Abstract

With the failures of the SAP regimes, the WB and IMF were forced to learn that country ownership of development policy was critical and based on the new insight they advocated for a new approach which was popularly known as poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP). The major shift in PRSP was that the loan recipient countries were required to ensure ‘country ownership’ in their respective PRSP through participation of the major stakeholders. Bangladesh also developed a PRSP to receive loan from the WB and IMF. The ownership of Bangladesh’s PRSP was seriously contested. Thus, this article broadly attempts to revisit the ownership dynamics in PRSP regime and provide a broader framework of an independent development agenda setting in Bangladesh as an incarnation of engaged policy making. In the process of reviewing ownership dynamics, it also shades light on Bangladesh’s historical engagement with the WB and IMF to showcase donor influences with regard to policy reforms of a poor country like Bangladesh. The article also argues that if Bangladesh wants to ensure policy ownership it must address some local conditions since from hindsight it could be argued that ownership is a local agenda that is determined through the governance pattern of a particular country and cannot be ensured through imposition.

Keywords: Ownership, guided ownership, poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP), independent policy making.