Efforts to commercialize water supply and sanitation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, have been pushed vigorously by internal and external proponents of neo-liberalism. The thesis takes a critical look at these developments and analyzes the role of multinational finance institutions in this process. In particular, it looks into the role of these finance institutions in funding reform projects to corporatize Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA), examining the impacts on end users, especially marginalized sections of society. The thesis describes how, in the process of corporatization, Dhaka WASA is and will continue to be more assertive in its commercial orientation than it was previously. The paper also studies a highly touted ‘successful’ co-operative model for revenue management called Program for Performance Improvement (PPI), seen by some as an alternative to privatization. I argue that the model in fact emerged as a consequence of the commercialization efforts of neoliberal reforms and that the revenue management model has created an isolated business unit with a reclusive management that undermines the egalitarian objectives of the water utility as a public service entity. / Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2009-01-06 12:06:45.901

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<p>This research project is a comparative study of management of two university libraries (University of the Western Cape and Dhaka University) from two different countries (South Africa and Bangladesh). This research was to identify and document how the functions of management are applied in both libraries.</p> <p><br /> A sample of the two university libraries&rsquo / users, librarians, and library staff were taken. The questionnaire, interview, observation and documentary sources of information were major methods of data collection. In order to provide a brief presentation on how the management functions were applied at other university libraries, a description of how some university libraries in the U.K, U.S.A, Eastern countries and Africa are given. The findings of the study revealed that the problem of inadequate financial support is true for both University libraries, and is the major cause amongst other weaknesses. Both libraries still use a large percentage of non-professional staff and the library service is in desperate need of personnel. However, the observed difference between DUL and UWCL in this comparative study was significant. Services offered in both libraries differ in some cases such as: Consortia, Inter library loans, OPAC, CD-search, e-journals and multimedia. These areas still need to be developed at DUL. UWC have the most of these facilities. Although it needs to improve on aspects such as e-journals, access to data-bases and open access on the Internet.</p>

Zugl.: Copenhagen, Univ., Diss., 2006

I de seneste år har forskning og udvikling på levende byer udviklet sig på grund af kompleksitet og mangfoldighed af levekårsstandarder. Cities all over the world are growing day by day. Developed countries are trying hard to reach a level where the liveable conditions can be achieved and they are managing this ongoing challenge with a certain standard. Liveable condition means ensuring every aspect of living elements. Fast growing countries like Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Pakistan etc are developing but unfortunately they can not be considered as the desired liveable condition until now. In this paper, the author will focus on the liveable conditions of one fast growing city of developing countries, which is the capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka. Det er et af de byområder som står over for mange udfordringer, langt fra at nå til et niveau hvor mennesker kan leve i en levebar situasjon. Det vil bli gjort ved at analysere aktuelle udfordringer og muligheder. På den annen side vil forfatteren også diskutere om ledelses- og samordningsutfordringer mellom multilevelplanmyndigheter. Omdat relatie tussen verschillende autoriteiten noodzakelijk is om te bereiken de wens levende toestand van een stad. Dette vil blive gjort ved at forske i eksisterende planlægningsmodeller, som er foreslået af disse myndigheder. Forfatteren vil diskutere sit eget forslag til nogle af disse problemer, som kan bruges til at nå det ønskede niveau af levende tilstand. The author will also discuss the management and co-ordination challenges between multilevel planning authorities. Omdat relatie tussen verschillende autoriteiten noodzakelijk is om te bereiken de wens levende toestand van een stad. Dette vil blive gjort ved at forske i eksisterende planlægningsmodeller, som er foreslået af disse myndigheder. Forfatteren vil diskutere sit eget forslag til nogle af disse problemer, som kan bruges til at nå det ønskede niveau af levende tilstand. The author will also discuss the management and co-ordination challenges between multilevel planning authorities. Omdat relatie tussen verschillende autoriteiten noodzakelijk is om te bereiken de wens levende toestand van een stad. Dette vil blive gjort ved at forske i eksisterende planlægningsmodeller, som er foreslået af disse myndigheder. Forfatteren vil diskutere sit eget forslag til nogle af disse problemer, som kan bruges til at nå det ønskede niveau af levende tilstand.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This research project is a comparative study of management of two university libraries (University of the Western Cape and Dhaka University) from two different countries (South Africa and Bangladesh). This research was to identify and document how the functions of management are applied in both libraries. A sample of the two university libraries&rsquo; users, librarians, and library staff were taken. The questionnaire, interview, observation and documentary sources of information were major methods of data collection. In order to provide a brief presentation on how the management functions were applied at other university libraries, a description of how some university libraries in the U.K, U.S.A, Eastern countries and Africa are given. The findings of the study revealed that the problem of inadequate financial support is true for both University libraries, and is the major cause amongst other weaknesses. Both libraries still use a large percentage of non-professional staff and the library service is in desperate need of personnel. However, the observed difference between DUL and UWCL in this comparative study was significant. Services offered in both libraries differ in some cases such as: Consortia, Inter library loans, OPAC, CD-search, e-journals and multimedia. These areas still need to be developed at DUL. UWC have the most of these facilities. Although it needs to improve on aspects such as e-journals, access to data-bases and open access on the Internet. / South Africa

This comparative study explores parental involvement during the process of mainstreaming Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Using an ethnographic approach with emphasis on a subtle realist ontology it compares two ECE centers operationalisations of parental involvement and staff's experiences of this aspect of their work. Findings showed that the centers had to navigate cultural underpinnings of parental mistrust and knowledge deficiency in their operationalisation of parental involvement. The centers navigated the cultural conditions by allowing parents CCTV access, or by providing parental education and workshops via scaffolding techniques of experts to gain an audience amongst parents. The center's proactive or reactive approach during the initial stages of parental involvement resulted in various implications for the continuous collaboration between staff and parents at the center. The study contextualises parental involvement within the broader Bangladeshi society, suggesting that the ECE centers becomes an external societal actor interfering in home life, creating a collision between cultural understandings of the home (poribar/bari) and the ECE center, which presented hindrances to parental involvement. The study additionally discusses implications of the Covid-19 epidemic and suggestions for the future of ECE mainstreaming in Bangladesh.

Dhaka city and Bangladesh is unique in many ways. The country profile is most definitely an interesting case to study through the lenses of disaster management. In this thesis a framework or theories encompassing collaborative governance and coordination crisis- management networks is applied to the challenging context of Bangladesh. The study looks at themes such as ‘history of conflicts’, ‘trust building’, ‘power imbalances’, ‘comprehensive overview’ and crisis network variables like ‘complexity’ and ‘familiarity‘. The theory block is foremost gathered from Michael Hillyard, Naim Kapucu and Alison Gash and Chris Ansell. The study is based on interviews from individuals representing different types of organizations that have connections to coordination avenues. A thematic analysis approach is used to apply the theories on the empirics. Three research questions encapsulates the core of the study; what components stimulate collaborative governance theoretically and how does part- takers of disaster management in Dhaka perceive collaborative governance and coordination under disaster preparedness? Finally, how does the presented theories conform to the practises focused on coordination and collaborative governance when preparing for disasters in Dhaka, Bangladesh?    The study finds that the establishment of coordination avenues are evident in Dhaka and that the development of various parts of coordination activities is moving rather strong. The study show that many organizations are project- based in Dhaka and that competition over intellectual property and funding can work in both directions for coordination and collaborative governance. Either lowering the ambition for collaborations or increasing it. The study also confirms findings of previous coordination studies in Bangladesh that suggest that the institutional approach is very much individualistic which can, to some degree, hamper coordination activities. The study suggest that the system for coordination and its reach appears to be more established horizontally on a strategic level than on the vertical level. Coordination activities and collaborative governance also operates simultaneously in Dhaka, both vertically and horizontally. In closure the experiences of DM- employees in Dhaka suggest that earthquakes and droughts, or combinations of quakes and flooding may pose a serious challenge to the disaster management relief resources of Dhaka city.

In Dhaka, Bangladesh over five million people live in low-income, informal settlements (bustees) with limited access to basic services, secure land tenure and political voice. Whilst collective action among the urban poor is central to accessing affordable services and - when taken to scale - a broader politics of 'redistribution, recognition and representation' (Fraser 1997; 2005), little is known about how Dhaka's slum dwellers organise, and the extent to which this is (or can be) transformative. To deepen our understanding, this thesis utilises collective action theory to examine intra-group dynamics, the instrumental value of groups and broader context of urban governance that enables and/or constrains certain forms of collective action in Dhaka's bustees. Case studies of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) in three bustees are used as a lens to explore how slum dwellers organise to obtain basic services, such as water and sanitation. CBOs are disaggregated into two main types (externally or NGO-initiated and internally or leader-initiated) and sub-types (formal and informal), with three sub-themes; participation (leadership and membership), function (activities and responsibilities) and outcomes (equity and sustainability). A mixed qualitative toolkit, including in-depth observations of CBOs, interviews with CBO leaders, members, non-members and key-informant interviews with NGO, government officials and citywide urban poor groups, reveals the complex relationship between collective action, service provision and urban governance in Dhaka. Two key findings emerge. Firstly, similar patterns in participation and outcomes are observed regardless of CBO type, whereby politically-affiliated local leaders and house owners create, enter and/or use CBOs to address their strategic agendas, and reinforce their authority. This demonstrates that, as opposed to bounded groups, CBOs are in fact nodes of interconnected individuals, some of whom are better able to participate in (and benefit from) collective action, than others. Secondly, although collective action plays an increasingly important role in service provision in Dhaka (especially legal water supply), it is largely practical in nature (i.e. addressing immediate needs). In cases where it is more strategic (i.e. to access land and housing), or both practical and strategic (i.e. obtaining legal water supply to secure land), certain male local leaders seek to benefit over others. In all cases, transformative collective action is constrained. This, it is argued, relates to the broader context of urban governance that enables certain forms of collective action, while constraining others, in Dhaka's bustees. Three (interrelated) spheres of urban governance are identified as particularly important: 1) patron-centric state; 2) risk-averse and market-oriented development sector; and 3) clientelistic society. Whilst existing collective action theory has value for understanding intra-group dynamics, fieldwork suggests that the urban governance context is the overarching factor affecting collective action in Dhaka's bustees. The thesis concludes with potential ways forward.

Inner city urban blight is a prevalent area of research in particularly in the industrialized Northern cities. There are also significant scientific discussions on characterizing inner city urban blight, which is usually associated with unemployment, poverty, depopulation and social exclusion, and empirical work to address this problem. But compared to the Northern cities, similar research in the Global South shows a low profile, and even much lower in the South Asian region that accommodates a substantial number of mega cities. City cores are the most densely populated area and very important business and industrial zone in case of South and also South East Asian cities, unlike North American or European inner cities. These City cores could be generally characterized with poor housing condition, buildings of heritage value, inadequate and poor quality of urban services, deteriorating physical environment and sometimes also social problems. Thus, urban renewal in this context requires a review of traditional approaches. This research concentrates on urban renewal to address urban blight in the historical city core of Dhaka, a South Asian mega city. This is a qualitative and exploratory research using a single case study in detail, which is a small street called Shankhari Bazar in old Dhaka. beside the literature, information is collected through semi structured interviews, group discussion and workshops with different stakeholders, participant observation and relevant legal documents. This research aims at improving the living condition of the traditional city center in the megacity of Dhaka, which is considered as a blighted area in the planning documents and also perceived as well as recognized to be blighted largely in the professional and academic field. To do that, it has taken the course of investigating a number of issues. Such as, understanding the urban blight features in Dhaka, driving forces that foster urban blight to set in neighborhoods, relevant examples of urban renewal in South and South-East Asian cities, hurdles that check improvement of blight situation, role of different actors in different perspectives such as fostering, addressing and fighting urban blight as well as their role, capacity and willingness in improving the situation. The results identify the intricate complexity of the local socio-cultural-political-administrative setup and indicates the difficulty of large scale intervention. Instead, the study identifies the scopes where interventions are required and possible to achieve meaningful improvement with minimal mediation. Although the research focuses on the inner city of Dhaka but it also considers the wider regional scale and includes similar conditions in a few historical cities in South Asia. Consequently, the results of this study are also relevant for the regional scale to varying extent if not exactly.