2010, Vol.19, No.1

Journal of Regional Studies and Development 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.4

pISSN : 1738-3846 / eISSN : 2765-4028
https://journal.kci.go.kr/jrsd_ipaid

This article explores the concept of accountability in the context of local governmental service provision. It focuses on the twin values of responsiveness and accountability, and the inherent tensions between them. The purpose is to map the contours of how accountability and responsiveness are sought and achieved within the context of the day-to-day work of crisis and emergency response at the municipal level. The authors draw upon interviews with first-responders, some of whom worked at the World Trade Center site immediately post-September 11 and, more recently, in Haiti after the earthquake in January 2010. They examine the many faces of accountability, including “accountability to” the citizenry as well as “accountability for” resources allocated from taxpayer dollars. They gain a fuller appreciation of what it takes to perform this work in multiple platforms (on the ground, in the air, or at sea), and how professional judgment, discretion, diverse expectations, and an abiding sense of duty, serve to shape the web of accountability relationships.

Observing the evolution of post-war development theories, may not overlook the catalytic influence of shifting paradigms of State and public service, conflicting views on government, its proper role, objectives and modes of operation, the all-important concepts of power and legitimacy but, in the last analysis, the impact on those theories of sharply contradictory models of Man and Society. Such paradigms and models have, over time, exerted a significant measure of influence on the policies and programmes of the United Nations, the Bretton Woods Institutions and the UNDP. During the period covered by this report, three contradictory models have surfaced and prevailed in quick succession. The earliest underpinned the public-sector driven economic development programmes, which accompanied the process of decolonization and nation building in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This was followed, in the eighties, by a sharply contrasting approach; one that downplayed the role of State and public sector and emphasized the benefits of private enterprise. Both of those models suffered from narrow definitions of the nature, scope and process of development; definitions that precluded proper consideration of non-economic factors and stressed GDP growth over income distribution and the spread of opportunities. The Human Development Index has, since the 1990s, tried to correct the imbalances inherent in this approach. In recent years, especially, the growing stress accorded to democratic governance is changing our perceptions of the nature and role of development.

Poverty alleviation has been a popular slogan of successive political leaderships in Bangladesh since the country’s independence in 1971. According to the Human Development Report 2009 of UNDP, Bangladesh ranked 112th in respect of human poverty. Still high levels of poverty have persisted in spite of massive efforts and aid. This paper argues that the persistence of poverty originates less in the lack of resources for its alleviation than in the failures of governance. These failures originate in the lack of governance which triggers reduction of efficiency and effectiveness of programs and institutional capacities and deprivation of many poor of the access to the services to which they were entitled. Any moves to make programs for poverty alleviation more effective as well as sustainable, need to prioritize governance issues in their design and implementation. Thus Good governance, whether at the macro or micro level, remains central to any agenda for eliminating poverty in Bangladesh.