17. Ahmed M. (2000), ‘Promoting Public-Private Partnership in Health and Education: The Case of Bangladesh’, in Wang Y. (Ed.) Public Private Partnership in the Social Sector: Issues and Country Experiences in Asia and the Pacific, ADBI Policy Paper No.1, ADBI, Tokyo, Japan, 219-291.

The author, who was the Director of UNICEF office, Japan, attempts to examine the Bangladesh experience in public-private partnership with the aim of highlighting the issues in relationships and interaction among multiple actors in both public and private sectors. The paper also aims to draw conclusions regarding strategies for promoting effective partnership with the aim of expanding the reach and improving the quality of health and education services. The author cautions that the case study is not meant to be a comprehensive review of health and education sectors of Bangladesh. Nor is it an extensive survey of programmes and activities of the well-known NGOs and various other actors in public and private sectors. It is argued that building a strong alliance among all those who can contribute to meeting the needs of people in respect of basic social services is a concern shared by the Asian Development Bank and UNICEF, where the author works. The author discussed three important question in the paper. These are, what is partnership in the context of the responsibilities of the government and other actors in health and education fields?; Who are the principal actors in the potential partnership on either side of the public-private divide? And what are appropriate criteria for judging the effectiveness of partnership? The author goes on to delineate the meaning of partnership, definition of private and public sectors, meaning of effective partnership, an overview of health and education system in Bangladesh and the role of government and the NGOs in both the sectors, and strategies for their future involvement as partners.