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Making health policy is not an easy task. Like other policy processes, politics play a significant role in the making of health policy. The case of health policy formulation in Bangladesh is not distinct from the universal theory of policy process. In the public policy process agenda setting´ is considered as an important stage where the owner and the promoter of the ideas use different strategies to draw attention of the policy makers. Findings of the study suggest that the state actors and non-state actors (NGOs) have played a crucial role to highlight the community health issues for policy decision-making. International policy and national policy coherence, positive attitude of donors, pressure from the NGOs and success stories were the dominant factors that helped selection of set-up of community clinics. In case of political support, ruling political party (AL) showed their commitment in favour of setting up clinics at the community level. It was also found that top level policy makers including the Prime Minister and Health Minister were very much enthusiastic to promote the community health issues.

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Golam Rabbani (BSS(Hons.), MSS, MPPG), is currently teaching at Department of Public Administration, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh. He has published a number of articles in journals having international reputation.

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