Project Description:

Disaster Management Watch (DM WATCH) conducted a political economy assessment of the health sector in Bangladesh along with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in 2021. 

The team reviewed 125 documents collectively and conducted Key Informant Interviews (KII) with 24 key informants knowledgeable of or positioned within the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Directorate of General Health Services, and other government agencies, or as sectoral programme partners, independent experts, or key stakeholders. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, this study examined the politics of health policymaking and implementation in Bangladesh, situating the institutions, interests, and actors that shape the sector. After a five-year hiatus, removing a long-standing barrier to the recruitment of more than 8,000 trained medical professionals requires political will.  

The study concluded with an examination of several important issues, such as the Community Clinics policy, the growing importance of the health for-profit sector, and the enduring issues of health workforce management, which merit additional attention from the perspective of FCDO policy priorities. However, robust political oversight may also help create ‘islands of effectiveness’ in relation to key health policy components, as has occurred in other sectors.