2009-2010 - BIDS

people of different walks of life who are interested
in development issues of Bangladesh. The 26th
and 27th issues of BUS were published in 2009 and
2010 respectively
Edited Volumes
Development
Experience and
Emerging Challenges:
BANGLADESH
Despite widespread pessimism,
Bangladesh has
achieved considerable
success and performed
well in several areas of
development. The economy
has also moved to a
higher growth path over the last two decades.
This has led many to believe that Bangladesh
can realize its growth potential so as to join
the ranks of middle income countries within a
decade or so. The transition to the higher growth
regime has, however, been accompanied by
worsening income distribution over time. This
obviously raises concern about the quality of
growth in terms of rate of poverty reduction,
degree of income inequality, and generation of
productive employment. This volume, edited by
Quazi Shahabuddin and Rushidan Islam Rahman,
contains selected papers and proceedings of the
panel discussion of an international conference
on the theme, ‘Development Prospects of
Bangladesh: Emerging Challenges’, organized
by BIDS in December 2007 on the occasion of its
Golden Jubilee Celebration. It is expected that
the ideas and the engaging intellectual debate on
development experience, emerging challenges,
and policy options for development of Bangladesh
presented in the volume will be useful to a wide
audience, both academicians and development
practitioners alike.
A Ship Adrift: Governance and Development in
Bangladesh
In the development discourse, the failure of
nations to grow economically and gain socially
has been attributed in a large measure to the lack
of ‘good’ governance. The issue remains elusive
to many, when the ground reality sometimes
contradicts the new conventional wisdom. Over
the past one decade and a half, Bangladesh has
enjoyed a fair pace of economic growth and made
impressive gains in several key social indicators.
Yet the country ranks poorly on many aspects of
governance. This raises several questions: Does
governance really matter in development Would
Bangladesh’s performance have been better
or qualitatively different with seemingly better
governance Or, is governance in Bangladesh
not as bad as these perception-based indicators
seem to suggest An international workshop
in Dhaka examined these and related issues in
2006 to better explore and understand ways in
which governance and development interact and
interface with each other. This book, edited by
Nurul Islam and M. Asaduzzaman, brings together
selected papers from the workshop. It is expected
that the book will initiate wide ranging debates
to look at governance issues that arise in specific
sectors as well as in the management of the
economy as a whole.
Special Publications
Role of Experts in Policy Advice: Lessons of
Experience
In this volume, Professor Nurul Islam, one of
the leading development economists who has
successfully combined professional excellence
with policy making at the
highest level, examines
the role of experts in policy
advice in order to draw
lessons from his valuable
personal experience.
Recognizing the highly
complex nature of policy
making in a modern
state, he suggests that,
apart from building up
strong public institutions
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BIDS Biennial Report 2009-2010