In Bangladesh, big policy ideas have never been in short supply. With the new government, we have been hearing announcements like modern transport systems for Dhaka, renewed efforts to recover the city’s canals, and new social protection tools like the Farmer Card and Family Card. These initiatives carry the promise of a state that works efficiently and serves citizens fairly. But anyone who has watched public policy in Bangladesh long enough also knows that there is a gap between policy announcement and policy delivery.
A transport project, for example, involves several ministries and agencies. Canal recovery requires city corporations, water authorities, land offices, and enforcement bodies to coordinate closely. Social protection programmes depend on digital databases from different institutions. In theory, this coordination should be routine work. However, in practice, that is not always the case. One ministry waits for another and files move slowly across departments. Responsibilities overlap and small delays accumulate. Eventually, the promising project begins to lose momentum, resulting in loss of public confidence.
Governments around the world face the same challenge. Designing a good policy is only half the job. Ensuring that it is implemented properly, on time and across institutions, is an entirely different task. Over the past two decades, many countries have tried to solve this problem by creating small coordination teams at the centre of the government, usually inside the prime minister’s office. These teams do not run ministries nor replace bureaucrats. They focus on making sure important policies are actually moving forward. Their job is to track priority programmes, monitor progress, and ask a few straightforward questions. Is the policy being implemented? Are results visible? If not, what is blocking progress?
The UK government in 2001 created the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit to track progress in areas like education, health, and policing. Its role was not to design policies, but to make sure they were delivered. When progress slowed, the unit tried to identify why and pushed institutions to resolve the problem. Malaysia also introduced a similar system with its Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) in 2009. Working inside the prime minister’s department, PEMANDU was created to help ministries focus on clear national targets and closely monitor progress. When obstacles appeared, the unit brought agencies together to resolve them. The approach helped speed up improvements in areas such as public services and crime reduction. Singapore has taken coordination even further. Inside the prime minister’s office, specialised teams oversee national strategy and digital governance across ministries. Their systems track government programmes in real time and ensure that agencies operate less like separate islands and more like parts of a single system.
For Bangladesh, the relevance of this approach is becoming increasingly clear. Urban transport reform is not just an engineering project; it involves land authorities, city planners, transport regulators, financial institutions, and environmental agencies. Without strong coordination, even a well-designed project can drift into years of delay. The same challenge will appear in efforts to recover Dhaka’s canals which are essential for the city’s flood control, environmental protection, and long-term sustainability. Its implementation requires coordinated efforts, contributions, and approvals from multitude of different government ministries, agencies, and organisations. Initiatives like the Farmer Card and Family Card are aiming to distribute subsidies and essential goods more efficiently. These initiatives depend heavily on systems like agriculture databases, social safety net registries, and distribution networks, and a multitude of different ministries. If those systems do not communicate smoothly, the programmes will quickly become less effective.
Establishing a policy and programme coordination cell under the Prime Minister’s Office is worth serious consideration to keep major national programmes aligned and moving forward. The cell could track progress on priority initiatives and highlight problems early and when bottlenecks appear—whether regulatory delays, land disputes, or inter-agency disagreements—it could bring the relevant institutions together to resolve them quickly. A coordination cell could also help policymakers see the bigger picture. Real-time dashboards tracking major initiatives could show where progress is being made and where attention is needed. Another useful role would be bringing outside expertise into the policy process.
Many of today’s challenges including energy transition, digital infrastructure, export diversification, extend beyond traditional administrative knowledge. Convening task forces of industry leaders, researchers, and practitioners could provide practical insights from people working directly in these sectors. Such groups could help identify obstacles early and suggest solutions grounded in real-world experience. This kind of coordination has become even more important for us as Bangladesh approaches a major milestone in graduating from least developed country status. Economic diversification, energy security, digital transformation, and urban infrastructure all depend on multiple parts of government working together.
We often forget that Bangladesh has already demonstrated remarkable ambition in its development journey. The next phase may depend less on announcing new policies and more on ensuring that the ones already announced actually reach the people they are meant to serve. Because in modern governance, success is not measured by how many programmes are launched but by how many are delivered.
Ashfaq Zaman is founder of Dhaka Forum Initiative and a strategic international affairs expert.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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