Microcredit has been accepted as an effective tool for poverty alleviation and as an approach to development. Access to credit has been recognized as a human right. In this context, the book reviews the performance of microcredit programmes; identifies and analyses the issues facing the microcredit sector; and suggests policies and programmes to deal with the issues to further strengthen the role of microcredit for poverty alleviation.
Some of the micro-borrowers in Bangladesh have benefited in certain respects. A lot of them are struggling under the stringent terms of credit including high cost of borrowing and a weekly repayment schedule starting a week after a credit is taken. Many have gone further into indebtedness and face a bleak future. The micro-borrowers face the threat of expulsion and confiscation of their assets when they fail to pay up weekly installments; and some have in fact had their meagre assets confiscated when they failed to pay up. This threat is in effect collateral.
Bangladesh has made striking progress on a range of social indicators over the last 15 years, an achievement widely credited to the country's pluralist service provision regime. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have significantly expanded their services during this period and have shown that it is possible to scale up innovative antipoverty experiments into nationwide programs. The unique role of Bangladesh's NGOs is not confined to the delivery of social services and pro-poor advocacy.
This book, third in the series, is on the budgetary process in Bangladesh and is written from the perspective of the poor. Based on a participatory research of IDPAA, PROSHIKA and conducted by Shamunnay, the book proposes an alternative framework of a pro-poor, gender-just and environment-sensitive national budget for Bangladesh. The study finds that despite some changes, the current budget-making process is complex, inefficient and non-transparent. It argues for a set of institutions that would be necessary for creating a favourable policy for poverty reduction.
The book includes revised papers presented at the conference on Emerging Global Economic Order and the Developing Countries, organized by the Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) in Dhaka in June 2004. The topics addressed are: Millennium Development Goals: Reality and Prospects; Globalization, Inequality and Poverty: Theory and Evidence; Post Cancun WTO: An Assessment; New Issues in Development Assistance: Policy Reforms, Ownership, Governance; Global Environmental Security After Rio+11: North South Divide or Unite; and Bangladesh in the World Economy: Selected Issues.
The present volume on Emerging Issues in Bangladesh Economy: A Review of Bangladesh's Development 2005-06, is the tenth publication under the pioneering initiative of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) titled Independent Review of Bangladesh's Development (IRBD). Over the past years, since 1995, the IRBDs, an annual publication of the CPD, have been able to establish a tradition of high scholarship and a credible civil society perspective on key issues of developmental concern and interest in Bangladesh.
Global economic and political conditions have undergone unprecedented changes with post-GATT global trade and investment liberalizations. Democracy at home and globalization externally have now created for Bangladesh vast opportunities for accelerated economic and social development, and for eradication of the curse of poverty with all its malaise within the shortest possible time. To attain its modest objectives, however, Bangladesh will have to meet many challenges, and overcome many hazards and pitfalls....
বাস্তব জীবনের অর্থনৈতিক সমস্যা সম্পর্কে মূলধারার অর্থনীতির বক্তব্য তুলে ধরার লক্ষ্যে এই গ্রন্থে লেখকের পনেরটি প্রবন্ধ সন্নিবেশিত করা হয়েছে। বইটির শুরু দানখয়রাতের অর্থনীতি নিয়ে। আরও রয়েছে দুর্নীতির অর্থনীতি, সংস্কারের রাজনৈতিক অর্থনীতি, মেরামত ও পরিচালনার অর্থনীতি, বাংলাদেশে বন্যা নিয়ন্ত্রণের রাজনৈতিক অর্থনীতি,স্বাস্থ্য অর্থনীতি ও লিঙ্গভিত্তিক বৈষম্যের অর্থনীতি সম্পর্কে মনোজ্ঞ বিশ্লেষণ। অর্থনীতির সবচেয়ে জটিল সমস্যা অর্থনৈতিক অসাম্য সম্পর্কে রয়েছে দুটি নিবন্ধ। লেখকের দৃষ্টি শুধু বর্তমানেই নিবদ্ধ নয়। ভবিষ্যতের অর্থনৈতিক প্রবণতা সম্পর্কে বিশ্লেষণ রয়েছে &lsq
What have been the true achievements of the much discussed green revolutions in the Indian sub-continent? What coalition of political forces came to choose the advice of the technologists over those urging structural reforms as the solution to India's agrarian transformation? What have been the costs of a development strategy which has ignored the agrarian masses in favour of securing the political allegiance of a landed minority? With a rare clarity of vision, Prof.