Thrust on identifying vulnerable areas for poverty mapping

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FE Report
Planning Minister Air Vice Marshal (retd) AK Khandker said Thursday the most vulnerable and disadvantaged areas of the country should be identified first for drawing up pragmatic poverty alleviation programmes.
"Without lessening poverty it will not be possible to change the lot of the common man and we will not be able to switch over to the Digital Bangladesh, as announced by the Prime Minister," he said while speaking at the launching ceremony of the 'Updated Poverty Maps of Bangladesh' at a workshop in the city.
The World Bank, World Food Programme (WFP) and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) jointly organised the workshop styled 'Dissemination Workshop on Poverty Mapping' at a city hotel.
Representatives from different ministries and divisions, researchers, economists, academics, civil society members and representatives from development partners attended the workshop, chaired by Habib Ullah Majumder, secretary (in-charge) of the Planning Division.
Speaking as chief guest, the minister said all the efforts of the government are devoted to poverty alleviation within the shortest possible time as 40 per cent of the people still live below the poverty line.
"Although the poverty rate decreased over the years, the number of poor remains the same as the population is increasing day by day. So we need to pay attention to reducing the population growth to alleviate poverty."
"The most vulnerable and disadvantaged areas should be identified first to take pragmatic steps for poverty alleviation and introduce social safety nets and other development programmes for the poor."
"The latest poverty mapping will offer us opportunity to know the current poverty situation of different parts of the country and help us decide what type of development programmes were required. The scarce resource can be allocated to these areas on a priority basis."
Mr Khandker stated that the government has started implementing the second Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper (PRSP) since July last year with the over-ridding objective of poverty reduction.
He said the regular survey system could not provide poverty estimates at the sub national levels, as the survey coverage was not wide. To overcome this problem, World Bank, WFP and BBS initiated a sophisticated technique to estimate poverty at the sub national levels such as districts, upazilas and present the results in poverty maps, he added.
Poverty Mapping is a newly developed method to estimate the poverty profile at sub-national level even at the union or ward level.
Poverty maps can reveal pockets of severe poverty and deprivation that might otherwise be overlooked and help planners to better target their efforts to areas of greatest needs, speakers said adding that understanding the geography of poverty, regional variations and spatial patterns is critical to contribute to poverty reduction.
World Bank Country Director Xian Zhu said the data would be very helpful for the government to plan and evaluate the poverty reduction strategy and resource allocation.
John Aylieff, country representative of the WFP, said these maps are widely accessible for use in programmes aimed at poverty and hunger reduction.