Social Dimensions Of Economic Reforms In Bangladesh

Selected background papers prepared for the regional workshop, 1993.

Fifty Years of Bangladesh portrays the multi-faceted dimensions of Bangladesh’s development journey, its economic and social transformation and political and cultural contestations. The book presents new empirical data supplemented with critical analysis of processes, actors and actions that have been the drivers of Bangladesh’s transformation and offers new ways of understanding Bangladesh. Organized in six sections, the book provides a multi-disciplinary, holistic and interrelated narrative of the Bangladesh story covering its economic and social transformation, the political history and changing cultural landscapes. It presents new empirical data and proposes new theoretical and analytical frameworks to explain the country’s complex and paradoxical developments. Capturing the vast landscape of changes that have taken place in different sectors of Bangladesh during the last fifty years, the contributors analyse the variety of Bangladesh’s experiences, its achievements as well as the shortfalls and mistakes. They propose new models and perspectives to ground Bangladesh’s developments, identify persistent and emerging challenges and suggest ways forward. A valuable addition to scholarship on Bangladesh, this book can be used as a reference in universities, research institutions and international development agencies interested in Development Studies, South Asian Studies and studies of the Global South.

Textbook on the role of social policy and social planning in economic and social development - explains the need for an integrated approach to overcome poverty and to control population growth and social problems arising from rapid urbanization; discusses health policy, educational development, housing needs and social services; reviews development aid strategy and policy issues. Bibliography.

This book evaluates Bangladesh’s impressive economic and social progress, more often referred to as a ‘development surprise’. In doing so, the book examines the gap in existing explanations of Bangladesh’s development and then offers an empirically informed analysis of a range of distinctive factors, policies, and actions that have individually and collectively contributed to the progress of Bangladesh. In an inclusive way, the book covers the developmental role, relation, and impact of poverty reduction, access to finance, progress in education and social empowerment, reduction in the climatic vulnerability, and evolving sectoral growth activities in the agriculture, garments, and light industries. It also takes into account the important role of the government and NGOs in the development process, identifies bottlenecks and challenges to Bangladesh’s future development path and suggests measures to overcome them. By providing an inclusive narrative to theorize Bangladesh’s development, which is still missing in the public discourse, this book posits that Bangladesh per se can offer a development model to other developing countries.

A definition of sustainable development is that of the Brundtland Commission - "...development which meets the needs of the current generation without jeopardizing the needs of future generations". This volume seeks to analyze the economic basis for this definition, and to look at the critiques of the economic approach - which have their basis in growing disquiet over the role of the productive normative science driving technological change and economic transformation. The discussion is followed by studies of the application of the criteria of sustainability to rural problems in South Asia, Kenya, Nepal, and Latin America and to urban/industrial problems in Jamaica, Chile and Vietnam.