Sustainable poverty reduction

Many poor families in Bangladesh climb out of poverty one year to slip back into extreme poverty conditions in the next. Natural calamities like floods, cyclones and river erosions increase the number of the poverty afflicted or push them back into poverty after they had achieved considerable success in getting rid of poverty from their lives.
What can the policies be to conquer poverty on a sustainable basis? One way can be hedging the rural poor with insurance policies to cover risks like crop losses, damage to homesteads by floods, loss of poultries and cattle, etc. According to media reports, a crop insurance pilot project was about to be launched in a limited way. The project would be funded jointly by GOB, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan. This project’s outcome should be monitored and, if found effective, should be replicated all over the country. The small insurance policies can help poor people at the grass roots from getting some financial assistance directly at the time of their acute distresses.
Rural marketing systems may be improved so that rural producers can sell directly to buyers at good value, regularly, without having to sell to exploitative middlemen at a loss. The overall availability of micro credits to the poor must be increased with repayment of the loans at substantially lower rate of interests and on other easy terms.
Government will have to run special programmes to take care of the needs of the victims of river erosion, monga (periodic famine conditions in northern areas). It should provide food and housing supports and create planned employment for affected people under these special programmes and operate them with some regularity. Greater availability of energy and other means of production in the rural areas that have the highest concentration of poverty can also have a positive effect against poverty.
  The fastest results against poverty at the national level can come from much increasing the rate of economic growth. Economic growth creates jobs, earnings and employment that have the most effect in reducing poverty. But the economic growth is vitally dependent on greater investment activities. The first requirement, thus, is to create an environment more conducive to investments.

Sustainable poverty reduction

Many poor families in Bangladesh climb out of poverty one year to slip back into extreme poverty conditions in the next. Natural calamities like floods, cyclones and river erosions increase the number of the poverty afflicted or push them back into poverty after they had achieved considerable success in getting rid of poverty from their lives. What can the policies be to conquer poverty on a sustainable basis? One way can be hedging the rural poor with insurance policies to cover risks like crop losses, damage to homesteads by floods, loss of poultries and cattle, etc. According to media reports, a crop insurance pilot project was about to be launched in a limited way. The project would be funded jointly by GOB, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan. This projects outcome should be monitored and, if found effective, should be replicated all over the country. The small insurance policies can help poor people at the grass roots from getting some financial assistance directly at the time of their acute distresses. Rural marketing systems may be improved so that rural producers can sell directly to buyers at good value, regularly, without having to sell to exploitative middlemen at a loss. The overall availability of micro credits to the poor must be increased with repayment of the loans at substantially lower rate of interests and on other easy terms. Government will have to run special programmes to take care of the needs of the victims of river erosion, monga (periodic famine conditions in northern areas). It should provide food and housing supports and create planned employment for affected people under these special programmes and operate them with some regularity. Greater availability of energy and other means of production in the rural areas that have the highest concentration of poverty can also have a positive effect against poverty. The fastest results against poverty at the national level can come from much increasing the rate of economic growth. Economic growth creates jobs, earnings and employment that have the most effect in reducing poverty. But the economic growth is vitally dependent on greater investment activities. The first requirement, thus, is to create an environment more conducive to investments.