43 Rahman, M. M. (2011). Development Agenda and Policy Ownership: Mapping Civil Service’s Contribution to PRSP in Bangladesh, JOAAG, Vol. 6. No. 1 Development Agenda and Policy Ownership: Mapping Civil Service’s Contribution to PRSP in Bangladesh 1 Md. Mizanur Rahman 2 Abstract: Lack of policy ownership was considered the main reason for failure of the development policies of the World Bank-IMF in loan receiving countries during the structural adjustment regime. In response to previous failures, the Bank-Fund introduced a new policy recipe called poverty reduction strategy paper PRSP where policy ownership was a major ingredient. Ownership was supposed to be institutionalized through participation of stakeholders in loan receiving countries, including the civil service. The civil service in Bangladesh like other countries arguably is an important constituent in development policy formulation process. While the article principally aims to explore the contribution of the civil service to Bangladesh’s PRSP to examine policy ownership in development agenda taking PRSP a case in point, it also establishes the merit of exploring civil services’ role in development agenda setting citing examples from Southeast Asian nations. Key Words: PRSP, Civil Service, Policy Ownership, Bangladesh 1 The article is generated from the PhD dissertation of the author. See for details Rahman, 2009. 2 A career civil servant in Bangladesh and currently works in the Ministry of Industries. Email: mizan.civilservice@gmail.com