Identifying policy change – Analytical program analysis: An example of two decades of forest policy in Bangladesh

Policy change trends are always important topics in policy analysis research. Political goals are set in accordance with the prevailing context and issues in environmental politics. Policy change claims may resonate with popular symbolic discourses. In reality, are these claims of policy change substantive or only symbolic? This article analyzes two decades of forest‐sector policy programs in Bangladesh using the analytical policy program model to identify policy changes that focused on policy outcomes. The analytical policy program model consists of a relevant issue, consistent policy objectives or goals, and the implementation and expected impact of a certain policy program. Through these four analytical program model features, this article attempts to identify the substantive and symbolic policy changes that occurred during the last two decades in Bangladesh's forest sector. Content analysis with a qualitative approach was adopted as a methodology. The analytical policy program model was able to identify 25 substantive and 11 symbolic policy changes in the forest policy sector in Bangladesh during the last two decades, thereby also demonstrating the capacity of the analytical policy program model to identify substantive policy change as opposed to symbolic changes.