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Administrative Decentralization seeks to redistribute authority, responsibility and financial resources for providing public services among different levels of government. Administrative Decentralization is the transfer of responsibility for the planning, financing and managing of certain public functions from the central government and its agencies to field units of government agencies. This paper will search for a common theoretical framework of decentralization, then analyzes and assesses the initiatives for decentralization of administration that have been constructed after the emergence of Bangladesh. The major issues and problems of implementation of the decentralization policies in Bangladesh are also discussed suggesting policy measures. This paper is analytical in nature.

Like many developing countries, Bangladesh has been experimenting with decentralization for a long period. However, despite numerous efforts undertaken over the years, decentralized governance remains elusive in Bangladesh. Drawing on historical and contemporary evidence, this paper analyzes the factors underlying the non‐functioning of decentralization in Bangladesh.

Discusses the problems resulting from Bangladesh’s dependence on agriculture in the light of regular flooding, lack of opportunity for employment in other areas, increasing poverty, and unequal distribution of income. In order to alleviate these problems the Gram Bangla model has been devised with emphasis on community education, training, health care, water supply, sanitation, income generation, tree plantation and conservation (with special regard to fuel for cooking), disaster mitigation, cultural activities, research, awareness generation, and local government institutions. It is hoped that this model can be extended to alleviating similar problems in other under‐developed countries.

Peasant political order is functionally related to the ties of kinship. Kinship ties are of crucial importance to its effective functioning. Peasant communities in Bangladesh deserve mention. Most peasant communities here are by and large undeveloped hinterland. We may convey the status of ‘virgin village’ to those peasant communities yet visited by any survey team or any voluntary organisations involved in the process of rural modernisation. Here socio‐economic and political activities are organised around kinship nexus. Institutional foundation of kinship is a pervasive phenomenon. Viewed in this perspective kinship is an institution encompassing all aspects of life. The peasants have most intimate relationship with this institution marked by affection, reciprocity, solidarity and co‐operation.

The aim of administrative reform— a special public policy instrument of governments— is to improve the capacity of public service delivery systems. This study examines the reform-led service delivery situation of public institutions at the local level in South Asia. The study offers an in-depth qualitative study with gleaned data, focusing on primary education in the country in relation to MDGs basic education. Local administration in the country has been a ‘low modicum of self-governance to provide public services. Institutional capacity dealing with educational management has called into question. Primary education in the country is quantitatively discussed while qualitatively is in a state of disarray. As a thorough academic qualitative study with a country-specific case has by far not been explored yet, it fills the information gap. Little is known about the public service delivery capacity with primary education at the local level. This study implicates governments and development partners such as the UN SDGs for effective partnership in development in an era of post-CVID-19 crisis.

Decentralised administrative arrangements and the active function of local government organisations are essential to tackle crisis effectively. Using Bangladesh as a case study, this paper examines the central and local government administrative arrangements during COVID-19 pandemic.

This study applies qualitative content analysis and interviews to explore the local government’s role in Bangladesh’s COVID-19 management by interviews of 18 participants including government officials, experts, non-government organisations (NGOs) representatives, and the general public. This paper also analysed academic papers, policy documents and other publicly available documents, including newspaper reports.

The Constitution of Bangladesh intensified the active participation of local government in each administrative unit through decentralised administrative management. This paper however reveals that the administrative arrangement during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh was primarily a centrally led system. The local government was not sufficiently involved, nor had it integrated into the planning and coordination process. This indicated the absence of active decentralised administration.

This study fills the research gap of the administrative pattern and local relations in COVID-19 management by exploring the local government’s role during the catastrophic situation and highlights the importance of decentralised administrative actions in managing the crisis.

The purpose of this study is to provide recommendations for improving the social performance of warnings using mobile services in flash flood prone communities. A warning cannot be considered effective until it is received, understood and responded to by those at risk. This is defined as the social performance of warning communication techniques. Mobile services offer opportunities for improving this, particularly in Bangladesh, but have been underutilised. In this research, characteristics of the warning, mobile services and community are found to influence the social performance.

A framework on the factors affecting the social performance was developed and applied using data collected through interviews at the national and regional level along with focus-group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews at the local level in the Sunamganj District, Bangladesh.

The study demonstrated that mobile services are the preferred means of warning communication. Communities strongly preferred voice short messaging service (SMS) and interactive voice response (IVR) because of easier accessibility and understanding of the message. Text-based services [SMS and cell broadcasting service (CBS)] were still found to be acceptable. These should be simple, use symbols and refer to additional sources of information. Further recommendations include mixing push (e.g. SMS and CBS) and pull-based (e.g. IVR) mobile services, utilising local social networks, decentralising the dissemination process and raising awareness.

A limited sample of interviews and FGDs were used.

Concrete recommendations are made for overcoming obstacles related to the effective use of mobiles services.

The suggestions made can contribute to improving the social performance of flood early warning communication.

The conceptualisation of mobile services’ contribution to social performance of flood warning and field-level application.

The traditional concept of people’s participation through their representatives is changing to the mechanism of direct participation of community people in the local governing process. In coupling with these, the Constitution of Bangladesh and the local government acts guarantee to foster the direct participation of people in the formation of local bodies and development programs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the avenues of people’s participation in local government, particularly the Union Parishad (UP) in Bangladesh, and to evaluate the empowerment of marginalized community through those avenues.

Using a broad descriptive and analytical approach, this paper evaluates the relationship between participation and empowerment of local community based on the review of secondary sources of information.

The local government institutions, particularly UP, has existed many mechanisms through which people participate in decision-making process. It is also believed that participation of community people in local government institutions is not only an opportunity for them but also an apparatus of empowerment. Hence, the process of empowerment is entrenched in the notion of participation. It is evident that the people at grass root level have been participating in UP in diverse arrangements, but the effectiveness of these participations in terms of empowerment is still meager and even lack.

Though a long time has passed after introducing these participatory mechanisms, very few studies have undertaken to assess the people’s participation in local government. Additionally, no single initiative was undertaken to assess how empowerment of marginalized people happened through these initiatives as empowering community people is the key objective of it.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transitional status of new public management (NPM) into new public governance (NPG) in a developing country context. Some authors, based on their research in developed countries, have claimed that NPM is dead. However, such claims have apparently ignored the transformational status of NPM in developing countries. This paper addresses that gap.

A qualitative method was used in this research. Public officials, elected representatives and local users who were responsible for public service management at local levels in Bangladesh were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires tailored to each group. The interview texts were then organised and analysed using NVivo software.

This research reveals that four public management elements comprising decentralisation, market-based services, efficiency and accountability, which are prerequisites for creating an appropriate environment for NPG, have not been established successfully in Bangladesh. This finding suggests that NPG may not be achieved without effective implementation of these elements through NPM practices. The study concludes that NPM needs to be practiced for more time in Bangladesh for the effective transformation of public management into public governance.

Findings from this research will help public policy makers and researchers to identify barriers to and design the pathway for a smooth shift from NPM to NPG.

The findings of this research would help the Government of Bangladesh and international aid agencies to better understand the status of NPM and NPG in regional Bangladesh.

The research findings may help identify barriers to enhancing participatory activities in a developing society.

Though NPM is an obsolete theory for developed countries, it needs to be implemented successfully in developing countries prior to the implementation of NPG.

The main goal of the study is to participate in academic debates and explore women's leadership and related challenges and opportunities in governance, and the extent to which women’s leadership has been enhanced by administrative reforms. The goal is to broaden the scope of action by promoting women's engagement and leadership in local government.

This is a qualitative study that uses inductive content analysis to examine the relationship between administrative reforms and women’s leadership development in the context of local government in Southeast and South Asia.

There is a positive impact of administrative reforms on women's leadership development. There is evidence that women are preparing for leadership roles in administration, which is a sign of progress in political change and modernization of society. They have been empowered by political and administrative education in a transformative way.

This article contributes to the literature that expands knowledge about governance, female leadership and administrative reform. They are interrelated because they are precursors to the development of women's leadership in countries.

The findings of this study can help governments in South and Southeast Asia become more aware of strategies to promote gender balance in governance. The unsatisfactory situation was found to exist because of problems related to socio-political, economic, cultural, and personal development.

This study is the first to highlight the relationship between administrative reform and the development of women in leadership positions in a rarely studied developing country.