Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), in collaboration with the Local Government Division (LGD) of Bangladesh, organized a two-day event titled ‘Learning and Dialogue on City Governance in Bangladesh and Japan’ in the capital recently.
The event was arranged to shed light on different pertinent issues related to urban governance and share experiences and insights from Japan’s local governments.
This event was organized as part of Jica’s technical cooperation with LGD and under the ‘Project for Strengthening Capacity for City Corporations,’ also known as the C4C2 initiative.
The objective of this program was to facilitate learning from the experiences of urban governments in Japan, highlight successful examples of urban governance in Bangladesh, and sort out best practices.
Japanese experts, including former and incumbent officials of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Hiroshima City, talked in detail about city governance, encompassing planning, financial management, citizen engagement, and city-citizen collaborations at the event.
On the other hand, accomplishments and strategies of Bangladesh’s city governance that have borne fruits for cross-sections of people and left instrumental impacts were also highlighted.
Komori Takashi from Jica said about this event: “Knowledge-sharing can come in really handy when devising and implementing time-befitting plans for enhanced urban development and governance. Jica is delighted to enable such discussion through this event among the urban governance experts from both Japan and Bangladesh, which will serve as a valuable resource for both nations to improve urban governance frameworks.”
Chaired by Muhammad Ibrahim, secretary of the Local Government Division (LGD) of Bangladesh, key stakeholders from Bangladesh and Japan, including representatives from the National Institute of Local Government (NILG), Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), 12 City Corporations in Bangladesh and Jica Bangladesh Office took part at the event.
With ‘Strategy for Governance Improvement of City Corporations 2030’ in focus, the participants tried to figure out potential measures that could help achieve this goal.
Participants opined that such an event will go a long way in fostering sustainable, inclusive, and citizen-centric governance practices.
