| Themes | sustainable local economic development; training; capacity building |
| Client | Swisscontact (Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation) |
| Duration | June 2023 - November 2024 |
| Countries | Bangladesh |
| IHS Contact | Carley Pennink, Jan Fransen, Vera Safronova |
IHS joined a major project to support the country's sustainable local economic development (SLED). The IHS team consisted of staff Dr Jan Fransen, Dr Carley Pennink, and Vera Safronova. They collaborated closely with local stakeholders, including the Local Government Division and partner Swisscontact, to assess capacity-building needs and explore a sustainable path forward.
Local context
Bangladesh, aiming to become an upper-middle-income country by 2031, has experienced significant economic growth and poverty reduction, yet 25% of its districts still lag in human development. Despite advances in agriculture, the transition to a manufacturing and service-based economy remains incomplete. Local governments play a vital role in implementing Local Economic Development (LED), as mandated by the Constitution and the Local Government Act of 2009. However, municipalities face challenges due to limited resources and capacity.
Fostering Local Economic Development
To address regional disparities and support Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the PRABRIDDHI project, in collaboration with IHS, focused on enhancing the Local Economic Development (LED) approach within municipalities by conducting a comprehensive Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and Capacity Needs Assessment (CNA) to identify gaps in knowledge and capacity. The project team travelled to Bogura and Bhairab to conduct workshops and collect data on municipal requirements. The activities involved gathering, analysing, and validating institutional data, assessing capacity gaps and training needs for different target groups, and evaluating the capacities of training providers.
The second phase of the project focused on collaboration with the National Institute for Local Government (NILG). The team hosted the trainers of NILG in the Netherlands for a training that discussed the fundamentals of LED and principles of adult learning, combined with field visits. The training was dedicated to detailing objectives, target groups, content, duration, and training methods to address the identified training needs and capacity gaps. Following these assessments, IHS and National Institute for Local Government (NILG) co-created five detailed courses to promote sustainable LED through institutional changes.
The impact of the project
IHS worked within the approach of the PRABRIDDHI project, focusing on quick wins and mobilising local stakeholders to identify economic drivers and priority sectors. As part of the project, IHS presented an institutional analysis, assessed capacity gaps, proposed a training program, and developed an institutional development program for regional learning environments on SLED. The training programme targeted 800 civil servants from municipalities, emphasising long-term sustainability.
IHS has also developed a case study booklet highlighting a central question – how can cities start with LED despite lacking resources, institutional mandates and capacities? The booklet highlights seven cases that offer inspiration on the diverse initiatives related to municipal services, sector competitiveness, business development services, infrastructure and human resources in LED and how these can be implemented in secondary cities. All cases are personal stories from mayors, councillors, and entrepreneurs discussing how to overcome constraints, the motivation behind participating in LED initiatives, the process, and the outcomes and impact of these initiatives.
The booklet was prepared by Vera Safronova, Dr Jan Fransen and Dr Alexander Jachnow.