Strengthening local governance is a priority to government of Bangladesh. Till today, various legislations have been reformed and enacted. This has given an opportunity for organizations working on strengthening governance and social accountability. The 2009 pourashava act given people to participate, involve in planning and budgeting. More importantly, this legislative reform has enabled local citizens to voice out concerns in union parishad (UP) issues directly creating a formal basis for institutionalizing social accountability within UP governance. However, there are constraints. Local elected bodies (LEBs) are less aware of their roles and being transparent. Citizens are not satisfactorily informed and engaged with UPs in participatory planning and budgeting. Citizens also have difficulties accessing resources, services from various line departments, civil society organization (CSOs) and private sector service providers. The participation and representation of marginalized women remains unsatisfactory.

In this context, it is important to ensure the voices of the poor and marginalized women. To address these constrains Rupantar has been implementing projects in 8 districts under governance and democracy programs in rural, semi-urban and urban areas. These districts include Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Jashore, Chuadanga, Pabna, Barishal and Pirozpur with grant support from Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Democracy International (DI). The democracy and governance program aims at improving capacity of the local elected bodies for providing better services to the citizens. The objective of the program is to increase local level governance, transparency and accountability through participation of people and promote grassroots women leadership.