Child Labour and Schooling in Bangladesh: Insights from data and evidence
Child Labour and Schooling in Bangladesh Insights from data and evidence Sajjad Zohir, Susmita Dutta, Siddiqur Rahman and Wasama Ahmed Khan In the past two decades, Bangladesh experienced a substantial reduction in the prevalence of child labour, associated with improvements in school enrolment and completion. Despite progress, child labour persists in the country, also driven by household earning losses and school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report addresses...
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Sustainability and Financing of Water Management: Operations & Maintenance in Coastal Polders
Sajjad Zohir In association with M.A. Sattar Mandal, Nityananda Chakravorty and Mutasim Billah Mubde Abstract: Historically, large investments, once resources are mobilized, is less of a concern than the difficulties faced in ensuring operation and maintenance (O&M). The adverse implications of poor O&M, of coastal embankments and the smaller infrastructures inside the catchment areas, are very significant. This paper focuses on coastal Polders and identifies the prerequisites for sustainable...
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A Framework to Assess Digital Transformation in a Technologically Less-Developed Country: Challenges and Opportunities in Bangladesh
Sajjad Zohir | Abstract The journey towards a ‘digital world’, is often perceived in terms of three sequentially linked ‘phases’, digitization, digitalization and digital transformation. This paper considers digitalization as the process that transforms an analog world into a digital world. Subsequently, attempt is made to understand it’s dynamics in a technologically less developed country (TLDC). Two important departures from the dominant stands in the literature were made in...
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Training Need Assessment for the Digital Entrepreneurship and Innovation Eco-System Development (DEIEDP)
Economic Research Group has recently completed a study titled “Human Resource Development for Scaling up IT/ITES Firms, and Leveraging Digital Entrepreneurship and Innovations-An Assessment of Training Needs“. The overarching objective of this study was to recommend ways to scale up IT/ITES firms and leverage digital entrepreneurship and startups through skill development. To address this issue, the study reviewed the growth models of IT/ITES firms to highlight the role of skill...
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Renegotiations at Firm levels Comprehending effects of Covid-19
Research Brief Economic Research Group (ERG) June, 2020 The SARS-CoV2 pandemic, leading to deadly Covid-19, brought disruptions in inter-country as well as within-country flow of goods and services. ERG carried out a phone-based survey of 102 firms engaged in manufacturing and service sectors to assess, (i) extent of initial ‘shock’ faced, and (ii) coping strategies that involve renegotiations in work practices, rental contract of premises and in contracts with employees....
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Socially Responsible Financing: Guidance Note Drafting Initiative
A collaborative research by Bangladesh Bank and Economic Research Group Research Team: Dr. Sajjad Zohir and Anika Anjum, ERG Md. Akhtaruzzan, Ph.D. Executive Director (Research) and Md. Abdul Wahab, DGM, (Research), Bangladesh Bank Sponsored by: Bangladesh Bank The objective of the study is to prepare a background (draft) paper upon reviewing literature and consulting with relevant stakeholders. The study is for the Core Group in Bangladesh Bank assigned to prepare an Operational...
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IT Enabled Service in Bangladesh- Implications for Skill Demand and Labour Market.
Research Team: Dr. Sajjad Zohir, Mushtaq Khalique, K M Masnun Hosain, Rafe Rais Hannan & Mutasim Billah Mubde The report is an exercise into understanding the changing IT environment with a specific focus on IT enabled services in Bangladesh. The first part of the report attempts to establish a framework for linking the labor market changes due to evolution in IT to subsequent skill demand. The framework will form the...
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Baseline Surveys to Track and Document Government Service Delivery Mechanism for Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund (BICF) Program Phase II
Research Team: Dr. Sajjad Zohir, Dr. Asad Karim Khan Priyo, Azraf Ahmed, Shihab Ahmed, Ahmed Adib, Nahaz Hashem, K M Masnun Hosain Sponsored by: World Bank Group The objective of the Baseline Surveys to Track and Document Government Service Delivery Mechanism for Investment Climate Fund (BICF) Program Phase II project is to conduct baseline surveys to track the government-to-business service delivery mechanisms of a set of government agencies related to the facilitation of investment...
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Impact of arsenic contamination in groundwater on poverty and choice of mitigation technology for rural communities in Bangladesh
Research Team: A K Enamul Haque, M. Zakir Hossain Khan and Joyashree Roy Sponsored by: South Asian Network of Economic Research Institutes (SANEI) The study focuses on arsenic contaminated water in rural areas to understand three main objective. (i) to understand how household utilizes its resources and the condition of poverty when arsenic related illness occurs. (ii) the compensating measures taken by households and community. (iii) analyze precautionary and preventionary measures taken...
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Economics of Rice Residue Burning in the South-West region of Bangladesh
Lead Researcher: Mohammed Ziaul Haider Sponsored by: South Asian Network For Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE) The study advocates the short term benefit of rise residue burning for the farmers, despire the fact that it produces carbon emission and burning rise fields adds little or no value to social welfare. This study develops a strategy to manage crop residue for the farmers because using rise residue in household activities like cooking adds...
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