Governance Perception & Policy Outcomes in Rural Bangladesh: Voices from the Margins

Rural governance in Bangladesh is very much linked with the lived experience of citizens in relation to public institutions and public services in everyday life. This study analyses the perception of citizens on rural governance, looking at the three service areas of health, education and agriculture, and a comparison of perceptions by different socio-economic groups. The study also looks at the perception of governance and trust in institutions, especially disadvantaged citizens' experiences. A convergent mixed-methods design was employed. 250 rural citizens were surveyed to get quantitative information, while 12 in-depth interviews (IDIs) and 6 focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with representatives of local government, service providers, community members, youth, women and marginalised groups to get qualitative information. The five governance dimensions of transparency, accountability, responsiveness, participation and equity were evaluated quantitatively. The qualitative data were analysed thematically and triangulated with survey data to provide an explanation of citizens' experience of governance in practice.The quantitative results confirmed that overall, the perceptions of rural governance were mainly moderate. The five dimensions were assessed, with participation having the highest mean score and equity the lowest mean score, reflecting an unequal experience of access to services and opportunities across communities. There were also differences between industry sectors. The overall rating for education was the highest, followed by health, and the lowest was for agriculture. The results also suggest that citizens' perceptions of institutional performance are positively related to their institutional trust.The qualitative findings broadly corroborate these patterns and shed more light on the reasons for these patterns. The participants noted that there were gains in public service delivery, administrative processes, and services being increasingly digitised. Meanwhile, they noted persistent challenges of unequal access and restricted institutional responsiveness, accountability, participation in decision-making, and social exclusion. Issues such as women's experiences, disability, economically disadvantaged households, and others who are less influential in local decision-making were more apparent in these issues. The results also reveal that there is not necessarily a relationship between formal participation opportunities and governance decision-making power.The results from the two cases indicate that the concept of rural governance cannot be limited to the formal functioning of local institutions. Citizens assess governance based on their personal experiences of services, institutional action, equity and voice. Better governance in the countryside would involve increased accountability and responsiveness, as well as increased attention to equity, more meaningful and participatory involvement of citizens and more inclusiveness for groups less visible in local governance. The study adds to the existing literature on rural governance in Bangladesh by combining the perceptions of citizens across sectors, trust in institutions and marginalised voices in one convenient framework, which is a mixed-methods approach.