Originally posted in The Daily Star on 20 April 2026
Eminent economist Prof Rehman Sobhan has called for holding the government accountable for implementing reforms that largely remain on paper in Bangladesh.
“Legislation is not enough; reforms must be translated into operational documents implemented by the bureaucracy, and their outcomes must be measured on the ground. An active opposition should collaborate with civil society to act as a watchdog over reform implementation,” he said.
Prof Sobhan, chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), spoke as a special guest at a session titled “Romancing the Reform: The Bangladesh Story” during the three-day 9th SANEM Annual Economists’ Conference 2026 at the BRAC Centre in Dhaka yesterday.
His remarks came as many reforms proposed during the interim government following the July 2024 uprising are fading, while laws traditionally remain on paper.
Drawing on his experience as a member of the Planning Commission, he said reforms in Bangladesh largely remain academic but must be delivered on the ground.
He recalled that in the early 1990s, judicial and budgetary reforms were initiated with support from the World Bank and the UK government, yet no one assessed the outcomes of those efforts.
By contrast, Southeast Asian countries have practised performance budgeting since the 1970s and 80s to measure public expenditure outcomes, something Bangladesh has yet to adopt in the 21st century.
“This lack of efficiency means there is no way to tell parliament what was promised with public money versus the actual outcome,” Prof Sobhan said.
He noted that health and education budgets are consistently underutilised, with the allocated 2 percent not fully spent even as aspirations grow to raise public expenditure to 5–6 percent of GDP.
“There is a lack of practical analysis regarding why these ministries are underperforming, while citizens experience low-quality healthcare and poor-quality public education despite reports of high pass rates,” he said.
According to him, these are no problems in planning reforms but in implementation and the way the state functions. Substantive reforms require identifying key players and building a coalition inside the government willing to make reforms a political campaign issue.
He cited the Six Point Programme as a genuine reform agenda during the Pakistani regime, which mobilised citizens and culminated in the Liberation War of 1971.
In contrast, current reform agendas, such as the BNP’s 31 points, have seen little effort to conscientise party members or voters, he said.
“Election manifestos are often paper exercises where members contesting elections would fail an exam on their party’s content because they have no idea what it contains,” he said.
Prof Sobhan added that in India, broad civil society coalitions were mobilised for reforms such as the right to food, education, and work. In Bangladesh, however, civil society representatives remain divided into fundraising silos and have not built such coalitions.
“Without mobilising constituencies on the ground to generate pressure on politicians and parliament, stronger coalitions who do not want reform will prevail,” he warned.
He stressed that accountability must be built from the prime minister’s office down to the grassroots, and reform must be institutionalised in the political DNA of Bangladesh.
CPD Distinguished Fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya said the interim administration was Bangladesh’s most pro-reform government, but it failed to deliver reforms because it lacked an economic vision, an integrated design, and electoral legitimacy.
He added that while parliament has recommended reviewing ordinances on judiciary, corruption, and human rights, these should have been approved instead of shelved.
He emphasised that reforms should be pursued by the government itself rather than imposed by the World Bank or IMF.
Former finance secretary Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury suggested separating the local government civil service from the central civil service and integrating digitisation in service delivery to improve efficiency.
To combat politicisation of the bureaucracy, he advocated merit-based appointments and accountability at all stages.
SANEM Executive Director Selim Raihan moderated the session.
