Public Service Delivery in Bangladesh (হার্ডকভার)

Public Service Delivery in Bangladesh: Parliament, Public Policy and Local Government Delivering public services to the satisfaction of the citizen is an important challenge confronted by democratic governments everywhere in the modern world. Unlike authoritarian rulers who may conveniently ignore public opinion, democratic governments can do it at their peril. As a natural rule, they have to be responsive to legitimate claims and demands of their citizen.
It is, however, now widely recognized that the government alone cannot make available different kinds of services that people may need. Although the responsibility for making macro-level policies and legislation regarding different kinds of services rests mostly with the government, there are several other actors such as local government, NGOs, and the private sector that are involved in the delivery of services. Alternative mechanisms such as public-private partnership, government-NGO collaboration, and government and local government cooperation in service delivery are more often noticed now than in the past. The extent to which one is superior to the other is difficult to ascertain.
This edited volume explores a number of important issues related to the planning and delivery of public services in Bangladesh. It examines the role of national level institutions in planning and policymaking (e.g. parliament, party and bureaucracy) as well as institutions directly responsible for delivering services on the ground (e.g., government departments, local councils and NGOs).
The book should be of interest to academics, policymakers, practitioners, researchers, students, donors and civil society representatives.

Nizam Ahmed is Professor of Public Administration at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. He graduated with Honours and obtained a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Dhaka. He also has a Master of Social Science (Administration) degree from the University of Tasmania, Australia and a PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
His fields of interest are legislative behavior, local government, party politics and comparative administration. He has published several books are numerous articles in leading journals. His publications include 40 years of public Administration and Governance in Bangladesh (Dhaka: UPL, 2014), The Bangladesh Parliament: A Data Handbook (Dhaka: IGS, 2013), and Aiding the Parliament of Bangladesh: Experience and Prospect (Dhaka: UPL, 2012).