Participation as aid conditionality: parliamentary engagement in Bangladesh’s poverty reduction strategy

Stakeholder engagement in the formulation process was a major condition of donors to make Bangladesh’s poverty reduction strategy nationally owned. In response, this article focuses on the engagement of the parliament as the most representative political institution in the country. The analysis shows that there was no political posture to ensure parliamentary engagement in the development of the strategy, with the nature and extent of the parliament’s involvement being significantly limited. The lack of real parliamentary engagement was the outcome of the country’s historical dependence on donors and the parliament’s historically weak contribution to development strategies. The experience highlights the need for a collaborative approach to policy-making aimed at ensuring the active and meaningful involvement of parliament as a core means of facilitating national ownership of the development agenda.