This year Bangladesh celebrates 50 years of its independence and its development journey has been spectacular. Over the years, from a wasteland ravaged by war with zero foreign exchange reserve in 1971, the country officially achieved lower-middle-income status in 2015 and was on course to graduate from the UN’s Least Developed Countries list in 2026.
Bangladesh’s ‘rags to riches’ story is inspiring. But in 2021 Bangladesh faces a new generation of challenges and the wide reaching impacts of Covid-19 that threaten to stall growth and exacerbate inequalities. So, as we celebrate Bangladesh’s success we also need to ask if we’re ready to tackle the second generation of development challenges?
Much to celebrate…
Compared to other countries in the region, Bangladesh’s social development gains have been achieved at a rapid pace and from a lower starting base. There have been huge leaps in the reduction of absolute poverty, maternal mortality and fertility rates and increase in life expectancy and expansion of access to education.
The rate of economic growth before the pandemic was at an enviable eight percent – fuelled by the ready-made garment sector and remittance. For a country that was largely aid dependent and abysmally poor in the 1980s and 1990s, that lacked natural resources, was burdened with a large population and hit annually by cyclone or floods, these are no mean feat to attain in just 50 years. Its success is often linked to a resilient population, social innovation led by the world’s largest NGOs, the agility of donors, and policy continuity in health, education of programmes that worked supported by the political elites. Given the fractious nature of Bangladesh’s politics and lack of democratic accountability- this bad governance but spectacular growth- was seen as a ‘paradox’ by many.
Now we should ask whether this pace of growth and development is sustainable given messy politics? And are we ready to tackle the second generation of development challenges that requires changing inequitable structures and creating sustainable and accountable institutions?
Equitable and Sustainable development?
While absolute poverty has fallen in the last few decades, income and social inequality have steadily grown overtime. Covid 19 further threatens the conventional pathways out of poverty as it effects global demand for ready-made garments and migrant labour – the two largest sources for foreign exchange for Bangladesh. A key challenge is not just sustaining the momentum of growth but creating institutions and systems that are required for addressing distribution of wealth and higher quality state service provision. These are inherently political issues.
Rounaq Jahan draws our attention to the fact that while social development, growth and inclusion have dominated the agenda in policy circles and public debate, inequality has rarely been the focus. In mainstream political discourse the welfare of the population through provision of basic needs has a clear consensus among the political elites but redistribution of resources to create an equitable and just society has not been on the political agenda since late 1970s.
This raises the question – what kind of development is being espoused and what are the trade-offs that accompany this rapid pace? As Adnan Morshed pointed out at an IDS event on Bangladesh at 50, while Bangladesh has emerged as a winner in some areas, development has come at a cost. For example, the expansion of ready-made garment (RMG) sector and economic activities fuelled rapid urbanisation and large-scale investment in infrastructures by the real estate developers had an adverse environmental impact.
Architects and environmental activists have long drawn attention to the unequal impact that unregulated urban planning has in terms of access to public space and exclusion of the urban poor from the housing market. As the state and urban authorities fail to regulate the cronyism that exists in this sector, it raises questions about the vision of development – and whether it will continue to create spatial injustice and ignore environmental costs for the next generation to pay for.
New forms of Precarity and Vulnerability and New Forms of Activism
As Bangladesh grows, class and other forms of intersectional inequalities have deepened. Covid-19’s impact on the economy coupled with the weaknesses in existing social protection and financial service sectors will create new forms of vulnerabilities and precarity – leading to the creation of a class of ‘new poor.’ At our recent discussion Imran Matin drew attention to the fact that the urban informal sector workers, women and the youth will bear the main brunt of this fall out. The uptake of the safety net has been low in urban areas and job losses and job market shrinkage have affected mainly women and the youth.
Apart from the loss of livelihood, women have also experience high levels of violence both in the domestic and public sphere that require urgent attention. But do recovery plans go beyond the ‘business as usual’ approach? What both Imran Matin and Firdaus Azim from BRAC University draw attention to is the need for harnessing the power of local innovations. The pandemic has led to a generation of locally driven solutions to contain the health emergencies and a rise in voluntarism at the community level.
It has also led to active citizen engagement using social media platforms to tackle issues, which is where new energies for change may lie. Firdaus pointed out that the intergenerational dialogue and activism among feminist activists is a place for hope to tackle persistent gender inequalities, especially around gender-based violence and control of women’s sexuality and rights.
New Narratives for Bangladesh
So where will Bangladesh be in the next 50 years? It is a rapidly changing scenario but one thing is clear – we need new narratives for Bangladesh. Lailufar Yasmin highlights the fact that Bangladesh has contributed much to the international arena, including championing the women peace and security agenda and contributing forces to it, and quietly promoting development diplomacy. While ‘the West’ discusses the Bangladesh paradox – other countries such as Japan, China, Russia are making overtures for investment.
There is no doubt that Bangladesh is at a critical juncture. Where it will be in the next 50 years will partly depends on how it tackles the economic, health and social shocks of Covid-19 and if it creates systems and institutions that can address intersectional inequalities. That will require innovation and energy – qualities Bangladeshis have had in abundance so maybe there are more surprises in store for the world!
IDS has a long and proud history of working through partnerships in Bangladesh and has active ongoing collaborations and research projects with colleagues and organisations there. For more discussion on Bangladesh at 50, watch the IDS event Bangladesh at 50 – Resilience and Growth: Looking back, moving forward? for a discussion with a wide range of eminent Bangladeshi thought-leaders, from academia and civil society.
