Economic and Social Development of Bangladesh


Book Description

This book discusses Bangladesh’s economic and social development that may be called a “miracle” since the country has achieved remarkable development progress under several unfavorable situations: weak governance and political instabilities, inequality, risks entailed in rapid urbanization, and exposure to severe disaster risks. The authors examine what led to this successful economic development, and the potential challenges that it presents, aiming to elicit effective policy interventions that can be adapted by other developing countries.




Bangladesh's Economic and Social Progress


Book Description

This book evaluates Bangladesh’s impressive economic and social progress, more often referred to as a ‘development surprise’. In doing so, the book examines the gap in existing explanations of Bangladesh’s development and then offers an empirically informed analysis of a range of distinctive factors, policies, and actions that have individually and collectively contributed to the progress of Bangladesh. In an inclusive way, the book covers the developmental role, relation, and impact of poverty reduction, access to finance, progress in education and social empowerment, reduction in the climatic vulnerability, and evolving sectoral growth activities in the agriculture, garments, and light industries. It also takes into account the important role of the government and NGOs in the development process, identifies bottlenecks and challenges to Bangladesh’s future development path and suggests measures to overcome them. By providing an inclusive narrative to theorize Bangladesh’s development, which is still missing in the public discourse, this book posits that Bangladesh per se can offer a development model to other developing countries.




Numbers and Narratives in Bangladesh's Economic Development


Book Description

This book focuses on socio-economic developments of Bangladesh by challenging the dominant international narrative of the case being termed as “development surprise”, “development paradox” or “development conundrum,” given the absence of good governance. In doing so, the book examines the political economic dynamics and offers valuable insights into the current state of the Bangladeshi economy in light of stability, transformability and sustainability. Pointing to the ‘high’ rate of growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in Bangladesh, there is wide belief that economic growth can be obtained even without functioning institutions, and is more important than an inclusive political system. Advocates go on to argue that authoritarianism may be condoned as long as a steady course of development is perused. However, the inadequacy of comparative analysis in to the state of the economy of Bangladesh vis-à-vis other relevant economies makes such claims myopic and parochial. This book thus investigates the numbers and narratives to ascertain the validity of such assertions and lamentations by looking at the necessary and sufficient conditions of development. The necessary conditions imply an incisive inquiry into the factors of economic growth— land, labour, capital and technology while sufficient conditions warrant a penetrating incisive inquiry into the factors of economic growth— land, labour, capital and technology. As such, the book explores development by drawing variables of politics and economics to find out a causal relationship, and interjects these variables have on themes such as growth, agriculture, manufacturing industry, financial sector, health, education, poverty and inequality.




The Economic Development of Bangladesh in the Asian Century


Book Description

This book explains the macro-drivers of growth behind the economic development of Bangladesh. Few countries in the developing world have shown as exciting a promise of economic prosperity as Bangladesh. The promising nature of the Bangladeshi economy raises interesting questions pertaining to whether good governance may lead to sustained economic growth. This book looks at the strategic interventions on macro-level, specifically the policy interventions. This book will be a useful reference to making sense how economic transformation can be strengthened through state-sponsored activities and how states can inculcate a culture of innovation which can be regarded as one of the underpinnings of economic growth.




Bangladesh


Book Description

Bangladesh as an independent country started its journey just over forty-seven years ago. The country is full of possibilities and challenges. Bangladesh: Economic, Political and Social Issues has been organized around the economic, political and social opportunities and challenges of present Bangladesh. This book is the culmination of twelve chapters by twenty-four authors. Their extensive investigation reveals a lot about the social, political and economic context of Bangladesh. Since its inception, the Bangladesh economy is largely dependent on the agricultural sector. A good number of authors in this book cover the issue of agricultural sustainability, its achievements, challenges and potentials as well as its extension system. It also reveals the role of women in the agricultural economy. The book draws the present political state of Bangladesh in relation to its historical background. The clientelism, corruption, extremism, secularism and government system of Bangladesh has been discussed widely by another group of authors. The technological wave of the global civilization of the twenty-first century is surging in Bangladesh with industrial growth and development. The historical roles of farmers, fishers and other marginal groups are going through a harsh transformation. This book covers the changing social and economic structure of these communities. In recent years, like any other country of the world the climate of Bangladesh has changed a lot. Many adaptation interventions have been undertaken to mitigate the problem. These adaptation interventions and participatory forest (PF) management programs have been included in this book. It also moves on to the gender issue in agriculture, where a dominant Muslim normative order is prevalent as well as the considerable amount of violence faced by women.




Bangladesh at Fifty


Book Description

This book explores the diverse experience of Bangladesh’s development over the last fifty years and provides systematic explanations of its success in socioeconomic development. It also assesses future trends on the basis of past experiences. It is widely acknowledged that Bangladesh provides one of the most striking examples in the study of present day development along with rapid growth and catching up. The analysis highlights the development traps that Bangladesh faced during its journey and the ones that may have to be faced in the coming decades in order to move towards prosperity. The book asserts that explaining Bangladesh’s development is not for the simpleminded; any single mono-causal explanation for Bangladesh’s development is bound to fall down in the face of reality. This book will be of interest to academics, students, policy makers and development practitioners especially in developing countries—in particular in South Asia and Bangladesh.




Bangladesh


Book Description

Bangladesh seeks to attain middle-income status by 2021. To accelerate growth enough to do so, Bangladesh needs to build a competitive urban space that is innovative, connected and livable. This book identifies what is unique about Bangladesh's process of urbanization and examines the implications for economic growth.




The Modernisation of State Aid for Economic and Social Development


Book Description

This book analyses the recent modernisation of EU State aid law from various perspectives, and considers both substantive and procedural aspects. It also discusses the reasons for, and the goals and future implications of the modernisation programme, including the evolution of the concept of State aid. The ambitious reform programme was launched in 2012 and has now been almost fully implemented by virtue of the adoption of new rules of procedure in July 2013, and exemption in June 2014. The book highlights the main aspects of this sector reform, which include the Commission’s change of attitude towards so-called positive aid, i.e. those able to promote economic growth, and the intention to focus on matters of greater systematic extent. These objectives also imply a third aspect: increasing the intensity of the control powers conferred on the Commission with regard to that aid that prove to be harmful to competition and the internal market. The book also examines the greater responsibility given to States for self-assessment of their economic policy measures, and explores the resulting impact on, and challenges posed to the administrations of the Member States. The book’s second part is devoted to the application State aid rules in the area of services of general economic interest, with a special focus on aid in the field of social health and infrastructure.




Voices to Choices


Book Description

Women have experienced significant changes in various spheres of their lives during the last decades as Bangladesh made economic progress. Yet women’s economic engagement and empowerment are subdued, as they cannot make sufficient choices for themselves. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic developments in gender equality in Bangladesh. Through examining women’s participation in the labour force, ownership and control of household assets, use and control of financial assets, and opportunities for entrepreneurship, the authors have made concrete recommendations to overcome challenges that lie ahead for women’s economic empowerment. This book is an important contribution to the knowledge on interventions required by the policy makers and broader stakeholders towards narrowing gender gaps. --Fahmida Khatun, PhD, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh The women’s story is central to Bangladesh’s economic and social transformation. There is an urgent need to deepen researched understanding of the multidimensional pathways of women’s economic empowerment and extent of real progress made. Voices to Choices is an important contribution to this story. Surely, the journey of women’s economic empowerment remains a long and challenging one. Realizing the full benefits of new opportunities is often hampered by both new and entrenched insecurities. The task is as much one of empowering women’s agency as of dismantling barriers. The responsibility is as much women’s as society’s. --Hossain Zillur Rahman, PhD, Executive Chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) This book provides critical insights and is timely, as it outlines how girls and women in Bangladesh have gained more opportunities in labor force participation, control over household and financial assets, as well as greater prospects for entrepreneurship. The findings will greatly contribute to future policy and planning for government and key stakeholders working to advance women’s economic empowerment in the country. --Sabina Faiz Rashid, PhD, Dean and Professor, BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health BRAC University




Structural Transformation of Bangladesh Economy


Book Description

This book examines the theory and global evidence on structural transformation along with stylised facts and implications using, among others, a dynamic panel model, for South Asia. The characteristics of the structural transformation process in Bangladesh bring out the relevance of a comprehensive and inclusive South Asian ‘brand’ in view of the challenges of large population size, high burden of poverty, rising inequalities and its compulsion to achieve rapid and sustained inclusive development. The analysis highlights several distinct characteristics of Bangladesh’s structural transformation including changes in value added, trade, employment, productivity, formal-informal jobs, and opportunities for low-skilled workers. The book suggests that the manufacturing sector could not create the required number of jobs and generate rapid absolute and relative productivity gains in the Bangladesh economy. Although the services sector has largely led output and employment growth, services subsectors with strong labour absorptive capacity have low average productivity. Hence, growth-enhancing structural transformation led by these subsectors is likely to be less dynamic than required for rapid employment-creating growth in the economy. The book’s analysis on COVID-19 and cyclone Amphan shows that an integrated disaster and development paradigm is needed for Bangladesh. An inclusive and health and well-being focused structural transformation presents the pathway to advance the people-centred approach to development in Bangladesh through both vulnerability reduction and investments in sustainable development that would offset both known and unknown disaster threats. The key for Bangladesh is to skillfully manage the ‘developer’s dilemma’ of achieving both structural transformation in terms of large productivity gains and inclusive growth for reducing poverty and rising inequalities. This book is relevant to students, academicians and development practitioners and others interested in contemporary development.