Fighting the complex web of poverty

Bangladesh, long celebrated as a global success story in poverty reduction, now confronts one of its most daunting challenges in nearly a decade. A new World Bank assessment warns that as many as 62 million Bangladeshis are at risk of sliding back into poverty. The WB, through its projection that poverty will rise to 21.2 per cent by 2025, delivers an unmistakable message that the future is far from rosy; and that efforts to curb the prevailing trend would call for multifaceted action plan.
The findings, presented in Dhaka under the title "Bangladesh Poverty and Equity Assessment: Navigating the Road to Prosperity" paint a complex picture of progress, stagnation and growing vulnerabilities. Bangladesh lifted 34 million people out of multidimensional poverty between 2010 and 2022, reducing extreme poverty from 12.2 per cent to 5.6 per cent. Yet the momentum that once defined the nation's poverty narrative has slowed sharply since 2016. The signs of strain are everywhere --- in the labour market, stagnant wages, shrinking manufacturing base and in the inflationary pressures that continue to erode household resilience. One of the starkest concerns highlighted in the report is the weakening of labour income. Between 2010 and 2016, labour income accounted for nearly 90 per cent of progress in livelihoods, buoyed by industrial expansion and modest agricultural growth. But over the following six years, that contribution dropped to barely half. The shift reflects deeper structural changes: urban poverty is rising, job creation in manufacturing has slowed, and agriculture, despite its dynamism, cannot provide the pathways to upward mobility for the country's expanding workforce. The effects are particularly harsh on women, youth, and low-skilled workers. Urban female labour-force participation has fallen from 34 to 24 per cent, while educated young women face some of the highest unemployment rates. One in five young women remains unemployed, while one in four educated young women is without a job. These setbacks speak of broader systemic barriers that undermine the inclusive growth the country needs.
The WB report also exposes troubling weaknesses in social protection. Despite expanded government spending, targeting remains inefficient: half of the poorest households receive no assistance, while over one-third of the richest do. Subsidies, especially in energy, continue to disproportionately benefit better-off urban groups. For millions teetering just above the poverty line, the absence of an effective safety net means any kind of shock --- a medical emergency, a job loss, a climate-driven disaster --- that could push them into destitution. Climate change threatens to undo decades of rural development with 13.3 million people projected to be displaced by 2050 and agricultural GDP vulnerable to severe declines.
Experts at the WB report's launch echoed a growing consensus that growth alone is no longer enough. Bangladesh must translate economic expansion into broad-based opportunities through stronger job creation, vibrant manufacturing, skilled workforce, market-enabling reforms, more equitable fiscal policies and better targeted social protection programmes. The path forward requires shaping the country's development architecture against the background of the failings and shortcomings.