This note argues that tied targeted microcredit for raising livestock is not likely to be a successful tool for livestock development if borrowers do not have comparative advantage in livestock rearing and lenders have little incentive to monitor the proper use of credit by the “right” households for the “right” kind of activities. It also examines issues of mis-targeting, mis-use and weak monitoring on the basis of the findings from the impact study of the second phase of Participatory Livestock Development Project (PLDP-II) carried out by the BIDS.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
BRAC initiated an innovative programme known as Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction
(CFPR) in 2002 to address the extreme poverty in Bangladesh. Impact assessment studies on the
first phase of CFPR (2002-06) have shown that the programme had significant positive impacts on
the livelihoods of the participant households. However, whether this impact on livelihoods is
sustainable or not remained the key research question. Based on panel data from three rounds of
survey (2002, 2005 and 2008), this study explores sustainability of livelihood impacts of the first
phase of CFPR. The findings show that programme impacts on income, employment, food security
and asset holding were mostly sustainable in the long-run. Magnitude of impact on per capita income
was found to be increased over time. Livestock and poultry holding increased substantially among the
programme participants due to mainly transfer of these assets by the programme and the increase
sustained in the long-run. The findings of this study also show that although the programme did not
have significant impact on education in the short-run, in the long-run it had a modest positive impact
on boys’ primary enrolment. Qualitative exploration reveals that determination, confidence, social
network, asset management skill, and hard work of the participant women are the key factors for
effectively using the supports provided by the CFPR programme.
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EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY: The poor in Bangladesh are more likely to belong to households with a larger
number of dependents, lower education, engaged in daily wage labor, own little
land and less likely to receive remittances. This poverty profile for 2005 is
similar to those in the mid-1980s apparently indicating that little has changed
over time. A closer look at the survey data, however, suggests a much more
nuanced story. The paper uses two rounds of the Bangladesh Household Income and
Expenditure Survey (HIES) to decompose the micro-determinants of poverty
reduction between 2000 and 2005 closely following similar analysis using
earlier rounds of the HIES from the 1980s and 1990s. The comparison of results
shows that the spatial distribution of poverty has changed over the three decades;
the drivers of poverty reduction are different in several respects, and those
policies to spur further reduction in poverty need to be adjusted in the light
of these shifts over time.
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EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY The
incidence of Poverty in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the world. Millions
of people suffer from the hardship of poverty. About one-third (31.5 percent)
of its population is living below the poverty line (HIES, 2010). Moreover,
inequality afflicts the persistence of poverty. Furthermore, the recent spikes
in food prices, causing food inflation, have impact on poverty and in a
business as usual scenario, with the increase of one percent in food inflation,
may plunge an additional population of 0.04 million under the poverty line. The
eradication of poverty and inequality and meeting of basic needs are the
primary goals of the government. Nevertheless, achieving a reduction in poverty
and inequality is a fundamental challenge in the country without which the
human development, economic and employment goals of the government may be
hindered.
Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir
K. M. Mustafizur Rahman
Unnayan Onneshan-The Innovators, October 16, 2011
Reduction in poverty and inequality is a fundamental challenge in Bangladesh. Prioritizing these, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent an international commitment to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and foster global collaboration for development by 2015, while Vision-2021 represents the commitments of the present government to reduce the rate of poverty to 25 percent and 15 percent by 2013 and 2021 respectively. These deadlines are looming and, soon it will be known whether these commitments have been achieved.
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Poverty Reduction
