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This paper examines the experience of a set of countries that performed relatively well in coping with the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis. The goal is to garner insights and lessons that can help countries that may experience initial or second-round outbreaks of the pandemic in the future. The paper finds healthcare, social protection, and overall governance systems as the three main determinants of COVID-19 strategies and their success. Though unique country-specific factors played an important role in confronting the pandemic in some countries, their role was generally mediated through one or the other of the above three main determinants. The findings of the paper suggest that establishing universal healthcare and social protection systems and improvement of governance need to be taken up as an immediate task – and not as a distant goal – even by developing countries. In view of the possibility of recurrence of epidemics in the future, this task has become important.

The second volume of Rehman Sobhan’s memoirs, Untranquil Recollections From Dawn to Darkness Political Economy of Nation Building in Post- Liberation Bangladesh (Sobhan, 2022), deals primarily with the years 1972- 1975, which comprise probably the most difficult period of the nation’s history. Titanic battles were fought during this period over the country's policy direction. Over a short period of about 3.5 years, the epochal triumph of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ended in a tragedy, which was captured by the title of S. A. Karim’s book, Sheikh Mujib: Triumph and Tragedy (Karim, 2009). The second volume of Sobhan’s memoirs, dealing with this period, thus, deserves special attention. The memoir begins with Sobhan’s return to liberated Bangladesh and ends with his going to exile (at the end of December 1975) after the coup of August 15 changed the political landscape of the country altogether. The heart of the story lies in the narration of his experience

Chapter 8 reviews the progress of the Ecological approach across the world, in both developed and developing countries. In the United States, this progress can be seen in both dam removal and river restoration activities, including attempts to resuscitate the Colorado River Delta. In Europe, the progress of the Ecological approach has assumed a comprehensive character, as evidenced by the European Union’s Water Framework Directive (WFD) of 2000. The Ecological approach has made advances in developing countries too, many of which were practicing the pre-industrial variant of the Ecological approach until recently. The Narmada Bachao Andolon of India was a strong manifestation of the Ecological approach. Influenced, in part, by their pre-industrial ecological traditions, many developing countries have now taken such advanced steps as giving rivers and nature constitutional rights to exist and survive and not be disrupted by human interventions. These broader initiatives have provided further impetus for the Ecological approach to spread in developing countries.

Chapter 6 introduces the Ecological approach to rivers that arose in response to the adverse effects of the Commercial approach. It explains the distinction between the pre- and post-industrial Ecological approaches. While the former was a compulsion due to low level of technology, the latter is a choice made to avoid the negative consequences of high level of technology acquired through the Industrial Revolution. The chapter clarifies the relationship of the Ecological approach with the basin-wide approach to rivers. It also shows that the Ecological approach can be viwed as an enlightened anthropocentric view of river, which in practical terms is also compatible with the non-anthropocentric view. The chapter goes on to show that, contrary to the popular perception, the Ecological approach is an active approach, requiring sustained efforts along multiple directions. Instead of negating the role of rivers as a resource, the Ecological approach advocates the use of this resource while preserving the basic role of rivers in maintaining earth’s hydrological cycle and the unique ecologies of their basins. The Ecological approach thereby is more conducive to sustainable development than the Commercial approach.

Chapter 12 presents the progress of and problems faced by the Open approach in the Bengal Delta and draws attention to the special merits of the Open approach in confronting the adverse effects of climate change in this delta. It surveys the findings of river scholars in the Indian part of the delta favoring the Open approach. Reviewing progress in the Bangladesh part of the delta, the chapter follows the struggle against the Flood Action Plan (FAP) that argued for big embankment projects in the wake of the historic flood of 1988. It notes the changes that took place in Bangladesh’s water-related institutional set up following the FAP process and the prospects they hold for promoting the Open approach. The chapter also presents a few examples of water projects that conform with the Open approach. It offers a critique of the recently formulated Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 that fails to make a clear break from the Cordon approach. It reviews the development of the renewed, broad-based civic movement in Bangladesh for adoption of the Open approach.

Chapter 4 provides a few case studies of rivers to illustrate the consequences of the Commercial approach. These rivers are: the Colorado River of the United States; the Murray-Darling river system of Australia; the Amu Darya and Syr Darya of the former Soviet Union; the Nile River of Africa; and the Indus River of South Asia. It shows that in each case, the application of the Commercial approach has led to river fragmentation and excessive withdrawal of water, leading to exhaustion of rivers, which in turn led to salinity intrusion and erosion, subsidence, and desiccation of the deltas. The ecology of the river basins has been damaged, including loss of aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity. In case of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers, this damage includes the destruction of the Aral Sea, once considered the second-largest inland waterbody of the world. In each case, the Commercial approach has led to conflicts among co-riparian countries.

Chapter 13 examines the determinants of river-related policies and considers ways of making further progress toward the Ecological and Open approaches to rivers. It shows that there are broadly two types of obstacles impeding adoption of the Ecological and Open approaches. These are, first, paucity of required knowledge, and, second, vested interests favoring the Commercial and Cordon approaches. External influence from developed countries, until now, has mostly favored the Commercial and Cordon approaches in developing countries. Informing and engaging the public is the main way in which both the obstacles of paucity of knowledge and vested interests can be overcome. Moving the discussion of river policies to the public arena is therefore important.

Chapter 1 introduces the concepts proposed in the book and gives an overview of the remaining chapters. It first highlights the importance of rivers for the three dimensions of sustainable development, namely economic growth, social development, and environmental protection. The chapter next describes broadly two opposing approaches to rivers, Commercial and Ecological. The former is based on the premise that “Any river water that passes to the sea is a waste,” and encourages impounding and abstraction of river water for various commercial purposes. The later considers carrying precipitation water to the seas as the main function of rivers and discourages interventions that alter significantly volume and direction of river flows. Both Commercial and Ecological approaches have their corresponding frontal and lateral versions. The lateral version of the Commercial approach is the Cordon approach, according to which floodplains should be cordoned off from river channels through construction of embankments. By contrast, the lateral form of the Ecological approach is the Open approach, which advocates keeping floodplains open to river channels for the benefit of both floodplains and river channels.

Chapter 2 reviews the origin and spread of the Commercial approach to rivers. It explains the origin of this approach in the first Industrial Revolution, which provided human societies both the commercial motive and the machine power required to undertake large-scale frontal and lateral interventions in rivers. The chapter catalogues various types of frontal intervening structures—including dams, barrages, and weirs—that the Commercial approach deploys to achieve its purpose. The chapter then follows the spread of the frontal version of the Commercial approach across the world, beginning with the developed countries and then the developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The chapter ends by providing a statistical summary of the global picture regarding dams and barrages, which are the main instruments of the Commercial approach to rivers.

Chapter 10 provides an overview of the Open approach, focusing on its merits, progress, and prospects and showing how it can be more conducive to sustainable development. It shows that the Open approach is not a passive approach but requires sustained activities along many dimensions, including both flood-proofing and flood-regulating measures. The chapter follows the progression of the Open approach. It discusses the reflection of this approach in the European Union’s Directive on Floods and its implementation. It takes note of country level initiatives in many European countries, such as the Netherlands’ “Room for River” project, that conform with the Open approach. The chapter then examines some recent policy changes in the United States regarding the Mississippi levee system that also reflect the Open approach. It also reviews the progress of the Open approach in other parts of the world.

Chapter 5 uses the experience of South Asia to illustrate how the Commercial approach leads to conflicts among co-riparian countries. It notes that river basins were fragmented in South Asia by borders that were drawn based on political considerations and not physical geography. While greater cooperation among South Asian countries was necessary to protect the river basins, adoption of the Commercial approach led to more conflicts than cooperation. India, which lies at the center of the region, has borders with most South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan and finds itself in conflict with all of them. The chapter focuses on the most serious and numerous conflicts, which are with Bangladesh, and center on such major water diversionary barrages as the Farakka Barrage and the Gajoldoba Barrage. It notes that India’s proposed River Linking Project is only likely to aggravate these conflicts. The chapter also reviews India’s conflicts with Nepal and Bhutan regarding sharing the costs and benefits of the dams that it has constructed under joint ventures as well as conflicts with Pakistan over sharing the Indus River. Finally, the chapter notes the burgeoning conflicts with China regarding the Brahmaputra River.

Chapter 3 examines the adverse effects of the Commercial approach on river morphology, such as fragmentation of rivers, upstream sedimentation, and downstream disfigurations. It demonstrates the “More water, more thirst!” syndrome that this approach creates, leading to exhaustion of rivers and deleterious effects on deltas, estuaries, and the coastal environment. It reviews the broader effects of this approach on the ecology of river basins, including loss of seasonal pulses and emergence of new dangers of catastrophic flooding, waterlogging, salinity, deterioration of soil quality, and damages to the flora and fauna. The chapter also examines the unsuitability of the Commercial approach in the light of climate change, noting GHG emissions from dam reservoirs and increased risks from erratic and greater precipitation. It illustrates the unfair distribution of costs and benefits of the Commercial approach and shows that financial rates of return of projects under the Commercial approach are generally lower than claimed, and the economic rates of return are even lower, if not negative. The chapter also shows how the Commercial approach creates conflicts among co-riparian communities.

This paper examines the relationship between “Transformative Change,” advocated by the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, and “Structural Change,” which has been a longstanding and important concept in Development Economics. It shows that while structural change is still relevant, growing concerns for social development and environmental protection made it necessary to switch to the more encompassing concept of “Transformative Change” that provides greater space for inclusion and interaction of all three dimensions of sustainable development. The paper notes that, in the era of greater globalization, countries have followed more varied patterns of structural change, all of which are not equally suitable for sustainable development. The paper notes that Transformative Change subsumes structural change, and it discusses the modifications that structural change needs to be more compatible with sustainable development.

Governance is now widely recognized as a crucial determinant of development. Looking around the world, it is easy to see how lack of good governance is hindering development in many countries. However, achieving good governance is not easy. The development literature generally stops at pointing to governance as a determinant of development and does not take the next step of discussing how good governance can be achieved. This book extends the general analytical discussion of governance and its relationship with development and takes into account the international experience in order to suggest several concrete reform proposals about how governance can be improved in Bangladesh.

While the previous chapters of the book focused on the political side of governance, the remaining chapters focus on the administrative side, represented by the civil service, which bears the main responsibility of implementing the decisions taken by the political leadership. The civil service also assists the political leadership to reach the decisions. Efficient governance depends on the quality of both the political leadership and the civil service and healthy interaction between the two. Unfortunately, as is the case with the political side, the civil service in Bangladesh too is afflicted with many problems, which need to be addressed. This chapter discusses the state of Bangladesh civil service, identifies the major problems, and points to some necessary reforms.1

Efficient functioning of the civil service depends on the quality of people that this service can recruit and the dedication and effort that the recruits put in their work. However, the public or civil service does not exist in vacuum.1 It has to compete and operate in the same labor market as the private sector does. Hence the equilibrium in the public service labor market depends on the wages in the private sector. In such a situation, rigidity of government salaries can lead to multiple equilibria, which may be classified broadly into two types: “Good Equilibrium (GE)” and “Bad Equilibrium (BE).” GE is generally associated with “rational” salaries and is characterized by a “virtuous cycle,” whereby civil service gets good entrants, who work hard and sincerely. This leads to better economic growth and more government revenues, which help to pay the rational salaries and thus sustain the good equilibrium. BE, on the other hand, is generally associated with “irrational” salaries and is characterized by a “vicious cycle,” whereby government service gets bad-quality entrants, who do not work hard and sincerely. This depresses economic growth, lowers government revenues and thus makes irrational salaries the only ones that can be paid, thereby perpetuating BE. It seems that Bangladesh has fallen into and remains stuck to BE. This chapter discusses the nature of BE and shows how salary reform can help Bangladesh switch to GE.2

The institutional approach has given rise to another idea aimed at improving Bangladesh politics: shorten the government term. A shortened term may improve Bangladesh politics by, in particular, undercutting the rationale of the demand for midterm elections and thus reducing the incidence, intensity, and scope of hartals (General Strike), blockades (of highways, railways, and waterways, etc.), and other forms of disruptive and violent street agitation that the Opposition generally uses to press this demand.

This chapter provides a brief history of Bangladesh politics with the purpose of setting the stage for discussion in the following chapters of the book. It presents mostly a chronological account of the political developments, beginning with the Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) years of 1972–1975 (Section 2.2), followed by the General Zia period (Section 2.3), in turn followed by the General Ershad regime (Section 2.4). Next, the chapter discusses the civilian governments formed under caretaker governments (CTG) after 1991 (Section 2.5). The civilian government process, however, ran aground in 2006, creating the scope for the military to intervene again. The result was the interlude in the form of a military-backed government, generally known as the 1/11 government (because of the takeover on January 11, 2007) of 2007–2008 (Section 2.6).

The previous chapters of the book analyzed Bangladesh’s governance problems in the light of the international experience, and proposed several political and administrative reforms for overcoming these problems. This, last, chapter discusses the prospects of these reforms of getting adopted and implemented.

The unsatisfactory state of Bangladesh politics has led to many suggestions aimed at improving it. These suggestions reflect different approaches to the problem. This chapter provides a review of these approaches and points to their respective strengths and weaknesses. In order to ascertain which of these approaches can be more effective, it is first necessary to have an understanding about the root cause of problems of democracy in Bangladesh.

The history of Bangladesh politics, presented in Chapter 2, reveals its salient features. Among these are: instability, violence, neglect of the parliament, dependence on street agitation, commercialization, and criminalization. This chapter discusses these features and explains their causes and interrelationships, while searching for approaches to improve Bangladesh politics.

An important political reform idea, inspired by the institutional approach, is to switch to “Proportional Election” (PE). Contrary to the general view in Bangladesh, PE is widely practiced across the world. Given Bangladesh’s particular circumstances, PE could be of considerable help in stabilizing democracy. This chapter examines the merits and demerits of this proposal.1

This paper synthesizes the evidence of a negative correlation between income inequality and environmental quality. It shows that inequality exerts adverse impact on environmental outcomes through several channels, including the household, community, national, and international channels. These channels however overlap with one another and can thus reinforce the impact of inequality. Other dimensions of inequality, in particular gender inequality, also impact environmental quality negatively. The concept of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is not that helpful in explaining the negative correlation between inequality and environmental quality. The findings of the paper suggest that reduction of inequality will have an important role in achieving environmental sustainability.

While it was always an underlying aspiration, poverty reduction was not an explicit direct goal of initial development programmes. Rooted in modern growth theory which dominated early development theory, development policies of the 1950s and 1960s focused on promoting modern industrial development to accelerate overall economic growth. Industrial growth was supported through trade protection, cheap credits and subsidies and largescale public investments in infrastructure. Output growth was expected to “trickle down” to the entire population and reduce poverty through rising wages and employment generation, even if initially poverty reduction might not be commensurate with the rate of output growth, as rising income inequality was expected to be an inevitable, although temporary side effect of industrialization. Capital productivity growth would lead to rising profit shares and allow for higher savings to finance domestic investment. Over time, at higher levels of development, gains from growth would be shared more broadly with faster real wage growth and dynamic employment expansion.