Planning, service delivery key to overcoming development constraints: Experts

Highlights

• Ensuring accountability is a challenge to city development work
• Strengthen capacity to generate own-source revenues
• Foster cooperation to ensure sustainable urban development
• Address challenges by improving management skills, service delivery

Bangladesh needs to put its primary focus on city planning and urban service delivery, despite local government constraints on financial and technical abilities, according to experts.

They also recommended enhancing management skills and improving service delivery to cope with existing limitations. 

The recommendations were put forward at a webinar hosted by the Center of Excellence for Urban Development (CEUD) Foundation on 'World Cities Day 2020'.

'Valuing our Communities and Cities' is the theme of this year.

CEUD Foundation is a consortium platform of Municipal Association of Bangladesh (MAB), Institute of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB), Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB) and Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP).

Md Tajul Islam, Minister of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, attended the event as the chief guest.

The Minister said local government bodies should be held accountable for their duties and responsibilities.

"City corporations and municipalities are all part of the state. We work on a mindset that they been granted powers by law. But no one should work without being held accountable."

Tajul Islam said, "We always talk about empowerment of local government. Local government representatives are from the society itself."

He added that some are not equipped with the right education to run the institutions they have been entrusted with. There are societal issues, and there is a problem of accountability as well.

"Local government institutions need to be empowered and they need to understand what their responsibilities are. Whoever he is, he must be held accountable."

The Minister said software was developed to oversee development work under the local government.

"Software aims to track their activities," he said, adding that road work worth Tk2 lakh is supposed to be underway, and it remains to be seen whether that is really the case."

Stating that there are 'some challenges' to developed urbanisation in Bangladesh, the Minister said, "We have not been able to follow urbanisation examples of some developed countries. One must decide the number of people there is to be in a city."

"If I don't fix it, how can I ensure civic benefits?" he posed a question.

The Minister termed waste management a big challenge, saying that work is underway to generate electricity from waste.

Taking the floor, architect, Mubassher Hussain, said: "The mayors of Dhaka North and South City Corporations are not powerful enough. If they are not empowered, other stakeholders will not take them seriously enough to cooperate with them."

Urban local governments in the country are characterised by their limited capacities to plan, finance and deliver adequate urban infrastructure services to a rapidly growing population.

The speakers at the event discussed ways to bring together key stakeholders from public and private sectors to respond to emerging challenges and foster cooperation to complement national efforts in ensuring sustainable urban development.

Planner, Akter Mahmud, President of Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP), said, "There is lack of planning in municipalities across the country, along with implementation weakness. Revenue sourcing is another challenge."  

Planner, Adil Mohammed Khan, General Secretary, BIP, said Bangladesh is an urban economy where over 60% of the GDP is generated by its cities.

It is one of the world's top 10 fastest urbanising countries, but the extremely poor infrastructure, low quality of services and lack of amenities characterize its urban areas.

Local governments receive only about 1% of the total budget and are highly dependent on grants and central government transfers, he said, adding that municipalities depend on central transfers for 85% of their development expenditures. 

The challenge is further heightened by inefficient human resources, both in terms of quantity and quality, at local government levels.

The event was presided over by Dewan Kamal Ahmed, President of CEUD, MAB and Mayor of Nilphamari Municipality.