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In developing nations, the establishment of sustainable healthcare information systems (HIS) is often hindered by insufficient government policies and outdated technology. Bangladesh is a notable example where many patients lack proper healthcare access due to fragmented and non-digitally recorded data. Research has shown that standardized hospital healthcare systems can streamline patient management, increasing the capacity to serve more patients simultaneously. These systems have the potential to improve healthcare in developing nations significantly. This article offers an overview of the key obstacles that impede HIS implementation in these countries. The study looked at relevant information systems literature using a systematic literature review (SLR). The systematic literature review (SLR) was governed by a review process, and relevant studies were gathered from three databases: IEEE Xplore, EBSCO Databases, and ScienceDirect. A total of 4014 papers were initially found. However, only 11 main studies were included for analysis after a careful selection procedure governed by inclusion and exclusion criteria. This study found 24 obstacles to adopting Healthcare Information Systems (HIS) in developing countries, divided into six groups. These obstacles include a lack of financial assistance, inadequate infrastructure, inadequate education and awareness, cultural and political obstacles, reluctance to change, and poor system quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many cities and urban areas are growing rapidly to accommodate increased population and economic activities. However, unplanned urban growth is putting significant pressure on existing water supply systems, green infrastructures, and natural systems, especially in developing countries. The water sensitive cities concepts allow to plan and systematically develop integrated urban water management to achieve balanced sustainable outcomes. In this paper, we have noted that through full implementation of existing long-term masterplans water sensitive cities concepts could be internalized in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. We emphasize implementation of existing masterplans and have further identified six broad groups of key strategies that could accelerate this internalization: development of a vision and political willingness; strengthened government policy support and coordinated outcomes; adaptive decision-making capacity; private sector engagement; community and NGO engagements and implementation of multi-functional water sensitive urban designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-budget placement in June in Bangladesh brings with itself an inundation of various scrutiny and assessment of the most crucial public policy document of the year. However, both ex-ante and ex-post oversight is an area where there has been a gaping hole for years. With analysis drawn from interviewing 52 stakeholders and review of relevant literature, the paper stocktakes the role of Bangladesh Parliament in the nation's budgetary process. The paper elaborates the theoretical basis for selecting global indexes used to evaluate the parliament's capacity of budget oversight. In fine, Jatiya Sangsad is a 'budget-approving' parliament dictated by the executive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal migration presents many challenges for governmental coordination due to the extensive and immediate action required to address this problem. However, it also poses opportunities regarding education, employment and living conditions, if the government creates pull factors to distribute migration away from primary to secondary cities. This process will require a rights-based approach, whereby the rights of internal migrants are mainstreamed in government planning to enable sustainable migration to Bangladesh's secondary cities. In this paper, the current international human rights and internal migration laws will be analysed, alongside the domestic laws and policies relevant to internal migration in Bangladesh. In doing so, this paper will explore how government policy and action can employ a rights-based approach to incorporate internal migration within the government's overarching development framework. A rights-based approach is necessary to effectively prepare for, and adapt to, the increase in internal migration in an equitable way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-general elections' 1970 developments resulted in the loss of eastern wing of Pakistan and creation of a new country on the world's map naming Bangladesh; consisting of the region previously known as East Pakistan. After December 1971(creation of Bangladesh), it was only West Pakistan which made a new beginning with a directly elected National Assembly (NA), Lower House of the Parliament. In this scenario, the state faced many challenges among which the most critical was formulation of a constitution, acceptable for remaining federating units of Pakistan, to save it from any further national loss and create harmony and cohesion among the federating units as a federal state. To fulfill this responsibility, the first directly elected National Assembly of Pakistan started functioning under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and the Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP). This assembly completed one of its major tasks of formulating a constitution for Pakistan in 1973 and was dissolved in January 1977 to conduct second general elections in Pakistan. The present paper is focused on the functioning of the National Assembly to analyze its working considering it as the basis of democracy in contemporary Pakistan. In this paper an attempt is made to answer the questions like how serious the business of Assembly was taken by the members? What were the attitudes of the members towards adjournments motions and during the question-and-answer session? How seriously were taken the budget sessions? Was there any constructive criticism on the government policies during the budget sessions? Since the attitude of members of the first National Assembly provided basis for the democratic system, answers to these questions may help to understand the contemporary practices inside the National Assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The National Drug Policy in Bangladesh prohibits the sale and distribution of antibiotics without prescription from a registered physician. Compliance with this policy is poor; prescribing antibiotics by unqualified practitioners is common and over-the-counter dispensing widespread. In Bangladesh, unqualified practitioners such as drug shop operators are a major source of healthcare for the poor and disadvantaged. This paper reports on policy awareness among drug shop operators and their customers and identifies current dispensing practices, barriers and facilitators to policy adherence. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study in rural and urban Bangladesh from June 2019 to August 2020. This included co-design workshops (n = 4) and in-depth interviews (n = 24) with drug shop operators and customers/household members, key informant interviews (n = 12) with key personnel involved in aspects of the antibiotic supply chain including pharmaceutical company representatives, and model drug shop operators; and a group discussion with stakeholders representing key actors in informal market systems namely: representatives from the government, private sector, not-for-profit sector and membership organizations. Results: Barriers to policy compliance among drug shop operators included limited knowledge of government drug policies, or the government-led Bangladesh Pharmacy Model Initiative (BPMI), a national guideline piloted to regulate drug sales. Drug shop operators had no clear knowledge of different antibiotic generations, how and for what diseases antibiotics work contributing to inappropriate antibiotic dispensing. Nonetheless, drug shop operators wanted the right to prescribe antibiotics based on having completed related training. Drug shop customers cited poor healthcare facilities and inadequate numbers of attending physician as a barrier to obtaining prescriptions and they described difficulties differentiating between qualified and unqualified providers. Conclusion: Awareness of the National Drug Policy and the BPMI was limited among urban and rural drug shop operators. Poor antibiotic prescribing practice is additionally hampered by a shortage of qualified physicians; cultural and economic barriers to accessing qualified physicians, and poor implementation of regulations. Increasing qualified physician access and increasing training and certification of drug shop operators could improve the alignment of practices with national policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of urban transformations, water governance has received global attention due to its growing complexities in responding to wicked and multifaceted challenges, such as rapidly growing populations, increased resource demand and uncertain climate futures. To date, much of the empirical research on water governance and urban transformations has examined developed cities, with limited investigation of developing cities. This paper therefore aims to enrich current empirical insights regarding the evolution of, and key shifts within urban water governance in Bangladesh. Drawing on recent developments in sustainability transitions and urban water governance scholarship, the paper charts 250 years of water resource development in Bangladesh. Analysis of primary and secondary qualitative data sources revealed five major periods between 1757 and 2016 that represent key changes to governance approaches that underpinned sectoral changes. Although the shifts in governance approaches have cumulatively improved the adaptive capacity of Bangladesh’s urban water system, they have not been framed to provide guidance and facilitation for driving on-ground change, which may be inhibiting a sustainable transformation of Bangladesh’s urban water sector. Nevertheless, the insights do provide important foundations for informing the development of new governance models capable of dealing with multi-scale strategies for supporting a sustainability transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data collected before and after the catastrophic flooding that took place in northern Bangladesh in 2014, this paper contributes to the growing evidence on the factors enhancing households’ resilience to shocks, or their “resilience capacities”. The analysis takes into account all three dimensions of resilience capacity—absorptive, adaptive, and transformative—as well as a broad range of specific capacities supporting them. In addition to disaster preparedness and mitigation, it finds suggestive evidence that the following capacities reduced the negative impact of the flooding on household food security: social capital, human capital, exposure to information, asset holdings, livelihood diversity, safety nets, access to markets and services, women’s empowerment, governance, and psycho-social capabilities such as aspirations and confidence to adapt. The paper highlights the importance of taking a comprehensive approach to understanding the determinants of resilience in future research, one that accounts for the full range of potential capacities. It also points to the value of taking a cross-sectoral, multi-intervention approach to on-the-ground resilience programing in Bangladesh and other developing-country areas that are increasingly vulnerable to climate shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to examine the politics of the public food distribution system (PFDS) in Bangladesh. Conventional literature mainly reveals the inherent weaknesses of the system, focusing on its ‘targeting errors’ and ‘leakage errors’. In contrast, this study demonstrates that successive regimes purposefully fostered target and leakage errors through politically motivated projects and programs. By offering a historical−political analysis, this paper argues that leakage and target errors are merely the mechanism of regime survival through the distribution of opportunities by using state resources. It is only through examining political motivations that a more nuanced study of PFDS can be undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of different approaches being experimented over the past six decades, poverty alleviation programs in the developing world have largely failed to improve poverty situation. Of all the factors responsible for the growing trend of poverty, the accountability of public officials remains an intriguing one. The relative ineffectiveness of conventional accountability mechanisms has given rise to social accountability practices. This paper aims to explore the terrain of social accountability and its role in poverty alleviation programs in Bangladesh. The paper argues that despite the great potentials, social accountability mechanisms work with difficulties in Bangladesh owing to contemporary socio-economic and political realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Bangladesh contributes little to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Based on semi-structured research interviews as a conduit to a literature review, this paper shows how the processes of enclosure, exclusion, encroachment, and entrenchment impede the vitality of its climate change adaptation efforts. Enclosure refers to when adaptation projects transfer public assets into private hands or expand the roles of private actors into the public sphere. Exclusion refers to when adaptation projects limit access to resources or marginalize particular stakeholders in decision-making activities. Encroachment refers to when adaptation projects intrude on biodiversity areas or contribute to other forms of environmental degradation. Entrenchment refers to when adaptation projects aggravate the disempowerment of women and minorities, or worsen concentrations of wealth and income inequality within a community. In the case of Bangladeshi, climate change policies implemented under the country’s National Adaptation Program of Action have enabled elites to capture land through public servants, the military, and even gangs carrying bamboo sticks. Exclusionary forms of adaptation planning exist at both the national and local scales. Climate protection measures have encroached upon village property, char (public) land, forests, farms, and other public commons. Most egregiously, community coping strategies for climate change have entrenched class and ethnic hierarchies ultimately trapping the poor, powerless, and displaced into a predatory patronage system that can aggravate human insecurity and intensify violent conflict. Planners and practitioners of adaptation need to become more cognizant of the potential for projects to harm others, or admit complicity in the processes of enclosure, exclusion, encroachment, and entrenchment, if they are ever to be eliminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bangladesh is a culturally conservative nation with limited freedom for women. A number of studies have evaluated intimate partner violence (IPV) and spousal physical violence in Bangladesh; however, the views of women have been rarely discussed in a quantitative manner. Three nationwide surveys in Bangladesh (2007, 2011, and 2014) were analyzed in this study to characterize the most vulnerable households, where women themselves accepted spousal physical violence as a general norm. 31.3%, 31.9% and 28.7% women in the surveys found justification for physical violence in household in 2007, 2011 and 2014 respectively. The binary logistic model showed wealth index, education of both women and their partner, religion, geographical division, decision making freedom and marital age as significant household contributors for women’s perspective in all the three years. Women in rich households and the highly educated were found to be 40% and 50% less likely to accept domestic physical violence compared to the poorest and illiterate women. Similarly, women who got married before 18 years were 20% more likely accept physical violence in the family as a norm. Apart from these particular groups (richest, highly educated and married after 18 years), other groups had around 30% acceptance rate of household violence. For any successful attempt to reduce spousal physical violence in the traditional patriarchal society of Bangladesh, interventions must target the most vulnerable households and the geographical areas where women experience spousal violence. Although this paper focuses on women’s attitudes, it is important that any intervention scheme should be devised to target both men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a pen picture about the changes of livelihood patterns to the char people, mostly living under poverty in Bangladesh. The study was conducted on the three Northern Districts such as Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat and Pabna in Bangladesh, where the Char Resources Mobilization project was provided by an international non-government organization-Concern Worldwide Bangladesh. The study used mixed method approach where quantitative data were collected from 378 households (126 from each District) using structured interview schedule. A number of qualitative data collection methods such as focus group discussion, participant observation, community mapping, case study, and key informants interview guidelines were used to collect data about the conditions of the Char people in terms of understanding its connection with their livelihoods and socio-economic consequences. This study compares the changes with influential factors with a baseline survey conducted in 2007. Findings showed that there were a number of areas such as education, income, family assets and properties, annual household income, employment, savings, improving market chain, food intake and food security, presence of governmental and non-governmental organizations' services and awareness about disaster and vulnerability and coping strategies were found positive. The study also observed some negative changes on assets base and livelihood options. The paper argues that the findings on these changes will help to formulate policy on poverty alleviation for the government and non-government authorities who implement the similar type of programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper is aimed at critically assessing the extent to which Non-Communicable Disease NCD-related policies introduced in Bangladesh align with the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2013-2020 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of NCDs.Methods: The authors reviewed all relevant policy documents introduced by the Government of Bangladesh since its independence in 1971. The literature review targeted scientific and grey literature documents involving internet-based search, and expert consultation and snowballing to identify relevant policy documents. Information was extracted from the documents using a specific matrix, mapping each document against the six objectives of the WHO 2013-2020 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of NCDs.Results: A total of 51 documents were identified. Seven (14%) were research and/or surveys, nine were on established policies (17%), while seventeen (33%) were on action programmes. Five (10%) were related to guidelines and thirteen (25%) were strategic planning documents from government and non-government agencies/institutes. The study covered documents produced by the Government of Bangladesh as well as those by quasi-government and non-government organizations irrespective of the extent to which the intended policies were implemented.Conclusions: The policy analysis findings suggest that although the government has initiated many NCD-related policies or programs, they lacked proper planning, implementation and monitoring. Consequently, Bangladesh over the years had little success in effectively addressing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. It is imperative that future research critically assess the effectiveness of national NCD policies by monitoring their implementation and level of population coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bangladesh had one of the highest burdens of lymphatic filariasis (LF) at the start of the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF) with an estimated 70 million people at risk of infection across 34 districts. In total 19 districts required mass drug administration (MDA) to interrupt transmission, and 15 districts were considered low endemic. Since 2001, the National LF Programme has implemented MDA, reduced prevalence, and been able to scale up the WHO standard Transmission Assessment Survey (TAS) across all endemic districts as part of its endgame surveillance strategy. This paper presents TAS results, highlighting the momentous geographical reduction in risk of LF and its contribution to the global elimination target of 2020. Methodology/Principal findings: The TAS assessed primary school children for the presence of LF antigenaemia in each district (known as an evaluation unit—EU), using a defined critical cut-off threshold (or ‘pass’) that indicates interruption of transmission. Since 2011, a total of 59 TAS have been conducted in 26 EUs across the 19 endemic MDA districts (99,148 students tested from 1,801 schools), and 22 TAS in the 15 low endemic non-MDA districts (36,932 students tested from 663 schools). All endemic MDA districts passed TAS, except in Rangpur which required two further rounds of MDA. In total 112 students (male n = 59; female n = 53), predominately from the northern region of the country were found to be antigenaemia positive, indicating a recent or current infection. However, the distribution was geographically sparse, with only two small focal areas showing potential evidence of persistent transmission. Conclusions/Significance: This is the largest scale up of TAS surveillance activities reported in any of the 73 LF endemic countries in the world. Bangladesh is now considered to have very low or no risk of LF infection after 15 years of programmatic activities, and is on track to meet elimination targets. However, it will be essential that the LF Programme continues to develop and maintain a comprehensive surveillance strategy that is integrated into the health infrastructure and ongoing programmes to ensure cost-effectiveness and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to examine people's preferences for alternative cyclone vulnerability reduction measures in cyclone prone areas of Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach - A choice experiment (CE) method has been implemented based on the pressure and release (PAR) vulnerability model. Data were collected from a sample of households in two districts of Bangladesh in winter 2008. Findings - The results of a choice experiment (CE) method conducted in selected areas of Bangladesh prone to cyclone hazards indicated that access to resources is viewed as the most influential factor in cyclone vulnerability reduction options. Findings support the pressure and release model (PAR) of vulnerability analysis. Access to training and education and cyclone warning systems are also found to have significant impacts on households' choices of cyclone vulnerability reduction. Structural mitigation measures and access to power and decision making, though significant, were found to have the least impact. Research limitations/implications - The paper shows that the choice experiment method is a good technique for understanding people's preferences for vulnerability reduction measures. Practical implications - The paper concludes with a policy recommendation for governmental and non-governmental agencies to focus on vulnerability reduction measures that tackle the root causes of vulnerability. Originality/value - This is the first time that the choice experiment method has been used for cyclone vulnerability analysis, and it provides quantitative supports for the PAR model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society has the potential to have a positive impact on social exclusion and health equity through active monitoring and increased accountability. This paper examines the role of civil society in Bangladesh to understand why this potential has not been realized. Looking at two models of civil society action--participation in decentralized public-sector service provision and academic think-tank data analysis--this analysis examines the barriers to positive civil society input into public policy decision-making. The role of non-governmental organizations, political, cultural and economic factors, and the influence of foreign bilateral and multilateral donors are considered. The paper concludes that, with a few exceptions, civil society in Bangladesh replicates the structural inequalities of society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three-sector model - encompassing the private, public and non-governmental or 'third' sectors - is important to much of the research that is undertaken on development policy. While it may be analytically convenient to separate the three sectors, the realities are more complex. Non-governmental actors and government/public sector agencies are linked in potentially important (though often far from visible) ways via personal relationships, resource flows and informal transactions. This paper seeks to understand these links by studying the 'life-work histories' of individuals who have operated in both the government and third sector. Two main types of such boundary crossing are identified: 'consecutive', in which a person moves from one sector to the other in order to take up a new position, and 'extensive', in which a person is simultaneously active in both sectors. Drawing on a set of recently collected life-work history data, the paper explores the diversity of this phenomenon in three countries. It examines the reasons for cross-over, analyses the experiences of some of those involved, and explores the implications for better understanding the boundaries, both conceptual and tangible, that both separate and link government and third sector in these different institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the result of our involvement in a national project to integrate rural women in the development process in Bangladesh, we have been dependent on accurate information about rural women for formation and modification of policy. However we have been increasingly aware of the amount of misinformation about rural women, the lack of accurate data and the difficulties in collecting it. This paper discusses this misinformation and how best to overcome the difficulties presented by trying to develop programmes for women without adequate information. The paper is divided into five main sections: description of the Project; misinformation about rural women; lack of information about rural women; difficulties in getting information about rural women; using the project to get information about rural women. After a description of the basic approach of the Women's Programme in which we are working, we discuss the pervasive and persistent misinformation about rural women that we have encountered in the course of our work and suggest some of the semantic, societal and economic causes for it. The next section lists some of the basic information about rural women that is not available and suggests some of the reasons for this dearth of information: reticence to discuss women, lack of motivation to collect information about women, lack of conceptualization of women as a subculture acting in its own interest. The fourth section describes the kinds of difficulties researchers encounter in trying to get accurate information about women in a purdah culture. The last section describes the ways we are developing within the project to get the information we need and the problems we are facing in accomplishing our objectives. Although we do not yet have a satisfactory solution, we think we are more likely to be able to solve some of our information problems if we can find ways appropriate to our specific situation, than if we depend only on time-consuming highly academic and sophisticated approaches to research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The old project of modernizing madrasas has acquired a new zeal in South Asia after September 2011, whereby madrasa reform programmes became an acknowledged soft tactic of the war on terror. With 9000 Aliya (reformed) madrasas, the Bangladesh madrasa modernization programme has been identified as a potentially useful model for the neighbouring states of Pakistan and India who have made slower progress in implementing similar programmes. In this paper I argue that, although the Aliya madrasa system in Bangladesh has succeeded in integrating secular subjects in the madrasa curriculum, in reality this modernization project has failed in its underlying ambition to generate a ‘modern discourse’ on Islam—a discourse that is compatible with the demands of western modernity. The right to speak for Islam is still primarily exercised by the ‘ulama and graduates of the Qoumi (unreformed) madrasas. Aliya madrasas today compete with the secular schools not with Qoumi madrasas. The growth of the Aliya madrasa system in Bangladesh, instead of bearing testimony to the popular appeal of the modernization agenda, demonstrates the preference of Muslim parents for increased Islamic content in the school curriculum [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper maps institutional trust in Bangladesh and analyzes to what extent citizens perceive public institutions to be trustworthy. According to a number of expert evaluations, public and political institutions in Bangladesh do not stand out as very trustworthy. Yet, despite such expert evaluations, recent survey data indicate that popular trust is quite high in certain major institutions such as the parliament and the central government. Since it is misplaced, the high level of popular institutional trust presents a paradox. It implies some kind of blind or naive trust, which may be dysfunctional for the emergence of a democratic governance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper describes the ways used to build digital libraries in Bangladesh as well as the problems that might be encountered during digital library system development. It shows the existing status of digital library development, particularly the status of digitization in Bangladesh as well as government initiatives to build digital library system. Finally, several steps are proposed by the author for one possible approach to build an effective digital library system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper analyzes factors that impede inter- and intra-organizational coordination in urban governance in policy implementation. The unit of analysis is the Rajshahi City Corporation, one of six large municipalities in Bangladesh. Inadequate institutional rules and regulations, ambiguous system for financial management and shady practices create a large degree of discontent amongst officials and impede both inter-organizational and intra-organizational coordination in implementing urban infrastructure policy. In addition, central-local relations, different modes of operation and patterns of accountability act as barriers to sound working relationships between the city corporation and other government departments and autonomous agencies operating within the jurisdiction of the city corporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does political ideology inform the changing roles and perceptions of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) within international development policy? This paper adopts an anthropological approach to this question and argues that the ideas that have shaped the growth of interest among donors in NGOs are rooted in the wider politics of how development has come to be 'managed'. It draws on recent research from the contexts of Bangladesh and the Philippines to illustrate how ideas about governance and the 'third sector' are constructed, maintained and transgressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Participatory Geographical Information System (PGIS) has been developed recently to design and adapt Geographic Information System (GIS) that draws on the diversity of experiences associated with "participatory development" and involves communities in the production of GIS data and spatial decision-making tools. Participatory approach in the development of GIS helps to develop local knowledge processes. This knowledge process creates a channel of coordination between local people and the experts. The paper deals with the possibility of using spatial maps in consultation with local communities to develop an effective and sustainable distribution planning to maximize as well as ensure safe water coverage for the arsenic (As) exposed population in Matlab Upazila in southeastern Bangladesh. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods along with GIS were used to obtain relevant information from the field. Participants from different focus-groups were asked to determine their "own priorities" for spatial planning of alternative As-safe drinking water options. The study reveals that about 70% of the alternative safe water options were distributed after consultation with people. These distributed options were found to be superimposed within the existing safe water buffer zones which otherwise could have been avoided and thus increased the safe water coverage if the spatial maps were also consulted before selection of final installation sites. The study based on the community perspectives on demand-based safe water options thus reveals the suitability of using PGIS techniques for rational distribution of safe water options. The process of participatory mapping within focus-groups further makes a platform to enhance information about community needs of suitable safe water options in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NGO-supplied drinking water infrastructure projects routinely include collective action development approaches. • However, NGO support impact on community management of drinking water systems seems minimal. • NGO support is not driven by a vision regarding collective action requirements. • If targeting collective action requirements, NGO support imposes generic approaches. • NGO support to empower communities to craft self-management solutions is lacking. In this article, we link NGO-supplied drinking water infrastructure projects with collective action development approaches. Although governing local, shared drinking water systems (DWS) requires users to act collectively, users rarely organize such collective action successfully by themselves. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are therefore frequently called upon to support local communities to set up or consolidate the kind of local collective action required for governing DWSs. However, the effectiveness of such forms of NGO support remains unclear. Therefore, this paper attempts to assess the form and impact of this kind of NGO support. Combining insights gained from theory on institutions for collective action in the context of shared resource systems, we develop a set of requirements presumed necessary for guaranteeing both day-to-day and long-term collective action among local shared DWS users. We apply this framework to empirically explore if, how and why NGO support targets these requirements, and whether this support influences users' capacity for collective action. To this end we examine 11 cases where NGOs have worked with users of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) systems in Bangladesh. We collected data through focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews with local leaders, NGO officials, and project staff, and by reviewing project documentation. We find that NGO support favors long-term requirements over the requirements for day-to-day collective action. NGO activities seem based on applying standard approaches to training and awareness raising, and less on empowering users to craft their own solutions. A case for a lasting impact of NGO support on any of the requirements is hard to make. Our results imply that when attempting to organize effective and long-lasting forms of collective action among the users of shared resource systems, both NGOs and commissioners of projects need to engage more explicitly in learning what works and what doesn't. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]