An Assessment of Poverty, Inequality and Employment Related MDGs in Bangladesh

Research Team:

Sponsored By: Atonu Rabbani, Lamya Islam

This report sets out to assess the experience of Bangladesh with MDGs, More specifically we will focus on nature, status and trends in poverty and employment of the country. Bangladesh is fortunate enough to be part of the growth experience that has typified many countries of the region. It has experienced a robust growth (albeit lower than her other Asian counterparts) in the recent decades, practice of democracy (however, accompanied by unimpressive institutional development) and improvements in many socio-humane indexes (such as increased life expectancy and lower fertility rate in a country with world’s highest population density). While showing a capability to reach the goal of poverty eradication within the timeframe set by MDGs in the poverty front, Bangladesh has shown a very limited capacity to ensure employment opportunity for her citizen. The report attempts to bring together evidence on these issues and contribute toward a policy narrative which may lower the divergence between current trends in the MDG parameters and goals set by Millennium Declaration a decade ago