Policy Research

Evidence-Based Policymaking in Bangladesh: Institutions, Capacity, and the Research-Policy Gap

Executive Summary

Bangladesh's policy research ecosystem presents a paradox: the country hosts approximately 50 think tanks and research institutions, including internationally recognized bodies such as BIDS (ranked in Asia's top 25) and CPD (global top 90), yet evidence-based policymaking remains the exception rather than the norm. Research and development expenditure at 0.30% of GDP is very low, researcher density at 30.0 per million population is a fraction of regional peers, and governance quality indicators averaging -0.80 on the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators scale reflect persistent institutional weakness. The gap between Bangladesh's demonstrated capacity for economic growth (4.2% GDP growth) and its inability to translate that growth into effective, evidence-informed governance represents one of the country's most consequential development challenges.

Think Tank Landscape and Institutional Capacity

Bangladesh's think tank ecosystem has evolved from a handful of government-affiliated research bodies at independence in 1971 to a diverse landscape of approximately 50 institutions spanning public policy, economics, governance, and social development. The ecosystem can be understood in three tiers.

The first tier comprises established institutions with genuine research capacity and international recognition. The Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), established in 1957 as the Bureau of Economic Research and reorganized in 1971, remains the country's premier policy research institution, ranked among Asia's top 25 think tanks by the University of Pennsylvania's TTCSP Global Go To Think Tank Index. BIDS produces rigorous empirical research on poverty, labor markets, agriculture, and macroeconomic policy, and its senior fellows have shaped Bangladesh's poverty reduction strategies, trade policies, and social protection programs. The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), ranked in the global top 90, has been particularly influential in trade policy, macroeconomic analysis, and LDC graduation preparedness, producing the annual Independent Review of Bangladesh's Development (IRBD) that serves as a de facto shadow budget analysis.

The second tier includes specialized institutions: the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC, poverty and social protection), the Institute of Governance Studies at BRAC University (governance and anticorruption), the Policy Research Institute (PRI, economic policy advisory to government), and the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI, private sector development). These institutions maintain smaller but focused research programs and have varying degrees of influence on policy. PRI is distinctive in that it functions as a quasi-governmental advisory body, providing direct policy input to the Ministry of Finance and Planning Commission, which gives it policy proximity but raises questions about analytical independence.

The third tier, comprising the majority of the approximately 50 institutions, consists of smaller NGO research wings, consultancy firms that label themselves as think tanks, and advocacy organizations with limited research capacity. Many of these entities depend entirely on project-based donor funding, producing research shaped by donor priorities rather than national policy needs. Their output is often descriptive rather than analytical, lacks methodological rigor, and circulates within donor networks without reaching policymakers or the public. This structural dependence on external funding creates a research ecosystem that is both fragmented and misaligned with Bangladesh's own policy priorities.

Research Investment and Human Capital

Bangladesh's R&D expenditure at 0.30% of GDP is among the lowest not only in Asia but globally. For comparison, India invests approximately 0.7% of GDP in R&D, Vietnam 0.5%, Malaysia 1.0%, China 2.4%, and South Korea 4.8%. The gap of 0.70 percentage points to reach the 1% threshold, itself modest by international standards, represents approximately $2.5-3.0 billion in annual underinvestment relative to the size of the economy. This chronic underinvestment manifests in every dimension of the research system: inadequate laboratory infrastructure, outdated university libraries, low researcher salaries that drive brain drain, and insufficient funding for the kinds of large-scale, longitudinal studies that generate policy-relevant evidence.

Researcher density at 30.0 per million population is strikingly low. India has approximately 255 researchers per million, Vietnam 700, Malaysia 2,300, and South Korea 8,700. Bangladesh's gap of approximately 470 researchers per million to reach even a modest benchmark of 500 per million reflects both limited postgraduate education capacity and severe brain drain. The country produces approximately 1500 PhD graduates annually, a number that is both insufficient for a population of 170 million and diminished by the fact that a substantial fraction of PhD holders emigrate or shift to non-research careers due to inadequate research infrastructure and compensation.

Government education expenditure at 1.8% of GDP, among the lowest in the world (the global average is approximately 4.3%, and UNESCO recommends 4-6%), constrains the entire human capital pipeline. Tertiary enrollment at 23.7% gross enrollment ratio means that roughly four out of five young Bangladeshis do not access higher education, limiting the pool from which researchers, policy analysts, and evidence-literate civil servants can be drawn. The National University system, which accounts for the majority of undergraduate enrollment through its affiliated colleges, produces graduates with limited analytical and research skills due to outdated curricula, rote-based examination systems, and minimal exposure to research methodology.

Data Ecosystem and Statistical Infrastructure

The quality of evidence-based policymaking is ultimately bounded by the quality of available data, and Bangladesh's data ecosystem remains underdeveloped. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the primary national statistical agency, faces persistent challenges: an outdated sampling frame (the 2011 census frame was used for household surveys until 2022), long delays between data collection and publication (the 2022 Population Census preliminary results took over a year to release), limited integration of administrative data from line ministries, and a staffing structure that prioritizes data collection over analysis.

The statistical capacity score of 62.0 out of 100 on the World Bank's Statistical Capacity Index reflects moderate methodology and data source adequacy but weak periodicity and timeliness. Key gaps include: the absence of a regular labor force survey with quarterly frequency (the LFS is conducted every 3-4 years), limited enterprise-level data for industrial policy, inadequate vital registration coverage (birth and death registration remain incomplete, particularly in rural areas), and the lack of an integrated national data warehouse that links survey data with administrative records from tax, customs, health, and education systems.

The open data score of 35.0 out of 100 indicates that Bangladesh has made some progress in data transparency but falls well short of international standards. The Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2009 was a landmark piece of legislation, but its implementation has been disappointing. With approximately 8500 requests filed annually and a compliance rate of 65.0%, the Act is underutilized relative to its potential. Barriers include: low public awareness of the right to information, bureaucratic resistance to disclosure (particularly of financial and procurement data), the absence of proactive disclosure norms, weak enforcement by the Information Commission (which lacks the staff and authority to compel compliance from powerful ministries), and the absence of digital infrastructure for managing and tracking requests.

Governance Quality and Policy Implementation

Bangladesh's governance quality indicators on the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are negative across all six dimensions, with government effectiveness at -0.80, regulatory quality at -0.90, and rule of law at -0.70, yielding a three-indicator average of -0.80. This places Bangladesh's governance quality as weak relative to global norms. The government effectiveness change of +0.00 and regulatory quality change of +0.00 suggest stagnation or deterioration in institutional capacity.

The 50 parliamentary standing committees represent the primary institutional mechanism for legislative oversight and policy scrutiny. In principle, these committees review legislation, examine budgets, oversee ministry performance, and commission policy research. In practice, their effectiveness is severely constrained by several factors: irregular meeting schedules (many committees meet fewer than 10 times per year), lack of independent research staff (committees rely on ministry officials for briefings, creating an obvious conflict of interest), limited technical expertise among members, absence of public hearings as a regular practice, and the dominance of party discipline over independent scrutiny. The contrast with India's PRS Legislative Research, an independent organization that provides non-partisan research briefs to all parliamentarians, illustrates the gap. Bangladesh has no equivalent institution, and the Parliamentary Research Office within the Jatiya Sangsad Secretariat lacks the capacity, independence, and mandate to fill this role.

Regulatory impact assessment (RIA), the systematic evaluation of proposed regulations for their economic, social, and environmental effects before enactment, is virtually absent from Bangladesh's policymaking process. Regulations are typically drafted within ministries with minimal public consultation, no systematic cost-benefit analysis, and no post-implementation review mechanism. The absence of RIA means that regulations with significant economic consequences, from minimum wage orders to environmental compliance requirements to digital platform regulations, are enacted based on political considerations and bureaucratic precedent rather than evidence of their likely effects. The Regulatory Reform Commission established in 2007 produced some initial assessments but has been largely inactive.

Research-Policy Linkage and Knowledge Translation

The central challenge of Bangladesh's policy research ecosystem is not the absence of research but the weakness of the mechanisms that translate research findings into policy decisions. Several structural factors explain this gap.

First, the commissioning model is broken. Government ministries rarely commission policy research from independent think tanks or universities, preferring instead to rely on internal analysis (which lacks rigor and independence), bilateral donor-funded consultancy reports (which serve donor priorities), or ad hoc expert committees (which often lack empirical foundations). The Planning Commission's research budget is minimal, and there is no equivalent of the UK's "What Works" centres or the US Congressional Research Service that systematically produces and curates policy-relevant evidence.

Second, the incentive structures within academia and think tanks do not reward policy engagement. University researchers are evaluated on journal publications (preferably in international journals), conference presentations, and student supervision, not on policy influence or stakeholder engagement. Think tank researchers are evaluated on project completion and donor satisfaction, not on whether their findings are adopted by government. This creates a system where high-quality research, when it exists, circulates in academic and donor networks but never reaches the decision-makers who could act on it.

Third, the media ecosystem, which in other countries serves as a crucial intermediary between research and policy, is underdeveloped in its capacity to interpret and communicate research findings. Bangladeshi media covers politics extensively but rarely engages with policy research in a substantive way. Data journalism is in its infancy, and the few organizations attempting evidence-based policy communication (including platforms like BDPolicy Lab) operate with limited resources and reach.

Policy Outlook and Recommendations

Strengthening Bangladesh's evidence-based policymaking infrastructure is not a luxury but a developmental necessity. As the country approaches LDC graduation (scheduled for 2026), navigates the loss of trade preferences, manages climate adaptation at scale, and seeks to diversify beyond garment manufacturing, the quality of policy decisions will increasingly determine economic outcomes. Six recommendations are essential:

• Establish a National Policy Research Fund: A dedicated fund, modeled on India's ICSSR or the UK's Economic and Social Research Council, should be established with an initial allocation of 0.05% of GDP (approximately $200 million) to commission policy-relevant research from universities and think tanks on government-identified priority topics. The fund should be governed by an independent board with representation from academia, civil society, and government, with peer-reviewed grant allocation.
• Create a Parliamentary Research Service: An independent, non-partisan research body within the Jatiya Sangsad, modeled on India's PRS Legislative Research or the US Congressional Research Service, should be established to provide legislators with evidence briefs on pending legislation, budget analysis, and policy options. This would strengthen parliamentary oversight and reduce dependence on ministry-provided information.
• Mandate Regulatory Impact Assessment: All major regulations with significant economic effects should be subject to mandatory RIA before enactment, including cost-benefit analysis, stakeholder consultation, and a sunset clause requiring periodic review. The OECD's Regulatory Policy framework provides a tested template for implementation.
• Modernize BBS and the national data architecture: The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics needs investment in digital infrastructure, staff capacity (particularly in data science and geospatial analysis), and institutional independence. Priority reforms include: a regular quarterly labor force survey, an integrated data warehouse linking survey and administrative data, adoption of open data standards and machine-readable publication of all statistical outputs, and implementation of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS).
• Invest in researcher pipeline and retention: Increasing R&D expenditure toward the 1% of GDP target, expanding competitive PhD fellowships with mandatory return-service bonds, establishing postdoctoral research positions in public universities and government research institutes, and creating a national research career framework with compensation competitive with the private sector and diaspora alternatives.
• Build South-South policy learning networks: Bangladesh should actively pursue policy knowledge exchange with peer countries that have successfully built evidence-based policymaking capacity, particularly Vietnam (which has invested heavily in research infrastructure and policy evaluation), Rwanda (which has pioneered data-driven governance in an LDC context), and Malaysia (which successfully transitioned from a commodity-dependent to a knowledge-based economy with strong institutional research support).

*Data sources: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), University of Pennsylvania TTCSP Global Go To Think Tank Index, World Bank Statistical Capacity Index, Bangladesh Information Commission Annual Report, OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook.*