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Poverty Reduction in Bangladesh
Since independence, Bangladesh has made great strides in reducing poverty. Today the nation is self-sufficient when it comes to food, population growth has stabilized and industry is expanding. However, poverty is still widespread, particularly in rural areas where lack of jobs and land make it difficult for people to earn a living. To support the Government tackle poverty, UNDP is working with both national policy-makers and community leaders in the following areas:

Local Governance: With the aim of enabling rural and urban communities to address their development needs, UNDP is promoting broader participation in local decision making as well as building the capacity of locally elected bodies to better deliver services. Experiences gained at the community level feed into policy-making initiatives, which are also supported by UNDP, and aimed at developing a national framework for improving local governance nation-wide.

Increasingly UNDP coordinates growing donor interest and supports the drafting of policy studies covering issues related to local governance.

Pro-Poor Policies: Integrating poverty reduction objectives into national policy and increasing employment opportunities for poor people are crucial to reducing poverty in Bangladesh. Therefore, at the request of the Government, UNDP is supporting the development of practical policy options that fosters economic growth that benefits the poor. Also, to see how economic policies affect the poor, UNDP is supporting the introduction of assessment systems that can evaluate policy impact.

Support to Vulnerable Groups: Street children and commercial sex workers are among the most vulnerable in Bangladesh. UNDP supports them through a comprehensive programme which provides drop-in centres for kids, counseling, access to health services as well as training opportunities for sex workers.

Projects on Poverty Reduction

Local Governance

BGD/97/C01 - Sirajganj Local Governance Development Fund : This pilot initiative is focused on one of the administrative divisions in Bangladesh and is aimed at enabling local government to carry out long-term development and fight poverty in rural areas. To achieve this, local elected bodies are trained in planning, designing, implementing and monitoring; fiscal decentralization, transparency, accountability and gender sensitivity are promoted; and support to improve small scale infrastructure is provided. Experiences are consistently drawn from this initiative and used to shape future UNDP projects and those of our partners.

BGD/98/006 - Local Partnerships for Urban Poverty Alleviation : Hundreds of community groups in more than 230 slums in Bangladesh’s urban centres have been organized under this initiative. The main aim is to assist urban poor improve their ability to address local development issues.  

GLO/00/G07 - Local Initiative Facility for Urban Environment: The Bangladesh component of this global initiative, was launched in 1998 in three major cities. The aim is to utilize the urban environment as an entry point to promote better civil governance through small-scale grants and local dialogue.

BGD/02/002 - Promoting Policy On Local Governance & Decentralization in Bangladesh : Through a series of studies and consultations, this initiative aims to develop an analytic framework and programme strategy for future UNDP support to promote national policy and local practice in democratic decentralization and local governance.

 

Macro Policies

BGD/93/008 - Support for Monitoring Sustainable Human Development in Bangladesh: This initiative was launched in 1995 and has enabled the Government of Bangladesh to establish a unit within the national Planning Commission able to simulate the impact of policy decisions.  Overall the project has improved policy-maker’s capacity to plan, with a focus on sustainable human development.

RAS/02/060 - Macroeconomics of Poverty Reduction (Phase-I) : Under this regional initiative, UNDP seeks to support the Government to integrate poverty reduction objectives into national economic policy making.

 

Poverty Reduction

BGD/98/009 - Community Livestock and Dairy Development Project : Working with the pioneers of micro-credit in Bangladesh, the NGO Grameen, UNDP has assisted thousands of people living in rural areas to improve their livelihoods, by developing a system of community based, integrated fishery, livestock and dairy production and marketing.
 

 

Support to Vulnerable groups

BGD/97/028 - Appropriate Resources for Improving Street Children's Environment: Working with nine non-government organizations all over Bangladesh, this initiative is aimed at reaching and improving the lives of more than 30,000 street children. 

BGD/97/029 – Capacity Building, Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Livelihood of the Socially Disadvantaged Women (SDW) and their Children:To ensure that commercial sex workers and their children can freely access the same rights and privileges as other citizens of Bangladesh, this project is aimed at supporting commercial sex workers in brothels and on the streets of Dhaka. Under the project, sex workers and their children can participate in motivational counseling, access reproductive and sexual health services as well as education opportunities.