Abstract Assuring public participation in different stages of environmental impact assessment (EIA) is essential since the success of a project largely depends on its type, nature, and process. Before starting a development project in Bangladesh, both government organizations (GOs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) need to conduct an EIA. However, in most of the governmental projects, there is still no significant influence of public participation in EIA. Contrarily, under NGO administered projects, the systematic participation in EIA is quite unknown and often goes without being acknowledged. This paper, thus, studies public participation practice in EIA through an investigation of two NGO governed projects (i.e., BRAC's fisheries and sericulture project and CARE's integrated food for work program) and compares with two projects by GOs (i.e., Rampal coal-based thermal power plant project and Jamuna multipurpose bridge project) to critically understand the prevailing differences. As well, pivotal factors responsible for differentiated nature and type of public participation being practiced within a certain institutional context are examined. The study indicates that NGOs tend to ensure participation of the pertinent stakeholders at different stages of an EIA while harnessing their inputs to successfully complete a project. By contrast, public participation in government's run projects is mostly found to be carried out towards the end of an EIA exercise, which severely limits the stakeholders' ability to contribute and questions the legitimacy of such attempt. This process of neglect systematically overlooks stakeholders' concerns, critics, and suggestions while pre-emptive motive of the project gets glorified and implemented. By tapping these voids, this study attempts to offer an insightful understanding of the gap between conventional ‘practice’ and formal ‘pledge’ when comes to ensuring public participation in various stages of EIA. This study expects to benefit other countries where NGOs are considerably involved in development projects.

中文翻译：

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公众参与环评：政府与非政府组织项目的比较研究

摘要 确保公众参与环境影响评估 (EIA) 的不同阶段至关重要，因为项目的成功在很大程度上取决于其类型、性质和过程。在孟加拉国开始开发项目之前，政府组织 (GO) 和非政府组织 (NGO) 都需要进行环境影响评估。然而，在大多数政府项目中，公众参与环评的影响仍然不显着。相反，在非政府组织管理的项目下，对环评的系统参与却鲜为人知，往往不被承认。因此，本文通过对两个非政府组织管理的项目（即 BRAC 的渔业和养蚕项目和 CARE 项目）的调查来研究 EIA 中的公众参与实践。s 综合食品换工作计划）并与 GO 的两个项目（即 Rampal 煤基热电厂项目和 Jamuna 多用途桥梁项目）进行比较，以批判性地了解普遍存在的差异。此外，还研究了在特定制度背景下实施的公众参与的不同性质和类型的关键因素。研究表明，非政府组织倾向于确保相关利益相关者参与环境影响评估的不同阶段，同时利用他们的投入成功完成项目。相比之下，政府运营项目的公众参与大多是在环评结束时进行的，这严重限制了利益相关者的贡献能力，并质疑这种尝试的合法性。这种忽视的过程系统地忽视了利益相关者的关注、批评和建议，而项目的先发制人的动机得到了美化和实施。通过挖掘这些空白，本研究试图深入了解在确保公众参与环境影响评估的各个阶段时传统“实践”和正式“承诺”之间的差距。本研究预计将使非政府组织大量参与发展项目的其他国家受益。