NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development and Democracy in Bangladesh

Recent research Bangladesh has come to embody an interesting paradox. On the one hand, it has experienced rising rates of growth, a slow but steady decline in poverty and impressive progress in terms of social development, outperforming some of its richer neighbors on a number of Millennium Development Goals. On the other hand, it has an abysmal record on governance and was ranked as the world’s most corrupt country for five consecutive years by Transparency International.The paper argues that while Bangladesh is reported to have more NGOs per capita than other developing countries, those organisations have gradually abandoned social mobilising and collective action strategies for a narrower focus on service delivery and micro credit provision.The specific developmental strategies of membership-based groups do indeed have consequences for both development and democracy in the country.