Social protection and sustainable poverty reduction: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh


Book Description

Social protection programs are primarily focused on influencing household behavior in the short term, increasing consumption to reduce poverty and food insecurity, and promoting investments in human capital. A large body of evidence across numerous settings shows that cash and food transfer programs are highly effective in doing so. However, there is growing interest in understanding the extent to which such programs can help households stay out of poverty in the longer term, specifically after transfers end. We bring new evidence to this question, re-interviewing Bangladeshi households that participated in a well-implemented randomized social protection intervention four years after it ended. We find that combining transfers, either cash or food, with behavior change communication activities sustainably reduced poverty. Cash transfers alone had sustainable effects, but these were context-specific. The beneficial impacts of food transfers did not persist four years after the intervention finished.







Bangladesh


Book Description

This paper presents a Joint Staff Assessment of the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP) for Bangladesh. The I-PRSP lays out a broader vision for the future along with a medium-term economic strategy. The IMF staff considers that Bangladesh’s I-PRSP constitutes a cohesive policy framework to increase growth and reduce poverty. However, some weaknesses remain to be addressed in the transition to the full PRSP. It will be important to more sharply prioritize near-term policies in key sectors and antipoverty programs, and incorporate their cost into the medium-term budget framework.




Impact of Social Safety Net Program on Poverty Reduction in Bangladesh


Book Description

Among the poor, women are considered the more vulnerable. Widowed, divorced or discarded by the husband is a common phenomenon among the rural poor. The government has thus introduced special SSN program to protect them. The two-year Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) program is the largest SSN program that provides in-kind transfer with development programs for selected women-headed poor family to help them get out of the poverty. This study was an attempt to provide evidence using household survey data on whether the VGD program improves beneficiary household welfare and reduces poverty. The study found that the number of participants in the program is negatively related to the poverty rate as well as the probability of falling below the poverty line. Besides, this book shades light on how the VGD program improves well-being of the targeted people. Therefore, this book will guide the development policy makers who are working on poverty issue.




Sustainable Development Goals


Book Description

A global assessment of potential and anticipated impacts of efforts to achieve the SDGs on forests and related socio-economic systems. This title is available as Open Access via Cambridge Core.




Shock Waves


Book Description

Ending poverty and stabilizing climate change will be two unprecedented global achievements and two major steps toward sustainable development. But the two objectives cannot be considered in isolation: they need to be jointly tackled through an integrated strategy. This report brings together those two objectives and explores how they can more easily be achieved if considered together. It examines the potential impact of climate change and climate policies on poverty reduction. It also provides guidance on how to create a “win-win†? situation so that climate change policies contribute to poverty reduction and poverty-reduction policies contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience building. The key finding of the report is that climate change represents a significant obstacle to the sustained eradication of poverty, but future impacts on poverty are determined by policy choices: rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development can prevent most short-term impacts whereas immediate pro-poor, emissions-reduction policies can drastically limit long-term ones.




Grant Based Approach to Poverty Reduction


Book Description

A large scale programme that provides grants along with background support services was implemented by BRAC in an effort to alleviate extreme poverty using a grant-based approach known as Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction (CFPR). At the beginning of the programme, the participants are provided with income generating assets and training on various issues over a course of two years so that they may graduate into mainstream poverty. The objective of this study is to see the impacts of the CFPR programme two years after the intervention. We have analysed a two round panel dataset from 2007 (baseline) and 2009 (end-line) using the propensity score matching methodology. Results show that not only did the level of income and savings go up amongst the participants, employments dynamics changed from dead end jobs such as working as housemaids and day labourers to more entrepreneurial activities. Furthermore, results also show that the level of food security had also improved. The participants were able to expand their asset base beyond what was provided by the programme initially. Though public expenditures for the poor are not insignificant, often suffer from substantial leakages either through corruption or mismanagement, rendering them toothless. This paper finds that the CFPR approach as implemented by BRAC is clearly an effective strategy to fight ultra poverty in a sustainable manner which can be replicable in other developing country.




Mitigating poverty and undernutrition through social protection: A simulation analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh and Myanmar


Book Description

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in severe income losses, but little is known about its impacts on diets and nutritional adequacy, or the effectiveness of social protection interventions in mitigating dietary and nutritional impacts. We first assess the likely impacts of COVID-19 shocks in Bangladesh and Myanmar on poverty and food and nutrient consumption gaps. We then analyze the estimated mitigating effects of five hypothetical social protection interventions of a typical monetary value: (1) cash transfers; (2) in-kind transfers of common rice; (3) in-kind transfers of fortified rice enriched with multiple essential micronutrients; (4) vouchers for a diversified basket of rice and non-staple foods; and (5) food vouchers with fortified rice instead of common rice. The simulation results suggest modest effectiveness of the cash transfers for mitigating poverty increases and little effectiveness of all five transfers for preventing increasing food and nutrient consumption gaps among the poorest 40%. Rice fortification is, however, effective at closing key micronutrient consumption gaps and could be a suitable policy instrument for averting ‘hidden hunger’ during economic crises.




Poverty Reduction Policies and Practices in Developing Asia


Book Description

This book looks at the major policy challenges facing developing Asia and how the region sustains rapid economic growth to reduce multidimensional poverty through socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable measures. Asia is facing many challenges arising from population growth, rapid urbanization, provision of services, climate change and the need to redress declining growth after the global financial crisis. This book examines poverty and related issues and aims to advance the development of new tools and measurement of multidimensional poverty and poverty reduction policy analysis. The book covers a wide range of issues, including determinants and causes of poverty and its changes; consequences and impacts of poverty on human capital formation, growth and consumption; assessment of poverty strategies and policies; the role of government, NGOs and other institutions in poverty reduction; rural-urban migration and poverty; vulnerability to poverty; breakdown of poverty into chronic and transitory components; and a comparative study on poverty issues in Asia and other regions. The book will appeal to all those interested in economic development, resources, policies and economic welfare and growth.




Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015


Book Description

The Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015: Ending Poverty and Sharing Prosperity was written jointly by the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund, with substantive inputs from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This year's report details, for the first time, progress toward the WBG's twin goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and promoting shared prosperity and assesses the state of policies and institutions that are important for achieving them. The report continues to monitor progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Also for the first time, the report includes information about high-income countries. It finds that while gaps in living standards have been closing in many countries, the well-being of households in the bottom 40 percent, as measured by the non-income MDGs such as access to education and health services, remains below that of households in the top 60 percent. The focus of this year's report is on three elements needed to make growth more inclusive and sustainable: investment in human capital that favors the poor, the best use of safety nets, and steps to ensure the environmental sustainability of economic growth. These three elements are imperative to all countries' development strategies, and are also fundamental to global efforts to achieve the twin goals, the MDGs, and the Sustainable Development Goals that will succeed the MDGs. Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015 was prepared in collaboration with regional development banks and other multilateral partners.