Bangladesh is Located in the north-eastern part of South Asia. The majestic Himalayas stand some distance to the north, while in the south lays the Bay of Bengal. West Bengal borders on the west and in the east lay the hilly and forested regions of Tripura, Mizoram (India) and Myanmar. These picturesque geographical boundaries frame a low lying plain of about 1,47,570 square kilometers, criss-crossed by innumerable rivers and streams. Mighty rivers are Padma (Ganges), Brahmaputra (Jamuna), Meghna and Karnafuli. Civilization in the Bengal delta dates back more than 4,300 years. The borders of present-day Bangladesh were established during the British partition of Bengal and India in 1947, when the region became East Pakistan, part of the newly formed state of Pakistan. It was separated from West Pakistan by 1,600 km (994 mi) of Indian Territory. Due to a desire for political, economic and linguistic self-determination, popular agitation and civil disobedience grew against the Pakistani state. This culminated in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. The People’s Republic of Bangladesh was founded as a constitutional, secular, democratic, multiparty, parliamentary republic. After independence, Bangladesh went through periods of poverty and famine, as well as political turmoil and military coups. The restoration of democracy in 1991 has been followed by considerable advances in economic, political, and social development.

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Bangladesh has made impressive gains in key human development indicators in recent years. According to the 2018 UNDP Human Development Index Statistical Update, Bangladesh ranks 136th among 189 countries with an HDI score of 0.608, placing it among countries considered to have achieved medium human development. 8 million people have moved out of poverty since 2010. The country is also on track to reach the first Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. But even as Bangladesh has taken these considerable steps towards poverty alleviation, many challenges remain. As of 2016, almost a quarter of the population (24.3%) still lives in poverty. The constant threat of shocks – natural, political, or economic – the uncertain impact of globalization and an increasingly competitive international trade environment impede higher growth rates. In addition, structural changes in rural Bangladesh have spurred rapid economic migration. This exacerbates urban poverty, creates a lack of reliable work and leads to congestion and limited shelter in urban areas. The rate of reduction in urban poverty has decreased in the last few years, only decreasing by 2.4% percentage points (from 21.3% to 18.9%). Bangladesh thus faces considerable challenges to sustain and build on the achievements of the last decade, and to remain on track to meet its targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Bangladesh is the world’s eighth most populous country and is also one of the most densely populated. The elected parliament in Bangladesh’ parliamentary electoral system is called the Jatiyo Sangsad. Bangladesh is a founding member of SAARC, the Developing 8 Countries, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and the Bangladesh–China–India–Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation (BCIM). It is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement. Bangladesh is also the world’s largest contributor to United Nations peacekeeping missions. In 2018, Bangladesh met the three UN criteria for LDC graduation, pending two triennial reviews in 2021 and 2024. Bangladesh has a centralized governance regime and a complex geography. It is vital these inequalities are addressed if poverty is to be further reduced, and a host of future problems associated with social exclusion avoided. While the country did well in meeting its headline MDG obligations, the quality and durability of some outcomes remains inadequate in the current SDG era. Major Service delivery concerns must be addressed for more effectively improving the quality of governance in Bangladesh. As inequalities get more profound and complex, there is a need to look beyond aggregate data to see whether disadvantaged groups get access to the services they need, as well as how performance varies geographically. Bangladesh retains a deep commitment to social solidarity and to a progressive development agenda. The country was one of the most successful development achievers in the MDG era and continues to do well in terms of the SDGs, including being on target to have zero extreme poverty by 2030. This is most clear in relation to maternal mortality, where Bangladesh successfully overcame a significant challenge, and, as of 2015, has brought this figure down to 176 per 100,000 births. Bangladesh’s vulnerability to disasters is significant, but the country’s track record has been exceptional at improving human security and saving lives.

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The health system of Bangladesh is currently facing competing demands: while shifting the health systems focus towards the COVID-19 response, the pandemic is disrupting the delivery of essential and lifesaving health, population and nutrition services. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have long-term impact at individual level, nationwide and across the globe, on key areas such as health care, food and nutrition, social and economy. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is making policymakers around the world rethink the healthcare systems of their respective countries. There have been growing concerns over how to make the healthcare systems better adapt to crisis like this. Developing nations like Bangladesh have suffered tremendously, which makes way for a discourse on how things can be better in terms of healthcare. In the context of the Covid-19 crisis, many researchers have identified some key issues in Bangladesh’s healthcare system, such as inequality in the healthcare sector and the effect of poverty on healthcare services, lack of mental healthcare facilities, exorbitant costs, absence of health insurance, ineffective administration, shortage of staff and equipment, lack of oversight in the pharmaceutical industry, corruption and information gap.

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Some countries have started COVID-19 vaccine roll out in the past few weeks and most people are wondering when the long-cherished first vaccine shipment will arrive in Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh has drafted a national deployment and vaccination plan to vaccinate 80% of the population in four stages. Unfortunately, as the crisis caused by COVID-19 is unlike any other crisis seen in the past, the country lacks infrastructure, logistics, resources and experience to accomplish this mammoth task. Population-wide vaccination requires the implementation of several factors, including but not limited to: increase capacity of the existing cold chain, recruit and train vaccinators, establish strong leadership, ensure proper coordination, launch awareness campaigns to address vaccine hesitancy. Proper management of the cold chain is vital to maintain the required temperature in which the vaccine shall remain potent. Therefore, it is critical to increase the capacity of the existing cold chain as a huge part of the country’s cold chain is occupied with the Measles-Rubella vaccine. Necessary measures should be taken to build new storage facilities, purchase equipment and logistics, confirm constant power supply in the storage and distribution sites, supply adequate storage vehicles and ensure careful handling as well as disposal of vials. Strong leadership is required to ensure that previously observed in coordination and miscommunication among different departments in the country does not hinder the successful implementation of vaccine deployment policy. A high-profile implementation committee, led by a high-official from the Prime Minister’s Office, should be formed to facilitate the effective implementation of the vaccine policy. Bangladesh has taken the commendable step to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Serum Institute of India (SII) to get 30 million doses of the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. In addition, Bangladesh is expecting to get 68 million doses in 2021 from the GAVI Alliance (formerly Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) under the COVAX (The COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility) facility.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is rampaging over countries across the globe, and Bangladesh is also facing its share of severe impact both in terms of loss of lives and slowdown of economy. COVID-19 is expected to leave a permanent mark on the trajectory of delivering SDGs both at country and global levels. Before the onset of COVID-19, overall poverty was declining in the country, to approx. 22% but recent post-COVID estimates imply that overall poverty could climb back to earlier eras at 43%. Marginalized and vulnerable populations face bigger challenges to safeguard their lives and livelihood. Two challenges are relevant from the perspective of structural disadvantages affecting these people – pre-existing vulnerabilities that may get emphasized due to the pandemic, and new vulnerabilities that may push these citizens further behind. Within the very difficult times with the onset of COVID-19 potentially damaging all of our lives, the challenges of poverty and inequality take on even more significance than before. It is expected that these usually left-behind groups are likely to be in dire need of policy support for resumption and recovery of their economic activities and social development. It is the right time to comprehend how post-COVID-19 uncertainties will affect SDG delivery, particularly favoring the left behind communities, in the specific country context.

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In Bangladesh country context, everything is controlled through politics which sometimes creates many obstacles to the livelihood of the grassroots and under privileged people. Although our constitution has given equal rights to get the justice and as a citizen of the country [Article 27(A)], but reality is different. This study tries to understand the role of the government, service providers and duty bearers during the Covid 19 period. The report has developed and prepared based on the findings of the Kathmandu Democracy Forum held in November 2020, and focused on updates between November 2020 and January 2021 on human rights and democracy and the civil society response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to democracy. The present Bangladesh National monitoring report covered the government and civil society response to the COVID-19 in terms of the SDGs, human rights and democracy from the civil society perspective. A set of recommendations also prepared for the CSOs, National Policy Makers and International Development actors for the next course of action. SDG’s basic philosophy ‘no one legging behind’ is the reality and there is no option to skip somebody or exclusion any segment of the society. That is the high time for Global leaders as well as national leaders for appropriately address the disparity and social goods for every citizen of the globe. Within the last two or three month we have surprisingly seeing the self centred attitudes and actions of riches and developed countries for capturing initiatives for Covid vaccine and ignored the humanities of human beings of under and least developed countries. It is really disappointing and again remind us the thousands and thousands kilometre difference between commitment and reality. We hope the active citizens of the developed countries will be pressurized their government for pro-poor global policies for overcoming the global pandemic within a short time.(to be continued)