Although Bangladesh has halved poverty rate since 2000, still one-fourth of the country's population are poor, a senior World Bank official said on Monday.
Even more, some 20 million people are living in extreme poverty.
This was revealed by Dandan Chen, the Bank's acting country director.
He was addressing a symposium titled "Adaptive Social Protection: Technical and Policy Considerations" organised by the ministry of disaster management and relief, in partnership with the World Bank, the Department for International Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme.
"By enabling social protection to better address the impacts of climate change, adaptive social protection can be critical in building resilience and creating opportunities for the country's vulnerable population," said Mr Chen.
Representatives from ministries, development partners, academia, think-tanks and the UN agencies gathered in the symposium to discuss the role social safety nets play in addressing climate change, building community resilience and helping Bangladesh achieve the Sustainable Developments Goals by 2030.
"As Bangladesh is well on its way to graduating to a middle-income country status by 2024, the country's development trajectory nonetheless faces considerable challenges due to its vulnerability to natural and climate-induced disasters," the WB official said.
More than 80 per cent of the population is vulnerable to such shocks.
Together with rapid urbanisation, these shocks can have far-reaching consequences on the poor and could potentially push more people into poverty.
"This is an important shift in our thought process on disaster management. We are also at the planning stage for preparing the eighth five-year plan," said Md Enamur Rahman, state minister for disaster and relief.
"Therefore this is the right time to organise this symposium on adaptive social protection, and come up with clear policy guidelines, especially on targeting poverty and vulnerability," he added.
Judith Herbertson, head of DFID Bangladesh, told the meeting that because of its unique geographic location, Bangladesh will continue to face adverse effects of global warming and climate change in the future.
"DFID is very happy to partner with the government of Bangladesh to address the needs of vulnerable and marginalised people through implementing a range of social protection schemes, such as adaptive social protection," she added.
."It is a great platform for us to examine social protection, disaster risk management and climate change in a holistic manner," said Richard Ragan, the WFP's country director. "The discussions and experience-sharing will help us determine the future direction of adaptive social protection and how it can contribute to the national development agenda in Bangladesh."
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