Governing COVID-19 in Bangladesh: Realities and Reflections to Build Forward Better

COVID-19 has been an unprecedented stress test of health, social, economic, and political systems worldwide.i The State of Governance in Bangladesh 2020– 2021 report documents and analyzes how COVID-19 has been governed in Bangladesh. It aims to evaluate and inform responses to the ongoing pandemic and also indicate how to “build forward better”—strengthen our capacities to tackle similar and other types of crises in future. COVID-19 is a global shock (see Figure 1), but its impact has been particularly profound in countries like Bangladesh. A weak public health system and precarious economic state of the majority of citizens, combined with a growing yet underdeveloped social security system, have enabled the COVID-19 crisis to present a stark “life vs livelihood” challenge for policymakers.ii How the crisis is governed closely shapes both the health and the livelihood outcomes for Bangladeshi people.