People's Participation in Ensuring Good Governance at Local Levels in Bangladesh: A Study on Union Parishads

Abstract People's participation is a critical component of good governance, as it strengthens effective decision-making and improves the efficiency of local government practice. However, due to a variety of issues, people's participation in terms of ensuring good governance has been hampered, posing significant challenges to the effective service delivery of local government. In this regard, the study's primary goal was to explore the issue of people’s participation in terms of ensuring good governance in Bangladesh. The study was carried out using a quantitative approach, with data gathered from primary sources. The findings of the study reveal that most of the rural people had no idea about the UP-standing committee (95%), open budget meeting (78%), and Union Parishad Act (83%). Similarly, it was found that 98% of rural people did not participate in the pre-open budget session and final open budget session, whereas 95% and 97% of rural people did not participate in the Ward Shaba and UP standing committees, respectively. Conversely, it was found that only 45% of rural people participated in UP village court activities. These findings demonstrate conclusively that in individuals were less concerned in their engagement in various local government avenues to ensure good governance. In this vein, the research recommends that public education, awareness, and government-relevant policies might be successful in arousing citizens' concern about ensuring good governance at local government bodies, especially in UPs in Bangladesh