Lucia Fernandez

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Public Administration23 Oct 2025

Tracking a Complaint: Administrative Handoffs in Rural Water-Service Repair

Nabila Karim, Lucia Fernandez

Rural residents often report water-service failures through several offices before a repair is authorised. This study follows complaint handling in twelve union parishads across two Bangladeshi districts to identify where administrative delays accumulate. Researchers reconstructed 173 repair cases from registers, interviewed 39 officials and residents, and observed service desks for eight weeks. Event-history analysis distinguished time awaiting inspection, approval, procurement, and final verification. Cases requiring confirmation from more than one office remained unresolved longer, even when recorded repair costs were similar. Interviews showed that residents frequently carried documents between offices because staff lacked a shared way to track responsibility. A locally maintained referral ledger shortened some handoffs but did not resolve shortages of replacement parts. The findings connect service delays to fragmented information as well as material constraints. Incomplete registers may underrepresent complaints that were abandoned early. Improving rural maintenance requires clear ownership of referrals, accessible progress information, and separate monitoring of administrative waiting time and procurement delays.

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Political Science19 Oct 2025

Who Speaks at Ward Meetings? Participation and Agenda Control in Two Bangladeshi Municipalities

Maliha Islam, Nabila Karim, Lucia Fernandez

Public meetings can expand consultation while leaving substantial control over local priorities with established representatives. This article examines participation and agenda setting in ward meetings in two medium-sized Bangladeshi municipalities. The research combines observations of 24 meetings, a survey of 198 attendees, and interviews with 32 councillors, residents, and municipal staff. Speaking turns were coded by topic, gender, and whether an intervention received a recorded administrative response. Residents raised drainage and street-lighting problems frequently, but meeting chairs devoted more time to projects already listed in municipal plans. Women participated more often when neighbourhood associations submitted questions collectively before meetings. Attendance alone consequently overstated opportunities to influence spending priorities. Differences between municipalities suggest that advance circulation of agendas matters when accompanied by clear procedures for recording unanswered questions. The sample excludes residents who never attended, limiting conclusions about overall political inclusion. Municipal consultation could become more accountable through public response registers that connect residents' proposals to subsequent decisions and explanations of resource constraints.