Informal governance
Governance is a notion conceived to address the necessity of common good, to establish neutrality in authority and to improve all aspects relevant to human life which significantly emphasizes to develop frameworks collectively. UNUs version of Governance definition The functioning of state and of civil society, their interaction and processes, norms and institutions by which they operate at the various levels, ranging from international to national, regional and local, and in all the areas of concern to society i.e. the economic, social, cultural and political sectors could be more relatable to which we are trying to make a point. Over the course of time the administrators and policy makers realized the necessity of two way-partnerships between the authority and the community with more participation to ensure the ultimate progression. Therefore, the concept of governance speaks about the comprehensive development of a nation rather only reaching milestones that represent handful of population.
Despite being able to achieve many of the UN Millennium Development Goals and to manage economically satisfactory growth as a nation what raise the question is how the heart of the country is still making headlines as the 4th worst liveable city in the world. One of the views to answer it is to analyse the actors who could be held responsible alongside with resource scarcity and political power play in decision making. Among the many actors namely the bureaucratic authority, ministries, political and local leaders, law enforcement agencies and civil society most often linked with governance.
If you are wondering where you belong as a citizen to make your contribution then the answer is the civil society. Yes, hardly we take the time to judge ourselves and think twice how our actions are retaliating back to us as a national practice in large. The more time are passing we are growing more resilience towards disobeying the existing regulations and only to stepping up when it is not favouring us. If we look in our everyday urban life, very seldom we see someone taking a stand alongside with the traffic sergeants if anyone is using wrong sides to beat the traffic or if the bikers are using the footpaths for the same reason. We do not raise our voices any longer if someone is not performing their designated responsibilities or to inflation, to utility scarcity, to corruption or against the wrong doers.
The list of such discriminatory actions and our irresponsiveness will go on. This should be the pivotal point of time to take individual accountability, grow more individual consciences and awareness towards the constitutional and legal rights before we try to criticise the state and its almost non-performing stakeholders including us. Historically new social innovation took place when the existing practices failed.
It is argued that, Dhaka has been governed informally better than the formal assistance. Formal organizations have been failed or merely succeeded to actualize the real development due to the existence of inappropriate plans and lack of coordination between the concerned organizations. These continuous failures and lack of confidence on the formal institutions have traditionally paved the way for social mobilization in Dhaka city.
House Owners Society (HOS) of West Shewrapara, DOHSs Committee, Gulshan Society, Banshudhara Residential Areas and many others have succeeded to build some internal capacity for security, traffic control, waste management and namely few more initiatives in their respective communities. Among them the road widening initiatives taken up by the HOS of West Shewrapara shares a different light of success as it involves some critical engagement, resources and was quite unimaginable to attain without the government intervention. Few good leaders and persistence by the greater part of the community living in West Shewrapara have assisted to triumph all hurdles on the way.
The writers Deen, Anika, Farah, Farhana, Abonee and Parvez are Masters students in Development Studies,
BRAC University
