Roles of NGOs, State and For-Profit Actors in Improving Maternal and Child Sector in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has been touted as a successful model for integrating non-state actors in the development efforts. Many have argued that civil society organisations like developmental NGOs have been particularly important in advancing local development and women’s empowerment. In this chapter, I analyse the dynamics of the roles played by various actors, including the state, NGOs and the private sector in human development, but with a special focus on the maternal and child health domain, a small but important component of the overall health sector. By most accounts, there have been some successes in improving the maternal and child health outcomes over the last two decades, in parallel with an overall improvement of human development indicators in the country. I argue…