Income inequality hits poverty eradication

FE Report | Published: September 18, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Despite many successes in the field of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the country is still far from attaining the goal of eradicating poverty and hunger because of income inequality prevailing in the society.
Speakers at a seminar in Dhaka expressed this view on Thursday.
In some cases, income inequality and disparities are seen on the rise among various population groups, especially among the backward and downtrodden, the seminar was told.
To overcome the challenge, they urged the government to take policy measures to reduce inequality, promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth with full productive employment and decent work for all.
"Income inequality has direct effect on poverty reducing activities," said Dr. Binayak Sen, Research Director, the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) while presenting the keynote paper at the seminar.
He stressed the need for policy intervention in this regard.
"Without attention to the underlying economic, social, cultural and spatial causes of poverty and inequality, the post-2015 development agenda will not ensure a level-playing field or achieve lasting inclusive progress," said the economist.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, who attended the programme as the chief guest, stressed the need for forging a consensus among all to save the planet by taking some bold, ambitious and sustainable measures right now or never.
"Much of our hard-earned development gains are likely to be washed away unless we can forge consensus to save our planet by taking some bold, ambitious and sustainable measures," he said.
He said there is a critical need for investing in enhanced capacity building for data collection and analysis to promote effective monitoring and evaluation.
"The lack of sufficient data has posed considerable challenge in tracking progress in certain MDG targets, which needs to be duly taken note of while designing the measurable indicators under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."
The Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) organised the seminar titled "Moving from MDGs to SDGs: Bangladesh Experience and Expectation" at its auditorium on Thursday, a day after unveiling of the report on the Bangladesh Progress Report on MDGs.
The General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission released the report on Wednesday.
According to the report, Bangladesh has made impressive progress in poverty reduction, health, education and gender equity, but is facing challenges of creating jobs, preserving ecology and ensuring nutrition.
It pointed out fund shortages and climate change as severe threats to achieving the remaining goals.
According to the MDG Declaration in 2000, the employment rate of a country's population, aged 15 years and above, should have been 100 per cent by now, but it is only 57.1 per cent in Bangladesh. The rate was 48.5 per cent in 1990-91.
To get more benefits from the SDGs, CPD Executive Director Dr Mustafizur Rahman called for greater efforts and resources at the country level. He also stressed the need for ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
The government is now preparing Bangladesh's proposal on Sustainable Development Agenda (SDA) as post-2015 development agenda which will be placed before the United Nations. The implementation period for SDA has been proposed to be a decade and a half (2016-2030).
As regards the SDGs, the minister, however, said: "We're even further advanced since we've already initiated measures to incorporate the goals into our Seventh Five Year Plan under the broader framework of our Perspective Plan 2010-21."
Presided over by BIISS Board of Governors' Chairman Ambassador Munshi Faiz Ahmad, the inaugural session was addressed among others by BIISS Director General AKM Abdur Rahman, Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque and BIISS Senior Research Fellow Dr Mahfuz Kabir.
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