Changing fortunes in anti-poverty programmes in Bangladesh

The level of poverty in Bangladesh has remained high by any standard since independence. Strategies to reduce poverty in Bangladesh have sought (i) to increase production and income and (ii) to redirect the flow of income and consumption. In most strategies, income generation predominates with redistribution playing a minor or a complementary role. Three salient characteristics of government programmes to reduce poverty in rural Bangladesh are their lack of commitment to their supposed goals, their inefficacy in reaching the poor, and their lack of co-ordination with non-governmental organizations. These weaknesses help account for the persistence of poverty in rural Bangladesh over the last three decades. The emphasis has now shifted to the work of non-governmental organizations, but this article argues that their programmes suffer from some of the same problems.