Professor Mustafizur Rahman on social protection

while addressing a dialogue on “National Budget 2015-16: Expectations of the Country’s Extreme Poor Groups and the Role of Members of Parliament,” organised by All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Extreme Poverty and Urban Pavement Dwellers of the Bangladesh Parliament on 28 February 2015.

View more news reports on the event

Published in The Financial Express on Sunday, 1 March 2015.

Rich-poor income gap reduced, significantly

Muhith tells national seminar

FE Report

The income inequality between the rich and the poor has been significantly reduced in recent times largely due to perfect targeting and delivery of resources, Finance Minister AMA Muhith claimed Saturday.

He said the income inequality is now reduced remarkably in line with the progress achieved in the reduction of extreme poverty.

The finance minister also claimed that the rate of poverty reduction which was stagnant until 2010 showed signs of improvement in 2013-14 fiscal.

“Every developing country is experiencing a rise in extreme poverty and income inequality except Bangladesh. It is the only country where the situation is improving. Our strategies should be appreciated for this,” he said.

“The reasons for such improvement are difficult to pinpoint. But different sources including development partners have listed reasons such as perfect targeting and delivery procedures under social protection programme of the government,” he added.

The finance minister made these comments at a dialogue on “National Budget 2015-16: expectations of the country’s extreme poor groups and the role of members of parliament.”

All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Extreme Poverty and Urban Pavement Dwellers of the Bangladesh parliament organised the dialogue at a city hotel.

People living below the extreme poverty line were estimated at 11 per cent in 2013-14 while rate of overall poverty was 24 per cent in the same fiscal year, the finance minister said quoting a sample survey of the government.

Targeting is usually a complex task due to fluctuation in extreme poverty category, Mr Muhith said.

He laid emphasis on decentralisation of decision making of the government to help reduce poverty and pleaded for inclusion of Dhulis (local instrument players) and mentally impaired people under the category of the extreme poor.

Speakers at the dialogue urged the government to put its focus on the reduction of extreme poverty and increase allocation in this regard in the budget for FY2015-16. They also sought an end to the current political turmoil which is taking a heavy toll on the common people.

The finance minister, however, said some 14 per cent of the population remains in poverty level in all countries. So Bangladesh is not far away from reaching that level, he said.

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Professor Mustafizur Rahman said the budget allocation should be on the basis of needs.

“Reduction of poverty from 20 per cent to 14 per cent is not as easy it is in the case of bringing it down from 40 per cent to 30 per cent,” he said.

He urged the policy-makers to upgrade social safety-net programme to social protection programme.

Speaker of the parliament Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury attended the programme as chief guest.

She urged the policy-makers to intensify move on reduction of inequality, raise allocations for women and children and ensure proper coordination on budget procedures through involvement of the parliamentary standing committees.

Deputy Speaker Md Fazle Rabbi Miah sought budgetary allocations for children and women.

Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairman, Palli Karma-Shahayak Foundation (PKSF), presented a key-note paper at the progarmme suggesting way-outs and pointing out problems on reduction of extreme poverty.

Md Israfil Alam, MP, APPG chairman, chaired the dialogue.