How does local governance affect project outcomes? Experience from a Participatory Forestry (PF) project in Bangladesh

By sampling two contrasting villages of the Upland Settlement Project (USP), a PF project of Bangladesh, this research examines: • the present conditions of the USP in terms of progress towards achieving targeted objectives • issues of local-level governance that affect attaining those objectives. Findings indicate that the project authority could not adequately attain project objectives because of low level of participation, lack of accountability and transparency in handling project money, gaps in communication and information flow and the poor response of project staff. For better project outcomes, governance situation need to be improved through the formation of social capital.