A reinvention laboratory with a difference: a USAID re-engineering initiative in Bangladesh

In September 1995 the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) gave approval to ten laboratories (three in Africa, three in the Latin American and Caribbean Region, two in Asia; as well as two in headquarters in Washington DC (USAID, undated: 3). Among the ten so approved was the USAID Bangladesh (USAID/B) Mission which undertook to experiment with re-engineering specifically for purposes of designing a democracy strategy. This article will focus on this particular laboratory as a case study in re-engineering. First, it will juxtapose two strains of theory, very different, yet both helpful in understanding the dynamics of public sector change. It will then relate the experience of the laboratory. Third, and since this is a case of a laboratory operating outside of the US and with non-US partners and 'customers', it will discuss a few issues arising from this cross-national initiative - That is what makes it 'a laboratory with a difference'. The article concludes with a discussion of two topics: The applicability of the reinvention laboratory model to poor countries; and the meaning of the laboratory's experiences in terms of the two approaches discussed in the introduction.