Local governments' provisions and sections in disaster: Lesson learned from the post-pandemic era

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has engendered an extraordinary situation by threatening people’s lives and their organisations worldwide. Despite mainly being a health-related issue, due to prolonged lockdown, limited activities, and fearful lifestyle, the pandemic affects socio-economic conditions and tests governments’ capacity. In mitigating the disastrous effects of COVID-19, besides national government, sub-national governments’ roles remain substantial. Accordingly, their performance investigation, specifically in overpopulated countries like Bangladesh, may produce thought-provoking outcomes for the post-COVID-19 period. In light of these, the current chapter thoroughly scrutinises related customs and provisions of local governments, like disaster management guidelines. These are used as benchmarks to examine myriads activities performed by local governments while fighting the pandemic. This study reveals that local government institutions are devolved power to supply food and other essentials to the marginalised people based on secondary data. Additionally, notable successes are reported in fulfilling a few provisions of the guidelines, while many provisions remain unsatisfied. In some cases, derogatory acts stain the efforts. The government has taken punitive actions against the miscreants to curb these irregularities. However, experts believe that besides disciplinary measures, ensuring transparency and accountability of officials, building officials and citizens’ capacity, and engaging NGOs in service delivery can result in needed outputs.