ONGOING RESEARCH: BANGLADESH
SOAS-ACE IN BANGLADESH
In Bangladesh, SOAS-ACE addresses critical corruption challenges across various sectors that significantly impact the country’s development.
Current research includes an analysis of the factors that enabled a successful popular
collective action to overthrow a highly repressive regime that had engaged in state capture
over fifteen years.
We are also building on our prior research into power procurement. Previously, the programme explored the power sector’s subsidy structures, revealing how changing forms of subsidies can increase political risks and limit bidding opportunities for competent investors, thereby escalating costs and corruption. Now, we are testing our horizontal checking framework as applied to the process of investigating corruption in power contracts.
In the education sector, we are assessing whether, in contrast with public schools, non-state schools enjoy a greater sense of ownership by the local communities that select these schools, and therefore if horizontal checks exist here that could be leveraged for anti-corruption in education.
In addition, we are tracking the implementation of strategies we had recommended for the pharmaceuticals and health sectors. Our research showed that the excess profits of leading pharmaceutical companies enable them to promote their drugs as superior by funding illicit payments to doctors for prescribing them. Our recommendation, now to be implemented, was that the drug regulator should specify all the efficacy and impurity criteria for each drug formulation and certify that these conditions are met, backed by random tests from then on. Further, SOAS-ACE’s health research in Bangladesh highlighted incentives leading to corrupt practices among health workers, such as absenteeism. We argued that absenteeism is more likely to be reduced if ‘reasonable reasons’ for absenteeism are addressed. This is too going to be tested.
We have also been examining the intersection of climate change and corruption, specifically where the misallocation of funds hampers Bangladesh’s ability to adapt to environmental changes. We have highlighted how ‘dual-use’ climate adaptation projects – such as embankments that can be used as community centres – offer opportunities for reduced corruption through greater monitoring of implementation by influential actors.
Another research project has examined the effectiveness of digitising the land record and mutation system in combating endemic corruption related to land rights enforcement in Bangladesh.
In the garments sector, SOAS-ACE has explored the potential for combating smuggling by leveraging the incentives of powerful organisations negatively impacted by specific smuggling activities. Yet another SOAS-ACE study in the garments sector suggested joint efforts to enhance skills training alongside factory organisational capability upgrades to reduce corruption while strengthening productivity.
OUR PROJECTS IN BANGLADESH
Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Strategies for the Education Sector
There is a perception in Bangladesh that, in contrast with public schools, non-state schools enjoy a greater sense of ownership by local communities that select these schools. This project is testing this perception. It may be that horizontal checks and educational outcomes are better in the same localities for non-state schools, with important implications for governance and anti-corruption.
Bangladesh Student Uprising: Successful Collective Action against State Capture
The 2024 student-led uprising in Bangladesh was the first successful Generation Z-led political movement that resulted in a successful overthrow of a repressive and corrupt autocracy. This research documents and analyses the factors that enabled a successful popular collective action to overthrow a highly repressive regime that had engaged in state capture over fifteen years.
Climate change in Bangladesh
The impact of this corruption has significantly affected Bangladesh’s ability to prepare for the effects of climate change. This project focuses on examining the multiplicity of agencies involved in the allocation, monitoring and implementation of climate change funds to understand how to direct resources more efficiently.
Corruption in land ‘e-mutation‘ in Bangladesh
This research project questions the efficacy and implications of the official strategy of digitisation of the land record and land mutation system as a way of addressing the endemic corruption in the enforcement of land rights.
Health providers in Bangladesh
Health systems in many countries create incentives for health workers to engage in corrupt practices that lead to inappropriate and ineffective care, leading to high costs and poor outcomes for those in need of care. This multi-method research aims to understand the choices made by health providers, given a series of hypothetical anti-corruption strategies.
Electricity in Bangladesh
This project examined the complex relationship between the mode of subsidy provided to the power sector and the types of investors and investments it attracts.
Pharmaceuticals procurement in Bangladesh
The excess profits of the top companies allow them to market their drugs as ‘better’ drugs, by funding grey or illicit payments to doctors to prescribe these expensive drugs. Our research maps how the economics of this process works and shows that from a pharmacological point of view there is no difference between the more expensive and cheaper versions of the same drugs.
Smuggling and enforcement of tax codes in the garments industry in Bangladesh
The textile industry’s efforts to protect itself through high tariffs has not been very successful due to smuggled garments that evade the tariff. This research investigates the feasibility of fighting smuggling using the incentives of powerful organisations adversely affected by specific types of smuggling.
Skills in Bangladesh
This research suggests that corruption and fraud in skills training programmes may be a result of an inappropriate design of incentives to improve the marketability of skills.
Tracking research to policy and implementation in the pharmaceutical sector in Bangladesh
SOAS-ACE research on pharmaceutical sector overpricing and health workers’ absenteeism has been adopted by a multi-partner coalition pushing for health sector anti-corruption in Bangladesh The coalition is implementing our recommended strategies, and we are tracking this process to produce lessons on converting research into practice.
LATEST FROM OUR WORK IN BANGLADESH
Skills Training, Corruption and Organisational Capabilities: An Analysis of Bangladesh’s Garment Industry
Authors: Mushtaq Khan, Sumaiya Kabir, Sophie van Huellen
Publication date: July 2025
Skills training programmes are critical for job creation and structural transformation in developing countries. However, they often achieve poor results because of corruption. By looking at evidence of fraud in ...
Case Study: Reducing corruption in climate infrastructure in Bangladesh
Authors: SOAS-ACE
Publication date: June 2025
This case study was developed as part of the SOAS ACE “How to” guide, “Navigating the Political Economy of Corruption: Observing and understanding actors’ behaviours, to inform effective policy”. The ...
Resource leakages in primary schools in Bangladesh: Do horizontal checks have an effect on the quality of governance?
Authors: Mushtaq Khan, Mehnaz Rabbani, Faruq Hossain, Rabeena Sultana Ananna
Publication date: March 2025
Bangladesh has successfully increased spending on primary education and achieved impressive improvements in enrolment rates; however, the quality of learning outcomes remains a serious concern. The governance of schools is ...
Navigating the Political Economy of Corruption: Observing and understanding actors’ behaviours, to inform effective policy
Authors: Alan Hudson, Katherine Bain, Mushtaq Khan, Pallavi Roy, Duncan Edwards
Publication date: March 2025
This “how-to” guide makes the SOAS ACE approach accessible to practitioners and policymakers to pick up and apply within their own anti-corruption and policy design work. It introduces key concepts ...
Who is absent and why? Factors affecting doctor absenteeism in Bangladesh
Authors: Mir Raihanul Islam, Blake Angell, Nahitun Naher, Bushra Zarin Islam, Mushtaq Khan, Martin McKee, Eleanor Hutchinson, Dina Balabanova, Syed Masud Ahmed
Publication date: April 2024
Absenteeism by doctors in public healthcare facilities in rural Bangladesh is a form of chronic rule-breaking and is recognised as a critical problem by the government. We explored the factors ...
Collusive Pricing in Solar Power in Bangladesh: Mapping Informal Processes and Corruption Risks
Authors: Mushtaq Khan, Muhammad Zakir Hossain Khan, Arafat Hossain Rafi, Shadman Sakib Khalili, Tonmay Saha
Publication date: March 2024
We mapped the formal and informal processes involved in contracting for solar power projects in Bangladesh. The governance of these processes has been poor, and Bangladesh has been contracting solar ...
The Persistence of Informal Practices and Payments in Digitalised Government Services: A Scoping Study of Trade Licensing in Bangladesh
Authors: Meraz Ahmed, Wazida Hasan, Md. Amran Hossain, Zabirr Hossain, Zulkarin Jahangir, Mushtaq Khan, Md. Abdullah Al Mamun, Rumana Sharmin, Munshi Sulaiman
Publication date: March 2024
Digitalisation of government services in developing countries is often heralded as a tool for enhancing transparency, improving service quality and mitigating informal payments to government officials. However, the impact of ...
The overpricing of medicines in Bangladesh: Quality certification as an effective anti-corruption tool
Authors: Mushtaq Khan, Sumaiya Khair, Salahuddin Aminuzzaman, Md Shahnur Rahman, Rezaul Jalil
Publication date: March 2024
In Bangladesh, as in many developing countries, the absence of regulatory information about the quality of medicines allows identical medicines to be sold at much higher prices by some brands, ...
A New Approach to Anti-Corruption – When Rule-Breakers rule
Authors: Pallavi Roy, Agata Slota, Mushtaq Khan
Publication date: December 2022
This toolkit provides a step by step guide to analysing corruption problems and developing realistic and effective anti-corruption strategies in contexts where the rule of law is weak. It is ...
CASE STUDY: Reducing Corruption in Bangladesh’s Climate Adaptation Projects
This case study delves into Bangladesh’s political settlement and sectoral dynamics to identify opportunities for reducing corruption in climate adaptation investments. It highlights how ‘dual-use’ climate adaptation projects offer opportunities for reduced corruption through stronger monitoring by influential actors.
