MDGs thrust on poverty alleviation in Bangladesh.

Poverty is a big stumbling block to progress in Bangladesh, nay the whole South Asian region. That fact has been confirmed once more by the UNDP's Multinational Poverty Index (MPI) prepared to assess the factors related to poor living conditions in South Asia. There are certainly, valid reasons for Bangladeshis to feel happy about the findings, which place them slightly before neighbouring India in the index. Of the 104 countries assessed in the MPI, Bangladesh ranks 73, with India close at 74. Nepal at 82, Pakistan at 70, while Sri Lanka has been placed at 32. Of course, such figures do not convey much clarity by themselves. That is why it is important that we take a look at the breakdown that allows such mathematics to be arrived at. The MPI assesses the performance of nations on a benchmark of ten indicators which again are grouped under three dimensions, namely, health, education and standard of living. Health comprises child mortality and nutrition while education brings together years of schooling and child enrolment. Within the standard of living canvas come electricity, drinking water, sanitation, housing, cooking fuel and assets. Now, the MPI report notes that as much as 57.8 per cent of Bangladesh's population remains deprived of, at least, 30 per cent of relevant facilities and on average, this figure stands at deprived of 50.4 per cent. This indicates that whatever progress apparently we are making, we certainly cannot afford to be complacent about it. The reality is that in Bangladesh, as also in India and Nepal, poor living standards are yet the biggest factors in poverty. And close on their heels come health and education. The good news here is that for all its backwardness, Bangladesh seems to be doing better in education than some other countries in South Asia. It is ahead of India, Pakistan and Nepal in this area, though Sri Lanka remains by far the leading performer in this field. Even so, progress in education does give us reason to think Bangladesh can do better in the days ahead. And Bangladesh can achieve that, because it also happens to be doing better than India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in health sector. The good thing about reports like the MPI, particularly when they indicate progress made by nations in certain critical areas, is that they boost society's confidence in its ability to achieve its goals. In the present instance, Bangladesh's performance is, of course, a matter of happiness. But the MPI, it must be noted, does not take into account such vital matters like cost of basic needs (CBN). It is in this area that a big majority of Bangladesh's population remain hamstrung by a lack of purchasing power. This poses an interesting question: How does one define poverty? A how does one measure its expansion or decline? In the present context, all the average indicators regarding poverty may be fine. At the same time, there remains the contradiction of an increasing rich-poor gap in Bangladesh. This clearly militates against the creation of an egalitarian society. Be that it may, the MPI report in question is a fairly reasonable score card for us. It is also an invitation to do better. Actual commitments by the rich nations - the members of the Group of Eight (G8) -- to supportive actions, particularly in the form of official development assistance, to enable the poor economies to achieve millennium development goals (MDGs) have not matched their promises. That was the case in the past, and will most likely be so in the coming years, too. But unmet promises by the rich economies are not the only reason for some of the key MDGs being in jeopardy now. Many poor economies in particular have not been able to show meaningful improvements in their governance. They also failed to strengthen institutions and capacities to target their public policies at the level of the poor and the underprivileged. These are no less critical factors that have made the UN's much-vaunted MDG's harder to achieve. In many low income countries, the self-inflict handicaps have led to low productivity growth and very poor investment in both quality and quantity of the available whatever resources they have in education, health and human resource development. Furthermore, inadequacies of infrastructural support and very lax enforcement of laws and rules have also been contributing to such deficiencies. They also tend to lingering baroque regulations, denying the sprawling informal economy of the capacity to reap productivity gains that come from technology and higher skills. Fixing such problems is no easy job, it requires strong political will. It is worthwhile to recall that MDGs were adopted in 2001after years of warning. Eight goals were then set for 2015 as the deadline. The goals, among others, are: halving extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, and reducing child and maternal mortality. The hunger is the most important one, as the prime thrust of MDGs has been put on poverty alleviation. The latest situation on this front, according to a recently-published report of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), gives disconcerting signals. The percentage of the chronically hungry people is still far above the MDG target. The FAO further warned about the likely deterioration of their situation this year in view of the recent increases in prices of food grains. Targeting the undernourished people is, indeed, a thorny issue in most poor countries. And access to food does not depend only on supplies of food, but also on income or purchasing power of the people. A well-targeted public intervention programme is one of the key determinants of this access, in terms of extent and coverage. Furthermore, how the aid is used is more important than how much aid is received or disbursed. Likewise, growth that creates more income disparity will bring no effective solution. The way growth takes place and its benefits are shared, are matters of major concern here. Many low income countries have unfortunately seen their income distribution system deteriorating, with the few rich reaping the most benefits and the teeming millions being mired in the same, if not worse, level of poverty. Under such circumstances, it is vitally important that the issues of external aid, growth, income distribution and poverty reduction are critically examined and assessed by all concerned. The responsibility should lie here mainly with the political leadership and policy-makers in the poor countries. Anti-poverty demonstrations have lately been making news, particularly the one in which both the ruling and opposition party members were found in good cheer, vowing to fight poverty shoulder to shoulder. If only the reality on the ground would bear out such ostentatious pledges from the powers that be, one would have hoped their intentions were genuine. Unfortunately Bangladesh's ordinary citizens are used to see both the position and the opposition behaving in the same manner when it comes to unnecessary and unconscionable squandering of public money. There is, thus, precise little hope that might have been happening in the area of sustainable poverty alleviation. This is why 'human-scale' experts have expressed their skepticism about meeting development, the talked-about MDGs within the next decade. There are, however, good signs that a new perception of doing business, with in-built social responsibility components, is catching on. This means enlightened business people are thinking of generating special enterprises-called social business or not-for-profit economic projects, as opposed to charities--- to address the have-nots, and thus do their bit in the global effort to help overcome poverty's many ills. Social business components do have to make money to be self-sustaining and are, in fact, considered the safest way out of the unsustainable greed-based economic activities that have been predominant in most of the industrialized world over the past few centuries, and which many developing countries have been emulating without discretion. Well thought-out social businesses could be made to do a great deal of good by taking problem-solving endeavours in sectors like the environment, health care, nutrition and unemployment. This could work beautifully, only when the core businesses enjoy robust returns. The current crises in the ecological, economic and, indeed, all sectors of this inextricably interconnected world, are no laughing matter. It calls for all the latent talent to address the enormous problems created by a few centuries of mindless plunders in the bid to amass wealth for a minority of extremely powerful individuals, corporations and governments, while marginalizing the overwhelming majority and leaving vast wastelands in its tracks. Bangladesh's decision-makers urgently need to acquire a deep ecological perspective on development and progress, taking a multi-disciplinary view of the people and their problems in order to deliver at least some of the economic and social equities that the MDG summit had earlier pledged to achieve in the coming years. M. Mahmudur Rahman, Director, Prime Minister's office, is an economic analyst and columnist. Email: anumahmud@yahoo.com