A qualitative longitudinal study on land administration in Bangladesh

Citizen’s Charters are proven to be effective tools for public sector management, engagement, and the promotion of good governance at a global level. Prominent components of this public sector management tool include public service delivery and accountability. In Bangladesh, the Citizen’s Charter was established in 2008, with little known about its effect. To explore the impact of the Bangladesh Citizen’s Charter, a qualitative longitudinal study was undertaken at the local government land administration. This study was carried out in two-phases: the first study was conducted in 2012 followed by another in 2016, with the aim of investigating whether the charter improved public service delivery and accountability over this 4-year interval. The data collection instrument used to undertake this correlational study was face-to-face in-depth semi-structured individual interviews. Using this approach enabled the researcher both to gather data in the form of stories from the participants and obtain participants’ points of view on their user-experiences of the land office services. The methods applied to recruit and select participants included systematic random sampling and purposive sampling. The research findings showed that 8 years after its introduction in Bangladesh public sector, the features of the charter were unknown to the general population and public service users. Furthermore, the charters in Bangladesh were considered a top-down initiative rather than a consumer-focused or customer-driven initiative