Public Sector Reform and Good Governance

Abstract

Developing countries relying on the assistance of donors have become particularly prone to imposed conditions of aid in the form of requirements on specific reform strategies to ensure good governance. Donors or multilateral agencies have taken leading roles in defining good governance. The donors began to impose good governance conditions on provisions of debt relief and new loans or grants in Bangladesh in the 1990s. They widened conditionality to include transparent administration, the protection of human rights and democracy, as well as public sector reform in Bangladesh. The World Bank made issues of corruption a major element in its governance agenda in Bangladesh. Global pressures to cooperate and compete, rising expectations of citizens and the need to reduce public deficits are changing the way Bangladesh needs to be governed.