ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on the institutions, process, and intricacies of the initial attempts to construct a development policy that would be independent of external pressure and based on national hopes and aspirations. It makes a rapid review of the evolution of Bangladesh's engagement with the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) and also presents the implications of international financial institutions (IFIs) reform measures on Bangladesh. The political culture of unaccountability eventually has made the successive regimes vulnerable to the pressures and policy conditionality of the donors and Bangladesh's engagement with donors' policy prescriptions has continued to be pervasive. Yet irrespective of regimes, donors have successfully emerged to continue their influence on Bangladesh's economic development. The scope of participation of the stakeholders in developing a development strategy such as the First Five-Year Plan (FFYP) was so poor that even a member of the Planning Commission was deliberately bypassed.
