Development pessimism about Bangladesh has been proven wrong

Shamsul Alam In the wake of accelerated investment in the social sector that started in the early 1990s and has continued until now, Bangladesh has emerged as a model of success in attaining MDGs (Millennium Development Goals). The achievements in the areas of child mortality, child immunisation, infant mortality, gender parity look spectacular. Bangladesh has been praised by international media (the Economist, the Guardian), UN bodies, think-tanks (Oxford Research Group) and internationally renowned figures like Amartya Sen. A recent report titled "Levels and Trends in Child Mortality", jointly published by UNICEF, WHO, World Bank and UNDESA, shows Bangladesh as the second top scorer, only below Maldives, in child mortality. ACHIEVEMENTS OF MDGs: Bangladesh has been recognised as a champion in the implementation of MDGs. The latest MDG Progress Report 2012 (GED, Planning Commission) shows that the country has already met some targets like Poverty Gap Ratio, Gender Parity at Primary- and Secondary-level education, Under-five Mortality Rate reduction, reducing HIV infection with access to anti-retroviral drugs, Children under-five sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets, Detection and Cure rate of TB under Directly Observed Treatment Syndrome (DOTS) etc. Moreover, it has achieved remarkable progress in the areas of poverty alleviation, reducing prevalence of underweight children, primary schooling completion rate, lowering the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), improving immunisation coverage and reducing the incidence of communicable diseases. WHAT GOVERNMENT HAS DONE TO ADDRESS UNFULFILLED TARGETS? Bangladesh has established itself as a role model of MDGs for its prominent achievement in Goal-1 (Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger), Goal-3 (Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women), Goal-4 (Reduce Child Mortality) and Goal-6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases). The success stories, performance and attainments of Bangladesh in some these MDGs reveal the political commitment and problem-solving attitude of the government and also its pro-poor growth strategy. With a view to reinforcing the effort for achieving unfinished business and unmet goals, the government has integrated MDGs into the premiere document for planning and implementation, the Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-2015). The sixth plan has set targets on the basis of vision 2021 and MDGs in seven broad thematic areas. The national budget has been made as per the plan in the last four years. Accordingly, the allocation in the sectors related to MDGs, particularly education and health, have been given priority in the national budget. The vast amount of investment in the family planning and health programmes, coupled with improved infrastructure and connectivity, has enabled the country to change the population structure and reach the stage of demographic dividend. The Sixth Plan aims at increasing targeted level of allocation on social protection up to 3.0 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) by the end of the plan period to effectively serve the purpose of reducing extreme poverty and income inequality. Around 52 per cent of the national budget is spent on the poverty reduction activities of the government. The Social Safety Net Programmes have already covered about 30.1 per cent rural and 25.3 per cent of all the families of the country. The country is also in the process of finalising National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) for better streamlining the social protection issues with the development and getting more value from the invested money. Rapid reduction of poverty has been possible through attaining high economic growth and ensuring productive employment and incomes for large number of people. The growth-employment-poverty-reduction linkage has been ensured by focusing on labour-intensive urban and rural manufacturing production. The pro-farmer activities and policies of the present government that ensures timely distribution of agricultural inputs (seed, fertiliser, electricity for irrigation) at subsidised prices to the farmers, increasing factor productivity through farm mechanisation, adoption of new technology are the causes behind the success in food production. Farmers have shifted from growing low-yield, single-crop, deep-water rice to double cropping of short maturity, high-yield rice. There has also been a pronounced shift away from sharecropping into fixed-rent leasehold tenancy. Landless and marginal farmers have been the major beneficiaries of this change. Simultaneously, credit constraints have been relaxed thanks to the country's well-known microfinance institutions and the inclusive banking initiative by the central bank. Productive job creation in manufacturing and services sectors is one of the strategies of the present government to accelerate the process poverty alleviation. The case of urbanising economies such as Bangladesh may support the idea that the three major transformations happen simultaneously. Taking advantage of their abundance of relatively low-skilled labour, such economies can engage in world markets through light manufacturing. Wage employment is created in large numbers, providing opportunities for rural migrants, and cushioning social tensions at a time of rapid social change. In Bangladesh, the expansion of the light manufacturing sector has allowed for the integration of young women into the labour market, at a time of falling fertility rates. Employment opportunities for women have in turn led to growing female schooling, better human development outcomes, and faster poverty reduction. Access to public health service is one of the toughest jobs for the poor, let alone the quality of service. The successful programmes of immunisation, control of diarrhoeal diseases and Vitamin-A supplementation are considered to be the most significant contributors to the decline in child and infant deaths along with potential effect of overall economic and social development. The government is also in the process to appoint at least 5000 nurses in public services to boost up the service delivery and working on improving governance in health services. The government has framed the National Health Policy, 2011' with a view to revamping the health sector and the 'National Population Policy 2012' has also been finalised. Moreover, in order to strengthen primary healthcare facilities, the government has launched 12,217 community clinics to expand health services to the grassroots level. The innovative idea to use the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for progress of the health of women and children has already been acclaimed by the world. The free distribution of all books to all the students up to class nine, introduction of Primary School Completion (PSC) and Junior School Completion (JSC) examinations, taking examinations timely and providing results in stipulated times, introducing modern technology for learning are some of the important measures taken by the government to improve the quality of education in the country. To introduce ICT education at all levels of education, each school is provided with a computer and multimedia. Further to improve the quality of education, a new examination technique has been developed and curricula text and pedagogy have been modernised. Teacher-student ratio is being lowered to ensure quality education and is projected to cut down to 1:30 by 2014 from 1:48 in 2009. The public expenditure on education as per cent of GDP is on the increase and targeted to reach 4.0 per cent by 2014 (currently is 2.11 per cent). In January this year, the Prime Minister declared the nationalisation of all non-government primary schools of the country. The government has decided to nationalise 26,193 schools, with effect from January 2013; the rest would be nationalised in two phases -- by July this year and by January 2014. The government has also initiated nationalisation of jobs of about 104 thousand primary school teachers. On gender parity, National Policy for Women's Advancement (2011) has been adopted to promote women participation in the labour force, particularly in the labour-intensive manufacturing sector and service sector. Initiatives have been undertaken to train female workers and then send them to developed Asian countries. The government has passed the Education Assistance Trust Act 2012 and has newly introduced first-ever Education Trust Fund for students of graduate or equivalent level and allocated Tk 10 billion (1,000 crore) for this year. Benevolent persons and education lovers have been urged to donate money to this fund and their donation would enjoy tax-waving facility. INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION: The success story of Bangladesh in achieving MDGs has been acclaimed globally. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was awarded with 'UN MDG Awards 2010'. She was also awarded the South-South Award 'Digital Health for Digital Development' in 2011 for her innovative idea to use the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for progress of the health of women and children. In June this year, Bangladesh received the 'Diploma Award' from Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations during FAO's 38th Conference in Rome, for its achievement in the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG-1) by the end of 2012. Besides the 'Diploma Award', Bangladesh, along with 37 other countries, was honoured with the 'special recognition' for their outstanding progress in fighting hunger and poverty. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received South-South Cooperation Award 2013 for her success in reducing poverty in the country. The recently published Human Development Report-2013 of the UNDP titled "The Rise of the South" has placed Bangladesh among the 18 countries of the world that have made substantial progress in achieving MDGs. They have identified three notable drivers of development: a proactive developmental state, tapping of global markets and determined social policy and innovation. The World Bank observes in the Bangladesh Poverty Assessment Report-2013: "Bangladesh is on track for reaching both of the poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDG).The depth of poverty was nearly halved over the 2000-2010 period, allowing Bangladesh to attain the depth-of-poverty MDG target of 8.0 per cent at least five years in advance of 2015. Similarly, the poverty projections suggest that Bangladesh will achieve the first MDG goal of halving the poverty headcount sometime in 2013, two years early than the target." The World Development Report-2013 of the World Bank has mentioned that development pessimism about Bangladesh was understandable, but has been now proven wrong. Some countries have done well in human development indicators, and others have done well in economic growth, but Bangladesh belongs to a rather small group of countries that have done well on both fronts, the initial pessimism notwithstanding. This is the crux of the 'development surprise' that has transformed Bangladesh. (This is a slightly abridged version of a paper titled 'How Bangladesh becomes a lead country in MDGs Attainments?' which the author prepared on September 25, 2013, while he was participating in the 68th UN General Assembly Session in New York as a member of the Bangladesh official delegation.) Prof. Dr. Shamsul Alam is Member, General Economics Division, Bangladesh Planning Commission. [email protected]