Effective responses to COVID-19 depend on citizens cooperating with government in the lockdown, testing and treatment regimes. This report summarizes findings from rapid qualitative research in 20 communities across Bangladesh about local responses to COVID-19 undertaken between 6-15 April 2020, designed to inform government and its partners about how their policies and communications are being received and acted upon by communities. Three broad topics covered in the telephone surveys conducted for the research were: experiences of the lockdown; community needs; and institutions, key actors, and trust. The research was designed and undertaken by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and Development Research Initiative (dRi) in Bangladesh, in collaboration with researchers from the Accountability Research Center at American University and Georgetown University in the United States.

Effective responses to COVID-19 depend on citizens cooperating with the government in the lockdown, testing and treatment regimes. With multiple cases of defiance against the government-imposed restrictions on travel and mass gatherings in the earlier stages of the COVID-19 crisis in Bangladesh, ensuring citizen cooperation has continued to pose a huge challenge. Government and its partners need to know how their policies and statements are being received and acted upon by communities so that they can design or adapt them as necessary.

With that in mind, in partnership with the researchers from the Accountability Research Center at American University and Georgetown University in the US and Development Research Initiative (dRi), BIGD studied the collective community responses to COVID-19 through a phone-based qualitative survey.

The findings from the research, which were presented in a webinar by Dr Naomi Hossain, University of Sussex, show that people have largely become more positive towards lockdown initiatives, although many are losing trust in the Government because of delayed assistance and confusion regarding government assistance programs. The active participation of local government, local community-based organisations and private charitable initiatives was noticeable, contrasting with the relatively low visibility of NGOs in COVID-19 initiatives.