| Themes | sustainable local economic development; training; capacity building |
| Client | Swisscontact (Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation) |
| Duration | June 2023 - September 2023 |
| 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.
In collaboration with the National Institute for Local Government (NILG), the team co-created a comprehensive training programme that outlined specific courses, field visits, and staff exchanges, detailing objectives, target groups, content, duration, and training methods to address the identified needs. Following these assessments, IHS provided training for trainers for the National Institute for Local Government (NILG), co-creating 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.