Agricultural Research Management Information System

Home
Research Summary
Search
About Us
- ARMIS
- Brochure
Contact Us
Report
User Request
Data Input
Help
- Operation Manual
  - PDF
  - Video
- Program Area & Commodity
We have reached 37600 number of research entries at this moment.

- Logout

Research Detail

Home
Research
Detail

State Elites and the New Poverty Agenda in Bangladesh

Neil Webster
Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS Strandgade 56, DK-1401 Copenhagen, Denmark

Zarina Rahman Khan
Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS Strandgade 56, DK-1401 Copenhagen, Denmark

Abu Hossain Muhammad Ahsan
Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS Strandgade 56, DK-1401 Copenhagen, Denmark

Akhter Hussain
Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS Strandgade 56, DK-1401 Copenhagen, Denmark

Mahbubur Rahman
Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS Strandgade 56, DK-1401 Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The New Poverty Agenda (NPA) refers to policies and approaches that the developing countries pursue for poverty reduction with the financial assistance of the donor countries and seeks to secure ownership of the political and bureaucratic elites. This paper seeks to analyze the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) as part of this process in Bangladesh and to look at role of the state elites in it. The PRSP process in Bangladesh clearly indicates the key role played by the bureaucrats in its formulation and implementation. Civil society though playing a progressively important role in influencing policy agenda mostly backed up the bureaucracy. The introduction of the PRSP replacing the earlier Five Year Plans did not change the approach towards dealing with development rather transformed the way to do things. It ushered in a qualitative change in planning and development policy implementation as a population begins to assert itself upon the politics of the state elites.

Keywords: PRSP, Commitment, State elites, Policies, New poverty, Agenda, Poverty

Location: In Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Risk Management in Agriculture

Commodity: Poverty, Labor, Livelihood

Objectives:

To explore the PRSP part of this process and to look at the commitment of the state elites to its policies and thereby to the new poverty agenda.

Methodology:

Economic development that promotes poverty reduction has been a stated objective of all governments that have held power in Bangladesh since the country achieved independence in 1971. It exists in the Constitution of the country as one of its fundamental goals, understandably so given the effects of British colonial rule on economic development in the sub-continent and thereafter the exploitation of East Pakistan’s economy by West Pakistan during the period 1947 to 1971. In 1971 it finally emerged as an independent sovereign country, but ravaged by war, with little by way of industry, an under-resourced agricultural sector, and the majority of the population in poverty or absolute poverty. It was a society that had experienced systematic exclusion from power and influence in both the public and private sectors and it entered into independence with the loss of many from its relatively small educated elite with their deliberate targeting by the (west) Pakistani army in the universities and elsewhere during the struggle for independence. Economic growth and poverty reduction have been the twin pillars for building the new country, at least in the policy rhetoric, with the latter perhaps dominating the national and international agenda in the early period.² However this is at the general level; once one begins to look into the specifics it becomes apparent that defining poverty with the object of policy formulation for its reduction has been a confused and often contested process, more often than not conditioned by the context, internal and external, faced by the incumbent government and the vested interests that those in office have pursued. Between 1973 and 2002 Bangladesh’s development policies were organized in Five Year Plans apart from one special Two Year Plan (1978-1980). Then, with the encouragement of the World Bank, the Fifth Five Year Plan was phased out in 2002 to be replaced by the PRSP approach; PRSPs took on the status of being the national policy framework for poverty reduction in Bangladesh. This remained the case until the election of the new government in 2008 and its statement that from 2011 it will return to the 5 year planning. The Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP) and the PRSP⁸ do not explicitly define poverty or attempt to analyze the poverty condition in Bangladesh; it is left implicit in the papers’ presentations of the key dimensions and determinants of the nation’s poverty situation. As previously noted, the main empirical source for presenting the country’s poverty and changes in poverty are the Household Income and Expenditure Surveys. The PRSP does point to the multidimensional nature of poverty, stating that the level and nature of poverty should be seen in a ‘holistic way taking into recognition all credible quantitative and qualitative evidence’. Furthermore in defining poverty, the PRSP document states: “Poverty is a broad front. It is about income levels. It is about food security. It is about quality of life. It is about asset bases. It is about human resource capacities. It is about vulnerabilities and inequalities. It is about human security. It is about initiative horizons. It is each of these and all of these together.” (PRSP: 2005:2). Prior to the PRSP, the 5 Year Plans were prepared by the Planning Commission in the Ministry of Planning with all other ministries contributing to the process. The different ministries prepared their draft plans on the basis of implementation results of the previous plans, but following guidelines sent out by the Planning Commission for the new plan. The Five Year Plan drafted by the Planning Commission was then submitted for approval to the Cabinet and thereafter implemented on the basis of annual National Budgets that were presented and endorsed in the national parliament. In this way each sector ministry arrived at its budget, the accompanying set of programmes and implementation strategy. As the process implies, it was heavily dependent upon the thinking within the Planning Commission, the priorities of the Ministry of Finance and the concerned ministry’s status and priority with respect to other ministries and the government.

Source of Information: DIIS WORKING PAPER 2009:22

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

1.

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

It might well be that a qualitative change in planning and development implementation has been set in motion in Bangladesh, though it might be that the political elite has not recognized that there is a certain inevitability to this process as economic development begins to take hold of the economy, as donors press for a more accountable form of governance, as poverty becomes a political issue not just a technical one, as a population begins to assert itself upon the politics of the state elites, whether they are political or bureaucratic. The next 5 years will be critical in this as emerging economic elite presses for change and policies that create a more conducive environment for their interests and a population frustrated by its continuing poverty and the inequities in the distribution of economic growth’s benefits begins to challenge the lack of responsiveness from the political and bureaucratic elites to their aspirations. Civil society has proved a disappointment, being little more than loud voices on the sidelines more often than not exploiting an opportunity in the PRSP to pursue their own aspirations rather than those they claim to represent. The donors have a critical role to play, but whether they can succeed in harmonizing their assistance and also provide constructive support to the processes that can facilitate a government in moving towards the positive and pro/poor elements of the NPA remains uncertain factor in the equation. Analyzing the interests and politics of the key elites and their potential for being agents of such a change will be a key element in this assessment. The true intentions of the new government in Bangladesh have yet to be fully revealed, but should it not begin to deliver substantial change and improvement for both the emerging economic elite, the small but expanding middle classes who follow closely on the tails of this same elite, and the broader aspirations of a politically aware population, then political posturing on the need or relevance of the PRSP might well be lost in an agenda driven by popular disappointment at the lack of change. Such an agenda has also been a major part of Bangladesh’s recent his- tory and the population deserves better.

Knowledge Management: Journal