Based on its expertise and credibility in the field of local governance promotion in Bangladesh, Swiss development cooperation will contribute to innovative interventions to improve local service delivery and resource mobilisation and to promote well-targeted pro-poor interventions at local level. While activities in the field of local governance were exclusively targeted at the rural areas in 2008-2012, interventions in this domain will in future extend to small municipalities in rural areas and address important issues in the fields of urban governance and rural-urban linkages.

The water and sanitation sector will serve as a priority entry point to address local governance issues – interventions in this sector will yield tangible improvements to poor people’s lives and contribute to Bangladesh’s achievements towards MDG 7. The interventions will contribute examples and evidence to global debates on water and sanitation service delivery, and profit from close collaboration with the SDC Global Programme Water and Sanitation.

The goal of Swiss-funded interventions in the domain Local Governance is to contribute to the improvement of poor and disadvantaged peoples’ well-being by fostering increased participation and voice and satisfaction with local government performance. The expected outcomes for this portfolio are:

• Bangladeshi citizens, in particular poor people, make use of more and better public services
• Local government institutions implement their mandates more effectively, accountably, transparently and in a more inclusive manner
• The national government further increases decentralisation of funds, functions and functionaries to LGIs

Gender equality and good governance will be addressed as mandatory crosscutting themes throughout all Swiss-funded interventions in Bangladesh. Gender equality mainstreaming implies that all development activities will continue to be planned and monitored based on appropriate gender analysis and gender-disaggregated data. Prevention of unforeseen negative side-effects on gender roles and dynamics (do-no-harm) and targeted measures of woman empowerment will be applied where necessary and appropriate in all domains of interventions.

Good governance mainstreaming implies that all Swiss-funded interventions will reflect the evolving development context in terms of social justice or emerging conflicts and explicitly address relevant aspects of good governance such as participation, non-discrimination, transparency, accountability, and efficiency. Targeted measures will be undertaken where needed in all domains of interventions

Owing to the vulnerability of Bangladesh to natural disasters, which is likely to increase as a result of climate change, DRR will be mainstreamed wherever relevant and feasible, in particular in the Market Development and Local Governance portfolios.