Influence of Policy Co-Creation with Citizens on Governance Outcomes: Evidence from Education Policy in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study examines the influence of citizen participation intensity and collaborative governance mechanisms on governance outcomes in the context of education policy in Bangladesh, with policy co-creation effectiveness functioning as a mediating variable. Drawing on participatory governance and co-creation perspectives, the study employs a quantitative, cross-sectional design and collects data from 460 stakeholders, including teachers, students, parents, government officials, and civil society representatives. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that both citizen participation intensity and collaborative governance mechanisms significantly enhance policy co-creation effectiveness, which in turn positively influences governance outcomes such as transparency, accountability, responsiveness, and service quality. Furthermore, policy co-creation effectiveness partially mediates the relationships between the antecedent variables and governance outcomes, indicating that effective integration of citizen inputs is essential for translating participation into improved governance performance. The findings contribute to the growing literature on participatory governance by empirically validating an integrated co-creation model in a developing country education context. Practically, the study highlights the need for strengthening participatory structures, enhancing institutional collaboration, and improving co-creation processes to achieve better governance outcomes in the education sector of Bangladesh.

Received: 2026-04-10 | Revised: 2026-06-02 | Accepted: 2026-06-23 | Published: 2026-06-30

Declarations 

Ethics and Guidelines: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The ethical approval specifically covers the research procedures and data collection activities conducted for this study.

Consent to participate: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to data collection. Consent was obtained using a standardized written form, signed by each participant before participation in the survey.

Consent to publish: The authors have provided consent to publish.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Data availability statement: Data will be made available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Clinical Trial Number: Not Applicable.

Declaration of using generative AI: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used ChatGPT in order to correct the grammatical errors. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the published article.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, S.I.T.; methodology, S.I.T.; formal analysis, S.I.T.; writing—original draft preparation, S.I.T.; writing—review and editing, S.I.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.