Addressing poverty in Bangladesh

Abstract

Income-poverty can be influenced via four channels: i) growth projects, ii) human development, iii) microcredit based self-employment, and iv) income transfer programs, often known as "safety nets". One key unanswered question is how to make best use of an "optimal mix" of anti-poverty policy instruments and what can ADB do to enhance the poverty impact of its operations? Bangladesh faces four major challenges in the broad area of equity. The first challenge relates to the income-dimension of poverty: the pace of reduction has been too slow; it needs to be accelerated and sustained. The incidence of malnutrition remains at an unacceptably high level notwithstanding some progress in income-poverty. It is no longer adequate to engage in debate about the directionality of change in poverty. The question that looms large is: how to eradicate income-poverty in the shortest possible time.