[7][8][9][10] Bangladesh has exhibited remarkable accomplishments in diverse spheres, encompassing poverty reduction, ensuring food security, enhancing primary education, reducing mortality ratios, expanding immunization coverage, and effectively addressing communicable diseases.
Among Bangladesh's many economic and social achievements, dramatic reduction in poverty in often considered a phenomenon among international organizations such as IMF and The World Bank.
[citation needed] Though they may own a small plot of land and some livestock and generally have enough to eat, their diets lack nutritional value.
[20] Even in the major cities, however, "a significant proportion of Bangladeshis live in squalor in dwellings that fall apart during the monsoon season and have no regular electricity.
This figure, both in absolute terms and concerning the broader South Asian context, stands out as high—second only to Afghanistan in the realm of urban poverty rates (Ellis and Roberts 2015).
These vulnerabilities encompass substandard housing, precarious living conditions, and limited access to basic services such as education, electricity, health, and nutrition.
The collective impact of these vulnerabilities manifests in urban areas, where the prevalence of severe stunting among children under the age of 5 is 8 percentage points higher compared to rural regions.
It places huge pressure on the environment, causing problems such as erosion and flooding, which in turn leads to low agricultural productivity.
The causes of urban poverty are due to the limited employment opportunities, degraded environment, bad housing and sanitation.
[23] Recent population growth has contributed to an escalating poverty rate in Bangladesh, with the country experiencing a yearly increase of 1 million people.
[24] Roughly two-thirds of Bangladesh's land lies at an elevation of five meters or less, exposing over 165 million people to the risks of natural disasters like cyclones, floods, earthquakes, and landslides.
The sea level rise in the upcoming years could result in the displacement of an estimated 15 to 30 million Bangladeshis from coastal areas.
[29] Property prices also tend to be lower the higher the risk of flooding,[30] making it more likely that someone who lives in a flood-prone area is poor and vice versa, as they might not be able to afford safer accommodation.
Also, they tend to depend solely or largely on crop cultivation and fisheries for their livelihood and thus are harder hit by floods relative to their income.
Important to the finances of farmers operating small farms is their self-sufficiency in rice and floods adversely affect this factor, destroying harvests and arable land.
The main reason cited had been lack of financial resources although it was found that many of these people are willing to substitute non-financial means of payment such as labour, harvest or part of their land[33] The above is problematic as it creates a vicious cycle for the poor of Bangladesh.
[34] As of February 2020, poverty was in fact increasing in several countries, while many others were already off track to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1.
One promising concept, the Graduation approach, is a time-bound series of interventions designed to address the various factors contributing to extreme poverty.
This method, extensively studied and commonly employed, offers a systematic way to break free from the poverty cycle and gradually transition into a financially sustainable job.
Research papers published by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) have shown that poverty acts as both a cause and effect of a lack of education, which in turn adversely affects employment opportunities.
Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Sunday said Bangladesh will be a hunger and poverty free country within the next decade, reports UNB.