Zahurul Alam discusses the role of the Election Working Group—a coalition of 33 nongovernmental organizations—in voter registration, voter education, and election observation in Bangladesh. He begins by discussing recent events in Bangladeshi politics, including the boycott of most political parties of the 2007 elections and the imposition of a state of emergency. He speaks about other challenges to fair elections, especially the existence of 15 million false entries in the voters list. The working group and the Bangladesh Election Commission together created a new voters list. He elaborates on the efforts of the working group to mobilize voters for registration, including voter education, advertising and information dissemination, and the organization of rallies across Bangladesh. Alam discusses specific efforts to provide information to rural and minority voters. He further reflects on the organization and management of the working group, and speaks at length about support from the election commission, other NGOs, the media, and the army. Finally, Alam speaks about the subsequent role of the working group in election observation in 2008. 

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at the Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011

Syed Tanveer Hussain discusses a report on Bangladeshi government downsizing and restructuring he authored for the Office of the Prime Minister in 2002.  This document examined the implementation status and relative urgency of recommendations issued by 17 prior administrative reform committees and reorganization commissions.  Hussain describes a number of reasons for unsuccessful or incomplete implementation: lack of political will across party lines, insufficient explanation of reform rationale, finger-pointing at civil servants that generates built-in resistance, a reform committee system that fosters procrastination, and a distribution of power that at times favors the interests of a stable bureaucracy.  Hussain characterizes his ideal for the bureaucracy and describes a four-step process to achieve that ideal through planning, structural reform, capacity building and constant monitoring.  He then explains in detail each of his concrete proposals.  Among successfully implemented recommendations he counts separation of the Supreme Court and judiciary from other branches of government, and the establishment of quotas for civil service employment of the handicapped. Pending recommendations include administrative downsizing through elimination of function redundancy and outsourcing of some tasks to the private sector, appointment of an ombudsman, creation of financial incentives for civil servant relocation to remote areas of the country, computerization of ministries, employment of local manpower at Bangladeshi embassies for efficiency, retirement age increase in response to improvements in life expectancy, a constitutional mandate for a Civil Service Act, division of civil service into functional clusters to facilitate competition for awards and promotion, and creation of a senior-management pool.  While the government forwarded the report to the Establishment Division for implementation, it neglected its recommendation to streamline reform through an Administrative Performance Services Division modeled after its Malaysian equivalent and set up under the Prime Minister’s Office. Hussain believes centralization is key for successful administrative reform.  

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at the Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011

John Wallace, team leader of Bangladesh's Managing at the Top 2 (MATT 2) project, identifies lack of accountability as the major challenge to Bangladesh's civil service.  Wallace introduces the rationale behind MATT 2 and differentiates it with its predecessor, MATT 1.  Whereas the first stage of the MATT project (1999-2002) focused on the training of individuals but not on the culture of the organization itself, MATT 2 (2006-2013) sought to create a critical mass of reform-minded civil servants and enable a reform environment.  Wallace says, "It is all about giving skills to senior civil servants, giving them experience with reforms, actual experiences of reforms."  He addresses the relationship between the U.K. Department for International Development and the government of Bangladesh, particularly regarding reforms in governance and human resource management.  Wallace highlights the need for donor coordination for distribution of resources so as not to duplicate efforts and work at cross-purposes.

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at The Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011

Delwar Hossain recounts his personal experiences as a participant in Bangladesh's Managing at the Top 2 (MATT 2) program, financed by the U.K.'s Department for International Development.  As both a ministry secretary and a MATT 2 participant, he provides a step-by-step account of the participant experience in this training and development program for senior civil servants as well as reflects on the application of knowledge gained in the program to the workings of government offices.  Hossain makes recommendations for improving and expanding the program, including expanding the pool of eligible participants, adding a master's or Ph.D. component for a select few and broadening the selection of countries visited by those in the second stage of the program.  Hossain advocates for the continuation of MATT 2 and expresses optimism that outside funding would help the program continue past its 2013 end date.

Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury details his involvement with the Bangladeshi civil service, providing insight on civil service reform within the country. In particular, he describes his role in government attempts to restructure administrative agencies through the creation of review committees. Chowdhury talks about how he became chairman of one such committee, called the Muyeed Committee, which sought to assess departments within the government and produce recommendations for reform. He also elaborates upon his roles in the 1993 Nurunnabi Committee and the 2007 Regulatory Reform Commission. Outlining the importance of land in Bangladesh, Chowdhury talks of the problems created in the country by an archaic land management system and describes his frequent attempts to institute modernization in land administration. He is quick to note, moreover, that regardless of how eager governments may be to set up review commissions at the start of their tenure, they often fail to implement reform recommendations. Indeed, electoral politics and party rivalries often prevent committee reports from being fully carried out. Chowdhury further describes the way civil servants are impacted by the tussles between rival parties as different government administrations succeed each other. This leads to a broader discussion of the major challenges facing the civil service and the need for effective reform. Chowdhury concludes with anecdotes from his time as a Fulbright scholar in America, sharing stories from his life that, in his opinion, serve to exemplify the changes needed in the civil service of Bangladesh.    

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at the Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011

Iqbal Mahmood discusses his experiences as a member of the Bangladesh Civil Service. Specifically, he elaborates on the managing at the top training program (MATT 2), which was started in the country in 2006. As a member of the first batch of civil servants at the program, Mahmood describes how the training provided him with an opportunity to work with his peers in problem identification and resolution. Mahmood provides details concerning the performance improvement project he undertook in this capacity, and further delves into other successful initiatives resulting from the program. According to him, one of the greatest successes of the program was the changes it introduced in the mindset of those involved, breaking hierarchical barriers between leading-men and their subordinates and inculcating a spirit of reform and debate within both government officials and the public. Ultimately, Mahmood emphasizes the importance of strengthening existing structures in order to ensure the sustainability of reform, remarking that the benefits of the program could well be lost if the future does not focus on institutional capacity building.  

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at the Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011

Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury explains the process by which the Bangladesh Army created an electronic voter registration process and electronic electoral roll with photographs. The Electoral Commission chose the Army for this task out of various national and international organizations who submitted offers. He describes several capabilities that the Army brought to the task, including several officers with information technology (IT) skills and the ability, with the Navy and Coast Guard, to reach geographically remote communities. One challenge he identifies was finding and training staff with the necessary IT skills and acquiring the necessary technological resources, such as laptops, cameras, and finger print scanners. To address this need within a short time frame, he explains that the army sought out a number of vendors and occasionally accepted assistance from United Nations Development Project (UNDP). Chowdhury describes how the Army developed software to collect the voters’ information and identify multiple registrations by maintaining the registry. He explains the verification processes for the voter registry, including local government authentication of data and review by the Department for International Development (DFID) and UNDP.    

Mohammad Mohabbat Khan details the challenges facing the civil service in Bangladesh at the time, chief of which was to restore credibility in the mind of the public.  He details some attempts at reform, which he characterizes as somewhat disjointed. He identifies the various commissions formed to assess and make recommendations for reforms, and describes their perceived failings and the obstacles they encountered.   He assesses the challenges to reform when high-ranking politicians and civil servants are comfortable with the status quo.

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at The Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011

Farooq Sobhan talks about the work of his Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, which specializes in training civil servants.  The institute was undertaking to train a core group of mid-level bureaucrats in order to help them develop key management and budgetary skills.  He emphasizes the importance of job stability. Under the system prevalent in Bangladesh, people were transferred between positions frequently and did not get the opportunity to specialize.  Sobhan stresses his belief that those who receive training must be encouraged to stay in positions that will allow them to use their new skills.  He also identifies the problem of students who study abroad and never return, and the need to make the civil service more attractive.  He also reflects on how a politicized civil service is damaging for a country, and shares ideas for depoliticizing a bureaucracy.  He concludes by looking forward to the day when the Bangladeshi civil service has pride of place in society.

Humayun Kabir, a secretary at the Bangladesh Election Commission Secretariat, shares his experience in the 2008 Bangladeshi election.  He talks about many aspects of the electoral process and how the newly constituted Election Commission dealt with them between February 2007 and December 2008.  He details the voter-registration and boundary-delimitation processes and the multiple challenges the commission faced in accomplishing these tasks.  He also highlights successful innovations such as the photographic voter registry and the use of transparent ballot boxes, which he credits with limiting post-election violence in 2008.