Bangladesh Country Overview 2010

Updated October 2010

 

Bangladesh has made impressive economic and social progress in the past decade, despite frequent natural disasters and external shocks. Poverty declined from 57% of the population in 1990 to 31.5% in 2010. Broad-based private sector led growth and macroeconomic stability contributed to significant decline in rural and urban poverty. Bangladesh is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015.

The average GDP growth over the last six years was over 6%. Bangladesh showed remarkable resilience to the global financial crisis, buoyed in part by remittances and garment exports.

Bangladesh has made commendable progress in social and human development. It has met the MDG for gender parity in education and universal primary school enrollment well ahead of time. Nearly 80% of teenage girls today have completed primary education, compared to a similar ratio of only 20% for women in their fifties today. Infant and maternal mortality has improved significantly over the last decade, and total fertility rates have dropped by more than 50% compared to the mid-1970s.

Despite the good track record, with around 56 million people still below the poverty line, Bangladesh faces considerable development challenges. It is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and natural calamities like cyclones and floods-- 60% of the worldwide deaths caused by cyclones in the last 20 years were in Bangladesh. Inadequate power and gas supplies are a major constraint to growth. Only 47% of households have an electricity connection. Growing urban congestion is reducing the benefits of urbanization. Malnutrition has been persistent, and the quality of governance has hampered the effectiveness of expenditure and the delivery of public services. And the labor force is set to grow faster, posing a challenge of adequate employment generation.

In the face of these challenges, Bangladesh has outlined a vision of becoming a middle income country by 2021, which would require it to grow at 8% per year. For achieving this acceleration, Bangladesh will need to devise a strategy to absorb its growing labor force and raise its productivity by enhancing skills, and also invest much more, especially in infrastructure. Also, while addressing the other issues posed above, it will have to pay particular attention to the looming challenge posed by climate change.

Table 1: Information at a glance 

 

World Bank in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the largest recipients of support from International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary arm. Since 1972, the World Bank has committed more than $15 billion support to the Government of Bangladesh to reduce poverty and improve the lives of the people.

The World Bank works in close partnership with the Government of Bangladesh and always aligns its programs and projects with Government priorities. The World Bank also works closely with other development partners, non-government organizations, civil society, academia, and other stakeholders.

All support and projects are developed in close consultation with the government and the people of Bangladesh. The World Bank currently has a portfolio of 27 active projects with a net commitment of $3.61 billion. The projects utilize local knowledge and expertise. Several projects have actively involved the local communities in design and implementation.

The World Bank supports the Government in its efforts on macro-economic stability and growth, power, infrastructure, climate change and disaster management, human and social development and poverty reduction. The World Bank provides both financing and technical assistance that have helped the country to be on track on achieving the MDGs.

The World Bank has enhanced its support to Bangladesh and has provided concessional lending above $1 billion in a single year for the first time in 2009. The same trend is expected to continue. All World Bank loans to Bangladesh are interest free IDA credits, with 10 year grace period and 40 year maturity period.

Our support had helped to build the Jamuna Bridge and connect the east-west region of the country. Extreme poverty in villages having access to Jamuna Bridge has been reduced by approximately 30%. Now, the World Bank has committed to co-finance the construction of the Padma Bridge that will connect the south-west region and contribute to overall development of the region.

The World Bank provides quality and timely cross-sector thematic research, analysis, and advice to improve technical capacity. With operations in more than 180 countries, the bank is uniquely positioned to share analytical and research works on international best practices in development. The recent studies such as Whispers to Voices, Poverty Assessment for Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Investment Climate Assessment were helpful in providing understanding and policy suggestion to improve development management.

The World Bank's work plan in Bangladesh is spelt out in its Country Assistance Strategy. The strategy identifies priorities where World Bank assistance will be most effective in achieving the Government’s vision of poverty reduction.

The Country Assistance Strategy for FY 2011 -14 will support Bangladesh’s vision of becoming a middle Income Country by 2012 by contributing to accelerated, sustainable and inclusive growth, underpinned by stronger governance at central and local levels. The strategy is based on country-led priorities established in the Second National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (NSAPR II). The strategy proposes support for technical analysis of key development issues, as well as record lending for Bangladesh, totaling more than USD 6 billion in four years, based on continued strong country performance.