Fight Against Extreme Poverty by Diversifying Choices for the Extremely Poor People in Bangladesh
On December 12, 2020, a webinar was organized by Palli
Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) to share the progress that has been achieved
during the inception phase of a multidimensional extreme poverty reduction program
titled “Pathways to Prosperity for Extremely Poor People”. This project is jointly
funded by FCDO and EU with active support from the Government of Bangladesh. It
is being implemented by PKSF and its selected Partner Organizations (POs). The
working areas of this program are in selected poverty-stricken areas of the
country. If people are poor or extreme poor, it is because they lack choices,
and PKSF is working towards diversifying their choices and lifting them out of
poverty, it was categorically mentioned by PKSF’s Chairman and Renown Economist
of the country Dr, Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad.
On that webinar, Senior Secretary
of the Finance Division under the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Abdur Rouf Talukder was
present as the Chief Guest while Mr. Arijit Chowdhury, Additional Secretary,
Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Finance; Ms. Judith Herbertson,
Development Director, FCDO and Mr. Maurizio Cian, Head of Cooperation from the
Delegation of EU to Bangladesh.
The keynote paper was jointly
presented by Dr. AKM Nuruzzaman and Dr. Sharif Ahmed Chowdhury, General Manager,
PKSF. The presenters covered a few aspects of the inception phase, such as the
journey of revisiting the targeting criteria, setting the suitable implementation
arrangements, preparing appropriate interventions for addressing the extreme
poverty, developing capacities of PIU and downstream POs, and developing
necessary Standard Operating Procedures and Frameworks during this phase. Poverty is one of the pressing agendas in global development. More than 700 million people in the world are
struggling for their survival and meeting their basic needs. In Bangladesh,
according to HIES 2016, there are more than 40 million people
below the poverty line and half of them are extremely poor people. We know,
Global poverty is expected to rise for the first time in over 20 years as the
disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic compounds the forces of other shocks and
climate change.
Poverty reduction is therefore identified by the
world community including UN and other development partners, such as UN
agencies, WB, FCDO, EU, and others, as an ethical, social, political, and economic imperative of mankind. And they called on governments and policymakers
to address the root causes of poverty and to ensure that the poor have access
to productive resources.
With the support of the Government of Bangladesh
and Development Partners, PKSF has been implementing projects/programs that are
human-centric, inclusive, and climate-resilient. In the era of inclusive and
sustainable development, poverty reduction is the top priority in achieving the
targets set in the SDGs and National Perspective Plans and Five Year Plans.
Poverty reduction is also important to establish an inclusive society, which is
defined by the United Nations, as “a society for all’, in which
every individual, each with rights and responsibilities, has an active role to
play.”
We all know, people who cannot meet the basic needs of life with their income and/or savings
are generally called poor. In the
discourse of human-centric development, poverty entails more than the lack of
income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. As mentioned
by many, It’s manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to
education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well
as the lack of participation in decision-making, vulnerability due
to climate change and other shocks, the feeling of being unwanted, capability
deprivation and so on. It endorses,
various social groups bear a disproportionate burden of poverty. So, there is
intersectionality in poverty - where multiple layers of vulnerabilities exist.
Poverty is multidimensional. PKSF is committed to addressing
poverty in all its dimensions.
PKSF promotes the people-centered approach to
poverty reduction advocating the empowerment of people living in poverty
through their full participation in all aspects of life. PKSF endorses the
importance of both economic development and human rights for the poor. To
address the multidimensional aspects of poverty, an integrated strategy is
important. It targets towards poverty eradication necessitates implementing
policies geared to more equitable distribution of wealth and income and social
protection coverage and expanding opportunities with necessary protection and
empowerment.
Bangladesh have
achieved significant progress in reducing poverty. You can see in this graph,
poverty was 82.9 % in 1974, which came down to 20.5% in 2019. These are
pre-COVID data. PKSF has been involved in
extreme poverty reduction since 1998 with the support of the Government of
Bangladesh and Development Partners.
The objectives of
the Prosperity are to enable two million people to exit from extreme poverty
(EP) for good in two phases and to support the development of stronger national
institutions and systems to deliver the public and private services required by
extremely poor people to become resilient and prosper. This project has
some key results to achieve that includes, in summary, up to one million extremely poor people exit extreme poverty and make
significant progress along a pathway towards prosperity with better nutrition
and social status and increased resilience to climate change and other
shocks.
Targeting is vital for any targeted program. Based on PKSF’s previous
learning and stakeholder consultations, this project uses five core proxy
indicators occupation, landholding, income, housing type, earning member. And
we also use five supplementary proxy indicators (female-headed households,
households dependent on child labor, households with consumption rationing,
households with persons with disabilities (PWDs), households of the ethnic
minority, Dalit, and third gender). For ensuring authenticity, we have followed
different tools and done triangulations. We developed a tool called
“Participatory Extreme Poor Identification Technique (PEPIT). This study
considers 31981 households with a total population of 161 thousand one hundred
eighty-nine.
In the working area, we have found that 39% are Extreme Poor. There is a
variation in different regions/groups. In the ethnic communities,
the rate is 70%. Please be noted that these are pre-COVID data. We have
verified data collected from the field using proxy indicators with the national
poverty line. As per Cost of Basic Need (CBN) method, around 93.44 percent
of people live below the lower poverty line, which indicates the targeting
accuracy is quite high. The current surveyed households represent the lowest 35
percent of the nationally defined extreme poor line. This indicates better
targeting. And the project’s focus on the lowest segment of the extreme poor.
Here are some data that were presented. In summary, per capita, monthly
income of nearly 90% of EP HHs is below BDT 2000. Single earner is the
predominant feature. Nearly 90% EP HHs of Haor & Ethnic community has
single or no earners. Nearly 33% of EP HHs do not have their own homestead
land, in ethnic groups, it is 48%. 90% of them are functionally landless. 35%
of them have access to MFIs. 17.4% of them are Female-Headed Households. There
are some FHHs who are destitute. They do not have anyone to support them. Day
labor is the major (around 60%) form of occupation followed by small-business
in all areas. 41% is food unsecured and it is highest (52%) in the ethnic
community. THE average HDDS of EP HHs is 2.23 out of 7. Lowest HDDS observed in
the Haor area. The proportion of dietary protein and fruit sources are very
low, which has a negative consequence on cognitive development. Around 4.7% of
surveyed HHs has at least one disabled member. South has the highest level of
all forms of disability followed by Haor. About 38% of HH are exposed to
different covariate shocks. The South part of the working areas has the highest
(72%) exposure to natural calamities. 37% of all surveyed HHs adopted different
coping strategies.
The results of logistic regression models were done in the form of
Marginal Effect which indicates a change in the probability of being extremely
poor if the independent variable changes by one unit. A Model revealed
female-headed households, households with primary occupation as day labor,
households having disabled persons are more likely to be poor. The probability
of extreme poverty also increases if a household head is aged and if the
dependency ratio is high.
Next some policy instruments to see how these affect the probability of
being extremely poor were tested. This is evident from another Model that if
households has multiple income sources then the probability of being extremely
poor reduce by 1%.
Again, if a household receives training then the probability of
generating multiple income source increase by almost 7%. Also, the probability
of being extremely poor reduces by 1% if the household has ownership of
livestock. These Models validate the requirement of incorporating livelihood
components in the program design.
Another Model justifies the requirement of incorporating nutrition
components. This is found that the probability of being extremely poor reduces
by 2% if the dietary diversity score increase by 1 point. In a Model, it
was investigated the requirement of involvement with institutions. The
probability of being extremely poor reduces with a higher duration of membership
with MFIs.
The presenters mentioned that this kind of analysis helps us to undertake interventions to address multidimensional aspects of extreme poverty. For example, undertaking activities to advance economic policy reform, and poverty alleviation, and social mobilization and inclusion initiatives, particularly persons with disabilities and people from ethnic minority communities; working collaboratively with the government of Bangladesh at various levels, and other stakeholders; working with vulnerable populations to support the creation of jobs and incomes, particularly connecting extremely poor people to markets and employment opportunities, building productive capabilities and capacity; working on climate adaptation and disaster management; integrating gender equality and women's empowerment issues.
Poverty reduction is therefore identified by the
world community including UN and other development partners, such as UN
agencies, WB, FCDO, EU, and others, as an ethical, social, political, and the economic imperative of mankind. And they called on governments and policymakers
to address the root causes of poverty and to ensure that the poor have access
to productive resources.
With the support of the Government of Bangladesh
and Development Partners, PKSF has been implementing projects/programs that are
human-centric, inclusive, and climate-resilient. In the era of inclusive and
sustainable development, poverty reduction is the top priority in achieving the
targets set in the SDGs and National Perspective Plans and Five Year Plans.
Poverty reduction is also important to establish an inclusive society, which is
defined by the United Nations, as “a society for all’, in which
every individual, each with rights and responsibilities, has an active role to
play.”
We all know, people who cannot meet the basic needs of life with their income and/or savings
are generally called poor. In the
discourse of human-centric development, poverty entails more than the lack of
income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. As mentioned
by many, It’s manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to
education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well
as the lack of participation in decision-making, vulnerability due
to climate change and other shocks, the feeling of being unwanted, capability
deprivation and so on. It endorses,
various social groups bear a disproportionate burden of poverty. So, there is
intersectionality in poverty - where multiple layers of vulnerabilities exist.
Poverty is multidimensional. PKSF is committed to addressing
poverty in all its dimensions.
PKSF promotes the people-centered approach to
poverty reduction advocating the empowerment of people living in poverty
through their full participation in all aspects of life. PKSF endorses the
importance of both economic development and human rights for the poor. To
address the multidimensional aspects of poverty, an integrated strategy is
important. It targets towards poverty eradication necessitates implementing
policies geared to more equitable distribution of wealth and income and social
protection coverage and expanding opportunities with necessary protection and
empowerment.
Bangladesh have
achieved significant progress in reducing poverty. You can see in this graph,
poverty was 82.9 % in 1974, which came down to 20.5% in 2019. These are
pre-COVID data. PKSF has been involved in
extreme poverty reduction since 1998 with the support of the Government of
Bangladesh and Development Partners.
The objectives of
the Prosperity are to enable two million people to exit from extreme poverty
(EP) for good in two phases and to support the development of stronger national
institutions and systems to deliver the public and private services required by
extremely poor people to become resilient and prosper. This project has
some key results to achieve that includes, in summary, up to one million extremely poor people exit extreme poverty and make
significant progress along a pathway towards prosperity with better nutrition
and social status and increased resilience to climate change and other
shocks.
Targeting is vital for any targeted program. Based on PKSF’s previous
learning and stakeholder consultations, this project uses five core proxy
indicators occupation, landholding, income, housing type, earning member. And
we also use five supplementary proxy indicators (female-headed households,
households dependent on child labor, households with consumption rationing,
households with persons with disabilities (PWDs), households of the ethnic
minority, Dalit, and third gender). For ensuring authenticity, we have followed
different tools and done triangulations. We developed a tool called
“Participatory Extreme Poor Identification Technique (PEPIT). This study
considers 31981 households with a total population of 161 thousand one hundred
eighty-nine.
In the working area, we have found that 39% are Extreme Poor. There is a
variation in different regions/groups. In the ethnic communities,
the rate is 70%. Please be noted that these are pre-COVID data. We have
verified data collected from the field using proxy indicators with the national
poverty line. As per Cost of Basic Need (CBN) method, around 93.44 percent
of people live below the lower poverty line, which indicates the targeting
accuracy is quite high. The current surveyed households represent the lowest 35
percent of the nationally defined extreme poor line. This indicates better
targeting. And the project’s focus on the lowest segment of the extreme poor.
Here are some data that were presented. In summary, per capita, monthly
income of nearly 90% of EP HHs is below BDT 2000. Single earner is the
predominant feature. Nearly 90% EP HHs of Haor & Ethnic community has
single or no earners. Nearly 33% of EP HHs do not have their own homestead
land, in ethnic groups, it is 48%. 90% of them are functionally landless. 35%
of them have access to MFIs. 17.4% of them are Female-Headed Households. There
are some FHHs who are destitute. They do not have anyone to support them. Day
labor is the major (around 60%) form of occupation followed by small-business
in all areas. 41% is food unsecured and it is highest (52%) in the ethnic
community. THE average HDDS of EP HHs is 2.23 out of 7. Lowest HDDS observed in
the Haor area. The proportion of dietary protein and fruit sources are very
low, which has a negative consequence on cognitive development. Around 4.7% of
surveyed HHs has at least one disabled member. South has the highest level of
all forms of disability followed by Haor. About 38% of HH are exposed to
different covariate shocks. The South part of the working areas has the highest
(72%) exposure to natural calamities. 37% of all surveyed HHs adopted different
coping strategies.
The results of logistic regression models were done in the form of
Marginal Effect which indicates a change in the probability of being extremely
poor if the independent variable changes by one unit. A Model revealed
female-headed households, households with primary occupation as day labor,
households having disabled persons are more likely to be poor. The probability
of extreme poverty also increases if a household head is aged and if the
dependency ratio is high.
Next some policy instruments to see how these affect the probability of
being extremely poor were tested. This is evident from another Model that if
households has multiple income sources then the probability of being extremely
poor reduce by 1%.
Again, if a household receives training then the probability of
generating multiple income source increase by almost 7%. Also, the probability
of being extremely poor reduces by 1% if the household has ownership of
livestock. These Models validate the requirement of incorporating livelihood
components in the program design.
Another Model justifies the requirement of incorporating nutrition
components. This is found that the probability of being extremely poor reduces
by 2% if the dietary diversity score increase by 1 point. In a Model, it
was investigated the requirement of involvement with institutions. The
probability of being extremely poor reduces with a higher duration of membership
with MFIs.
The presenters mentioned that this kind of analysis helps us to
undertake interventions to address multidimensional aspects of extreme
poverty. For example, undertaking activities to advance
economic policy reform, and poverty alleviation, and social mobilization and
inclusion initiatives, particularly persons with disabilities and people from
ethnic minority communities; working collaboratively with the government of
Bangladesh at various levels, and other stakeholders; working with vulnerable
populations to support the creation of jobs and incomes, particularly
connecting extremely poor people to markets and employment opportunities,
building productive capabilities and capacity; working on climate adaptation
and disaster management; integrating gender equality and women's empowerment
issues.
Local newspapers covered the program. One example can be seen in the following links.
https://www.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/home/bangladeshs-90pc-extreme-poor-families-earn-less-than-10-dollar-a-day-1607568353?amp=true
https://www.thedailystar.net/city/news/pksf-working-poverty-alleviation-2008837
https://tbsnews.net/bangladesh/10-lakh-people-come-out-poverty-2025-169600
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