Over more than a month, I’ve been traveling quite a bit. In that time, I’ve missed quite a bit of news that has been directly relevant to Bangladesh. Over the next few weeks or so, I’ll try to readdress all that news and point to holes that might have gone not have gone missing had I had a more open schedule.
First up the World Bank’s’ Country Assistant Strategy for the next 5 years:
“The World Bank’s new Country Assistance Strategy for Bangladesh (FY11-14) was publicly launched on September 15th in Dhaka. The launch event continues a process of regular multi-stakeholder consultations that keep the new strategy aligned to the country’s highest development priorities.”
“The Country Assistance Strategy builds on Bangladesh’s surprisingly strong track record on growth and human development over the past decade. The country has grown by nearly 6 percent per annum, significantly reducing poverty while staying on track to achieve Millennium Development Goals related to infant and child mortality, gender equality and school enrolments.”
“The new strategy supports the country’s ambitious aspirations to reduce the poverty rate from 40 to 15 percent and achieve middle-income status by 2021. It proposes record levels of technical and financial support, including IDA lending of more than $ 6 billion in the coming four years based on continued strong country performance.”
Basically the World Bank is doubling down on the things that have worked in the recent work. Unremarkably, there is a strong whiff of doubt that things can actually work out the way they have been laid down on paper.
If you have the time, I recommend that you listen to what Ellen Goldstein the World Bank Country Director has to say about the Bank’s medium run plans for Bangladesh. Over all she reports good news and has some very interesting points on how Bangladesh’s schizophrenic politics sits next to Bangladesh’ laudable development achievements.