid commitment remaining stable at 3.3 per cent of the GDP for the last two decades, the gap between commitment and disbursement is yawning. This is a strong reflection of the endemic poor utilisation of the low-cost foreign aid in the country. Thus, unspent foreign aid amounted to $ 20 billion in 2014-15 over just a period of three years.
What all this points to is the failure to involve the local government with the process of aid utilisation or development itself. Development has been of an imposed type rather a participatory one. If the upazilas could be made the focal point of governance and project implementation, instead of the ministries where ministers and members of parliament play the key role, aid utilisation would not have proved so daunting. The fact is that  bureaucrats are assigned to frame and execute projects at the behest of ministers and MPs. Delegation of responsibilities suffers at this level. Currently upazila chairmen, elected representatives at this vital tier, are simply ignored. They have largely been turned into simple brokers between people under their jurisdiction and the upazila nirbahi officers (UNOs).
Overlapping of power exercise of the bureaucratic system has made a casualty of the local governance. There is a glaring lack of confidence. Unhealthy politics is to blame. The system of local government cannot be undermined for such politics. If politics does not allow space for qualified and committed people to have the opportunity to function as the people's representatives, such things are bound to happen. In rare cases, notwithstanding the systemic weakness and constraints, upazila chairmen are giving sterling performances. They know they have the people's mandate and do not care about if the UNO there would approve his work or not. If necessary, they skirt around the local administration and get the job done otherwise. But this cannot be a system. Not all upazila chairmen have the personality and political link to accomplish what they think is best for his constituency.
It is because of this, there is a need for radical reform to the local government system and strengthening it to the exent that it enjoys enough administrative sovereignty to have the priority right for the people at the grass-roots level. It is thus the tone of development in the country can be set with effective procedures taking over for utilisation of foreign aid. The modalities of the local government should be geared up to realising people's hopes and aspiration at the bottom level. The trickle-down benefits must be replaced by participatory economic activities with the rightful share contributing to ameliorating the condition of those left uncared for.
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