UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Olivier De Schutter will visit Bangladesh from May 17 to 29, 2023 to examine the government’s efforts to eradicate poverty. “Bangladesh has made remarkable gains in poverty reduction over recent years, yet important questions remain around how to maintain this progress and ensure all parts of the population benefit equally,” said De Schutter, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor, report, and advise on poverty and human rights around the world. “My visit will be an opportunity to hear and learn more and provide recommendations to the government on how it can continue to support people out of poverty and ensure the right to an adequate standard of living for all in the face of economic and climate-induced shocks,” he said. During the visit, the UN expert will travel to Dhaka, Rangpur division and Cox’s Bazar, where he will meet with national and local government officials, individuals and communities affected by poverty, and representatives from civil society. Read more: Many countries can learn from Bangladesh’s approaches to reducing poverty, empowering women, adapting to climate change: WB President In addition to investigating the effectiveness of social security programmes, De Schutter will examine the impact of Bangladesh's labour laws, healthcare, housing, and education systems on poverty. He will also assess the situation of groups disproportionately affected by poverty, including women, children, people with disabilities, and older persons, as well as garment factory workers and Rohingya refugees. De Schutter will present his preliminary observations and recommendations at a press conference in Dhaka on May 29. The Special Rapporteur will present his final report on the visit to the UN Human Rights Council in June.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ‘Ashrayan Project’ under which homes are built for homeless and displaced people in Bangladesh, has played a key role in achieving the goals of poverty eradication, hunger eradication, gender equality and women's empowerment, among others, India’s leading English-language magazine India Today writes.  Her innovative Shelter Scheme, to transform Bangladesh into a developed and prosperous country by 2041, has been able to bring about positive changes in inclusive development by aiming to provide houses for landless, homeless, and marginalized people in 64 districts of the country, writes the magazine in its April 15 issue. Whereas examples of low-interest loans for land purchase are found in several countries around the world, Bangladesh becomes the first country to offer free land ownership with houses to its marginalized citizens in order to bring its backward communities into the mainstream, India Today notes.  Read: 4 lakh coastal people took refuge at Ashrayan homes during Sitrang: PMO “Beneficiaries under this scheme are not only provided with accommodation, but they are also provided with various training, daily allowances during training, and loans after training to make them economically self-reliant,” the report states.  “The scheme includes empowering women by giving them half ownership of land and houses, providing free electricity connection, providing clean water by installing one shallow tube well for every 10 families, and providing food assistance under three months of VGF to the resettled families initially,” it reads.  The India Today report also lauded PM Hasina’s development, known as the "Sheikh Hasina model". The 'Ashrayan Project' is a unique example of how a house can be a major tool for overall family welfare and social development. Read: Ashrayan Project: Govt thoroughly scrutinizing “irregularities” In its report, India Today highlighted the experience of two beneficiaries of the project. For 30 long years, Moksedul, a brick kiln labourer, waited for a house that he could call his own.  His long-held desire has been granted, as he has been assigned a semi-furnished house in his own name. Moksedul told India Today that he can live very well with his family now.  Meanwhile, sixty-five-year-old Piara Begum is a resident of Patharghata in Barguna who lost her family home to the river thirty years ago.  Read: No laxity in costruction of Ashrayan houses to be tolerated: Project Director She used to live with her husband on the banks of the river until he died of cancer 16 years ago. “Finally, Piara Begum's misery has come to an end after she is allotted a house built by the Bangladesh government on the occasion of ‘Mujib centenary’ under the ‘Ashrayan' scheme.” India Today writes.  “I have been suffering all my life. I never dreamed of a house. Now, I have got a semi-furnished house with land. The prime minister has given me a house. I am very happy. As long as I live, I will pray for the prime minister,” she told India Today. The “Ashrayan” project was undertaken in 1997 under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. And since its inception, approximately 5,07,244 landless and homeless families have been rehabilitated at various stages under this shelter initiative.  Read More: I’m everyone’s PM irrespective of party affiliation, says Hasina Through this initiative, the society's backward community has been given access to semi-finished housing and two decimals of land.

Ruling Awami League MP Meher Afroz Chumki today (April 09, 2023) said no one in Bangladesh is now starving. “People of the country do not want panta rice any more, they don’t go door to door and beg,” she said. The MP said this during a discussion on the 50th anniversary of the National Parliament. Chumki said that poverty has disappeared from Bangladesh.  Read More: Poverty forces Thakurgaon day-labourer to put 7-month-old baby girl up for sale  “We don't deny that prices have been going up. People are suffering all over the world. They are spending money after a lot of consideration. But is there any person in Bangladesh without food? We can proudly say that the people of Bangladesh are not going without food. People do not want panta rice any more, today they want good food and clothes.  The country is self-sufficient today,” she said. Saying that Sheikh Hasina is one of the top global leaders in women's empowerment, Chumki added that the prime minister has appeared for question and answer in parliament for bringing accountability. Expressing determination to move forward while facing conspiracy, Chumki said this is not 1975, this is 2023. “Country is on track to become Smart Bangladesh in 2041. No one can get away with conspiracy here. We will move forward.”  “Why do we need to seek votes? Because, after killing Bangabandhu, a generation grew up in Bangladesh with wrong and distorted history. They do not know the history of Bangabandhu, they do not know the history of this country,” she said. Read More: Bangladesh Poverty Watch Report 2022 launched; regular monitoring of progress emphasized She mentioned that some intellectuals have forgotten that on the eve of victory, intellectuals were killed by the Pakistani army and their collaborators so that this country fails to move forward.  The ruling party MP said that with “false information and exploiting a child by paying him just Tk 10, a section of people have mocked the independence of the country.”

The number of children without access to social protection is increasing year-on-year, leaving them at risk of poverty, hunger and discrimination, according to a new report released today by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF. According to the report, an additional 50 million children (aged 0-15) missed out on a critical social protection provision – specifically, child benefits (paid in cash or tax credits) – between 2016 and 2020, driving up the total to 1.46 billion children under 15 globally. “Ultimately, strengthened efforts to ensure adequate investment in universal social protection for children, ideally through universal child benefits to support families at all times, is the ethical and rational choice, and the one that paves the way to sustainable development and social justice,” Shahra Razavi, director of Social Protection Department at the ILO, said. Child and family benefit coverage rates fell or stagnated in every region in the world between 2016 and 2020, leaving no country on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of achieving substantial social protection coverage by 2030, as per the report. In Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, coverage fell significantly from approximately 51 percent to 42 percent. In many other regions, coverage has stalled and remains low. In Central and South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Asia, and North Africa coverage rates have been at around 21 percent, 14 percent, 11 percent and 28 percent respectively since 2016. Failure to provide children with adequate social protection leaves them vulnerable to poverty, disease, missed education, and poor nutrition, and increases risk of child marriage and child labour. Globally, children are twice as likely as adults to live in extreme poverty – those struggling to survive on less than US$ 1.90 (PPP*) a day – approximately 356 million children. A billion children also live in multidimensional poverty – meaning without access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, or water. Children living in multidimensional poverty increased by 15 percent during the Covid-19 pandemic, reversing previous progress in reducing child poverty and highlighting the urgent need for social protection. Moreover, the pandemic highlighted that social protection is a critical response in times of crisis. Nearly every government in the world either rapidly adapted existing schemes or introduced new social protection programmes to support children and families, but most fell short of making permanent reforms to protect against future shocks, according to the report. “As families face increasing economic hardship, food insecurity, conflict, and climate-related disasters, universal child benefits can be a lifeline,” said Natalia Winder-Rossi, UNICEF Director of Social Policy and Social Protection. “There is an urgent need to strengthen, expand and invest in child-friendly and shock-responsive social protection systems. This is essential to protect children from living in poverty and increase resilience particularly among the poorest households.” The report emphasizes that all countries, irrespective of their level of development, have a choice: whether to pursue a “high-road” strategy of investment in reinforcing social protection systems, or a “low-road” strategy that misses out on necessary investments and will leave millions of children behind. To reverse the negative trend, ILO and UNICEF urge policymakers to take decisive steps to attain universal social protection for all children, including: ·         Investing in child benefits which offer a proven and cost-effective way to combat child poverty and ensure children thrive. ·         Providing a comprehensive range of child benefits through national social protection systems that also connect families to crucial health and social services, such as free or affordable high-quality childcare. ·         Building social protection systems that are rights-based, gender-responsive, inclusive, and shock responsive to address inequities and deliver better results for girls and women, migrant children, and children in child labour for example. ·         Securing sustainable financing for social protection systems by mobilizing domestic resources and increasing budget allocation for children. Strengthening social protection for parents and caregivers by guaranteeing access to decent work and adequate benefits, including unemployment, sickness, maternity, disability, and pensions.  

Regular monitoring of progress is important to assess the degree of convergence between the left behind and the relatively advanced population groups and the lagging and the well-off regions of Bangladesh, says the Bangladesh Poverty Watch Report 2022 on Saturday (January 21, 2023). The report, jointly prepared by Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development (InM) and Center for Inclusive Development Dialogue (CIDD), aimed to ensure that grassroots voices of ‘left behind’ and extremely poor population groups are heard and these are reflected in policies. Chairman, CIDD Dr. Mustafa K. Mujeri and Chairman InM Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, among others, spoke at the launching event for the Bangladesh Poverty Watch Report 2022.   The Poverty Watch Report 2022 summarised some current aspects of poverty including testimonies, reflections and ‘stories’ of individuals from selected ‘left behind’ population groups belonging to seven plain land ethnic minority groups (Santal, Mal Paharia, Garo, Hajong, Mandi, Oraon and Munda) and the transgender community. Also read: Poverty forces Thakurgaon day-labourer to put 7-month-old baby girl up for sale In their ‘stories’, the participants shared their experience of having found themselves in poverty, exclusion and extremely difficult conditions reinforced by systemic errors and structural inequalities. The Report suggests several priority actions for speeding up their catching up process in society. The key will be to craft these policies/actions within the broader inclusive development strategies of the government that cover cross-cutting and national level issues, such as strengthening inclusive growth, ensuring financial inclusion, reducing income and social inequality, accessing quality education, health, nutrition and other basic services, adopting appropriate macroeconomic policy, addressing pockets of lagging social groups/regions, and adopting initiatives at the local level along with effectively managing micro-macro transmissions, according to the report. These left-behind communities have issues that are directly or indirectly related to the daily work of the local governments and local institutions, said the report. Also read: EU to provide €23 million to PKSF for extreme poverty reduction For implementing the agenda, one important element will be to utilise the potential of local action to drive development and create appropriate legal and financial frameworks to support all local partners in playing their part in the achievement of the integrated and universal inclusion agenda. The key is to empower all local stakeholders, especially the local government institutions, aimed at making sustainable and inclusive development more responsive, and therefore, relevant to local needs and aspirations. The goals will be reached only if local actors including these left-behind communities fully participate, not only in the implementation, but also in the agenda-setting and monitoring processes. Participation requires that all relevant actors are involved in the decision-making process, through consultative and participative mechanisms, at the local and national levels within the overall inclusion framework, according to the report. Read More: Colombia seeks Yunus' advice on poverty reduction, 'total peace'

The European Union (EU) and Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Thursday signed a grant agreement to implement a new project for extreme poverty reduction. PKSF Managing Director Nomita Halder and Maurizio Cian, head of cooperation of the EU Delegation to Bangladesh, inked the agreement worth €22.81 million for the "Pathways to Prosperity for Extremely Poor People (PPEPP)-European Union" Project. The PPEPP-EU Project will support 215,000 most vulnerable, extremely poor households (about 0.86 million people) in 145 unions of 12 districts where poverty rates are higher than the national average. The specific objective of the project is to help the target people to rise out of extreme poverty and make significant progress along a pathway towards prosperity. The project will work in the flood-prone river basin area of the northwestern region (Rangpur, Kurigram, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Nilphamari and Gaibandha), cyclone and saline-prone southwestern region (Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, Patuakhali and Bhola), and northeast haor region (Kishoreganj) and some ethnic minority clusters in the north. PPEPP-EU will work around livelihoods and enterprise development, nutrition and primary healthcare, access to services through community mobilisation, disability inclusion, climate resilience building and women empowerment. Target groups will include women-headed households, single mothers, elderlies, households with child labour, persons with disabilities, people of the third gender and intersectional groups such as ethnic minorities.  Read more: PKSF launches $200mn project to transform rural microenterprise

Many Europeans are now facing hard choices due to a difficult financial situation and more than one in four of them said they are in a "precarious" situation and over half see a serious risk it will become so over the coming months, with an unexpected expense that could push them into poverty, according to a survey. This feeling is particularly strong in Greece and France. As the cost of living, driven by higher energy prices, raging inflation and war in Ukraine, tightens their grip, Pollster Ipsos and French anti-poverty NGO Secours Populaire have set up a "European Barometer of Precariousness and Poverty" for the first time to observe the social situation, opinions, and concerns of people in France, the UK, Germany, Greece, Italy and Poland. Half of more than 6,000 people polled in the six countries, from June 17 to July 6, told Ipsos that their purchasing power had shrunk over the past three years – mainly due to soaring food, fuel, heating and rent bills. Read: Soaring inflation threatens to unleash political turmoil across Europe In this "very difficult context, Europeans do not feel secure." Across Europe, rising inflation is behind a wave of protests and strikes that underscores growing discontent with the spiralling cost of living and threatens to unleash political turmoil. Europeans have seen their energy bills and food prices soar because of the war in Ukraine. Despite natural gas prices falling from record summer highs and governments allocating over $566 billion in energy relief to households and businesses since September 2021, it is not enough for some protesters, according to the think tank Bruegel. Energy prices have driven inflation in the 19 countries that use the euro currency to a record 9.9 percent, making it harder for people to buy what they need. "Many Europeans have declared falling into financial difficulties. This situation is particularly difficult in Greece, where 51 percent of respondents said they are in this situation," Ipsos said. Around 55 percent of Europeans feel that there is a significant risk that they will find themselves in an unstable financial situation in the coming months, with inflation continuing to rise in the continent. Read: Europe sees fastest pace of rate hikes since euro launched They have little financial wiggle room, with 64 percent of respondents indicating they are unsure of which expense to cut back on because they have already done so. This anxiety is growing in Italy and Greece and now concerns seven out of 10 people. "More than one in three Europeans said they have had to restrict their travel recently. More than one in five said they have been cold recently and have not turned up the heating at home. One in seven has even had to ask for the help of relatives or take several jobs," Ipsos said. "Beyond their own situation, the Europeans see the precariousness around them, particularly in their neighbourhoods, with 41 percent observing that there are many precarious people in their neighbourhoods and 30 percent in their close circle or at work. This difficult situation is particularly worrying in Greece, Italy and Poland."

Warning that Afghanistan faces deepening poverty with 6 million people at risk of famine, the U.N. humanitarian chief on Monday urged donors to restore funding for economic development and immediately provide $770 million to help Afghans get through the winter as the United States argued with Russia and China over who should pay. Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council that Afghanistan faces multiple crises -- humanitarian, economic, climate, hunger and financial. Conflict, poverty, climate shocks and food insecurity “have long been a sad reality” in Afghanistan, but he said what makes the current situation “so critical” is the halt to large-scale development aid since the Taliban takeover a year ago. More than half the Afghan population -- some 24 million people -- need assistance and close to 19 million are facing acute levels of food insecurity, Griffiths said. And “we worry” that the figures will soon become worse because winter weather will send already high fuel and food prices skyrocketing. Also read: UNHCR raises concerns over Afghan refugees forced returns from Tajikistan Despite the challenges, he said U.N. agencies and their NGO partners have mounted “an unprecedented response" over the past year, reaching almost 23 million people. But he said $614 million is urgently required to prepare for winter including repairing and upgrading shelters and providing warm clothes and blankets -- and an additional $154 million is needed to preposition food and other supplies before the weather cuts access to certain areas. Griffiths stressed, however, that “humanitarian aid will never be able to replace the provision of system-wide services to 40 million people across the country.” The Taliban “have no budget to invest in their own future,” he said, and “it’s clear that some development support needs to be started.” With more than 70 percent of Afghan’s living in rural areas, Griffiths warned that if agriculture and livestock production aren’t protected “millions of lives and livelihoods will be risked, and the country’s capacity to produce food imperiled.” Also read: One year on, Afghans at risk await evacuation, relocation He said the country’s banking and liquidity crisis, and the extreme difficulty of international financial transactions must also be tackled. “The consequences of inaction on both the humanitarian and development fronts will be catastrophic and difficult to reverse,” Griffiths warned. Russia called the U.N. Security Council meeting on the eve of the first anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and its ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, sharply criticized the “ignominious 20-year campaign” by the United States and its NATO allies. He claimed they did nothing to build up the Afghan economy and their presence only strengthened the country’s status “as a hotbed of terrorism” and narcotics production and distribution. Nebenzia also accused the U.S. and its allies of abandoning Afghans to face “ruin, poverty, terrorism, hunger and other challenges.” “Instead of acknowledging their own mistakes and supporting the reconstruction of the destroyed country,” he said, they blocked Afghan financial resources and disconnected its central bank from SWIFT, the dominant system for global financial transactions. China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun also accused the U.S. and its allies of “evading responsibility and abandoning the Afghan people” by cutting off development aid, freezing Afghan assets and imposing “political isolation and blockade.” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused the Taliban of imposing policies that “repress and starve the Afghan people instead of protecting them” and of increasing taxes on critically needed assistance. She asked how the Taliban -- which has not be recognized by a single country -- expect to build a relationship with the rest of the world when it provided a safe haven for the leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in downtown Kabul. He was killed by a U.S. drone strike on July 31. Nonetheless, Thomas-Greenfield said, the United States is the world’s leading donor in Afghanistan, providing more than $775 million in humanitarian aid to Afghans in the country and the region in the last year. As for Afghan frozen assets, President Joe Biden announced in February that the $7 billion in the U.S. was being divided -- $3.5 billion for a U.N. trust fund to provide aid to Afghans and $3.5 billion for families of American victims of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States. “No country that is serious about containing terrorism in Afghanistan would advocate to give the Taliban instantaneous, unconditional access to billions in assets that belong to the Afghan people,” Thomas-Greenfield said. To Russia’s claims that Afghanistan’s problems are the fault of the West and not the Taliban, Thomas-Greenfield asked, “What are you doing to help other than rehash the past and criticize others?” She said Russia has contributed only $2 million to the U.N. humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan and China’s contributions “have been similarly underwhelming.” “If you want to talk about how Afghanistan needs help, that’s fine. But we humbly suggest you put your money where your mouth is,” Thomas-Greenfield said. Russia’s Nebenzia took the floor again, calling the suggestion tunning.” “We are being asked to pay for the reconstruction of a country whose economy was essentially destroyed by 20 years of U.S. and NATO occupation?" he asked. “You are the ones who need to pay for your mistakes. But first of all, you need to return to the Afghan people the money that has been stolen from them.” Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador, had the last word. “If the Russian Federation believes that there was an economy in Afghanistan to be destroyed, it’s been destroyed by the Taliban,” she said.

Forced by poverty, day-labourer Matiur Rahman, 46, from Baliadangi upazila of Thakurgaon, has decided to sell his seven-month-old baby girl Sammi to arrange money to run his family. In his family of six members, he always struggles to earn bread for all due to poverty. Eldest daughter Parul, 14, is in ninth grade, Sumaiya Akhtar, 9, is in 3rd grade in a local school and Suraiya Akhtar, 6, is studying in a madrasa next to the house. He was not able to bear the education expenses of three daughters and the expenses of 7-month-old baby girl Shammi which forced him to take the baby to a local market for sale or adoption on Sunday. But when the locals got to know this they suggested him not to sell the child and father Matiur brought the child back home. Read:Govt. seeks higher growth for lower poverty, says budget document Father Matiur said, “I have no son. I am the only earning member in the family. Three meals a day is not enough with the daily wage.” Mother Nazma Begum, 39, said, “Our eldest daughter is studying in class IX and she will be married off soon. But we have no property to educate the girls and get them married.” “So my husband took my youngest daughter to the market to sell to people,” she added. In this regard, UP member of Bara Palashbari Union Harun Or Rashid said he will arrange assistance for Motiur from the Union Parishad and the government. Baliadangi Upazila Executive Officer (UNO) Moha Jobair Hossain also assured Matiur of financial assistance.

Bangladesh has sought a joint blue economy approach to harness the untapped marine resources that can be useful in tackling poverty, food insecurity, unemployment, energy crisis and ecological imbalances towards strengthening the sustainable development process. “Oceans are the potential and versatile resource-frontiers for humankind, but remains under-explored and unexploited,” said secretary of the Maritime Affairs Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rear Admiral (Retd.) Md. Khurshed Alam. Bangladesh along with some other countries co-hosted the event titled “Fostering international and regional cooperation in support of the sustainable development of the blue economy in LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS” organised by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 2nd UN Ocean Conference being held in Lisbon, Portugal. Also read: Ecnec clears a Tk 1092-cr project to widen Cox’s Bazar Marine Drive The vice-president of Tanzania, foreign and tourism minister of Tonga, minister of international development of Norway, ministers, high representatives and experts from the member states also attended the event, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Khurshed emphasized the need of fostering international and regional cooperation to develop strategies in support of the sustainable development of the blue economy in LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS. He elaborated that states and organizations in developing regions may not have the capacity to develop and manage their own shared marine resources, as they lack the necessary information, expertise or the financial capacity to follow through with planning and operations. External assistance can be valuable, and sometimes essential, in establishing shared international marine resources arrangements, Khurshed said. Also read: Blue Economy Dev: Govt to take project on Tuna, similar pelagic fishing in deep Sea Panelists opined that regional and international cooperation is crucial to develop marine scientific knowledge and research capacity to leverage the benefits offered by the blue economy. They said transfer of technology can create enabling conditions in the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS states to participate effectively in existing and emerging ocean sectors of the blue economy. Representatives also viewed strongly that strategic partnership is necessary for harnessing the benefits of the blue economy. The seminar was wrapped up with commitments to forging wider regional and international cooperation, devising mechanisms for technology transfer and financing the blue economy.