MDG Progress and Prioritization for the Future

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MDG Progress and Prioritization for the Future
Quazi Shahabuddin Director General BIDS, Dhaka

20 June 2005
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Target 1 Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the
proportion of people whose income is less than
one US dollar a day (Goal 1)
Bangladesh made better progress during the 1990s
in reducing income poverty. Bangladesh's good
economic growth performance contributed much to
this progress. This was achieved despite a ris
e in income inequality during the 1990s which
partly offset the positive impact of growth on
poverty.
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Target 1 (contd.)
Progress in reducing poverty incidence in the
1990s was equal across urban and rural areas,
even though average per capita expenditure
increased much faster in urban areas.
Despite good progress in reducing overall incid
ence of poverty in the 1990s, the absolute number
of poor continues to be nearly 63 million, with
poverty remaining largely a rural phenomenon.
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Target 2 Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the
proportion of people who suffer from hunger (Goal
1)

• The prevalence of moderately underweight children
  (6-71 months) has declined appreciably from 67
  percent in 1990 to 51 percent in 2000.
  
• Despite the progress achieved, child malnutrition
  in Bangladesh remains among the highest in the
  world.

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Target 2 (contd.)

• The proportion of underweight children in
  Bangladesh is 16 percent higher than 16 other
  Asian countries at similar levels of per capita
  GDP.
• This suggests that children in Bangladesh suffer
  from short-term acute shortfall in food intake,
  as well as longer-term under-nutrition.

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Target 2 (contd.)

• There are also large differences in Child
  malnutrition rates across economic groups. Child
  malnutrition is pervasive among the poor.
  
• Contrary to expectation, however, nearly a third
  of the children firm the richest quintile also
  suffer from malnourishment.

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Target 2 (contd.)

• Such factors include per capita household intake
  infant feeding practices maternal schooling and
  hygiene practices access to safe drinking water,
  sanitation and health facilities quality of
  village infrastructure and protection against
  natural disasters.
• Presence of NGOs and public relief programs have
  been found to have stronger correlation to
  reduction in child malnutrition in the lowest
  consumption bundle.

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Target 3 Ensure that, by 2015, children
everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to
complete a full course of primary schooling (Goal
2)

• To achieve MDG 2, Bangladesh must increase the
  primary school enrolment rate from about 73.3
  percent in 1992 to 100 percent by 2015.
  
• The compulsory Primary Education Act, 1990 has
  made primary education (class I-V) in Bangladesh
  free and compulsory for all children.
  
• The government is committed to the goals of the
  Dakar Framework Education for All (EFA) which
  aims at achieving the MDG target by the year
  2015.
• The National Plan of Action (NPA) also aims to
  achieve the six EFA Dakar goals by 2015.
  

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Target 3 (contd.)

• Various data indicate that between 1994 and 2003,
  the primary school net enrolment rate has
  oscillated around 80 percent for 6-10 year old
  children.
• Improvement in the enrolment rates was due to
  increase in the Govt's budgetary allocation for
  girls education, free primary education, massive
  stipend programmes at the primary level and the
  Food-for-Education Programme.
• In order to promote further equity and access of
  underprivileged children to primary education,
  the government replaced the FFE program with a
  five-year country-wide Primary Education Stipend
  Project.

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Target 3 (contd.)

• Despite these initiatives, however, some 2.4
  million 6-10 year old children are still not
  enrolled in primary schools.
  
• Taking into account demographic consideration and
  the rate of population growth, it is estimated
  that to meet MDG 2 by 2015, the primary school
  enrolment rate should increase annually at a rate
  of 1.25 percentage point for girls and 1.50
  percentage points for boys.
• While drop out rates in the primary school cycle
  have fallen from 38 percent in 1994 to 33 percent
  in 2004, the rates have been found to be higher
  (36) in government schools compared to private
  ones (13).
• Among those who are not enrolled and those who
  have dropped out, a significant number come from
  poor households and live in rural areas, urban
  slums, coastal areas and the Chittagong Hill
  Tracts (CHT).

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Target 3 (contd.)

• Although primary school completion rates show an
  increasing trend, there is concern over the
  quality of education and the competency level of
  primary school graduates.
• The reasons for lack of quality in education
  services include insufficient contact homes and
  unfavourable student-teacher ratio.
  
• Current government interventions for improving
  the quality of primary education is concentrated
  in five areas --- organisational management,
  schools and classroom, infrastructure
  development, support to equitable access, and
  management and monitoring.
• Various estimates indicate that adult (15 years
  ) literacy rate during 1990-2002 ranged between
  37 and 61 percent, with urban rates higher (64)
  than rural (46).

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Target 4 Eliminate gender disparity in primary
and secondary education preferably by 2005 and in
all levels of education no later than 2015 (Goal
3)

• To ensure gender parity in education levels under
  MDG 3, Bangladesh will have to increase the
  femalemale participation ratio at tertiary
  levels from 3664 to 5050.
• Gender disparity is a reflection of complex
  social, cultural and economic issues.
  
• While some improvement in gender equality has
  been achieved in sectors such as education,
  health and family welfare, labour and employment
  and democratic participation, in Bangladesh true
  empowerment is still a distant goal.

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Target 4 (contd.)

• Despite the general improvement in school
  enrolments, a large disparity continues to exist
  between male and female literacy rates.
  
• In the health sector, women's status compares
  unfavorably with that of men.
  
• Although the life expectancy gap between men and
  women has narrowed over the last decade,
  Bangladesh continues to be among the very few
  countries in the world where women's life
  expectancy is lower than that of men.
• Although the Bangladesh Constitution guarantees
  equality and equal protection of all citizens,
  the principle is often severely curtailed with
  respect to women's rights.

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Target 4 (contd.)

• Women continues to face various forms of
  violence, harassment and humiliation.
  
• The government has taken several measures in
  trying to address this complex problem.
  
• Although employment opportunities for women have
  increased in the last decade or so, especially in
  export-oriented industries (e.g. RMG) and the
  informal sector, a social perception persists
  that women should remain in the household.
• Although there are no official gender-based wage
  differentials in the public sector, female wage
  in the agriculture sectors is 70 percent and in
  the non-agricultural sector is 42 percent, of
  male wage.

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Target 4 (contd.)

• Female-headed households face more serious
  poverty, in terms of food insecurity and lower
  income, than male-headed households.
  
• There are currently only six women
  parliamentarians in the 300-seat National
  Parliament of Bangladesh.
  
• The situation is somewhat better in case of local
  government. Twenty five percent of the members in
  the Union Parishad (Councils), the City
  Corporation and Pourashabas (municipality) are
  women who have been directly elected to the local
  bodies.

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Primary Challenges and Actions

• Challenge One Designing and Implementing
  Effective Policies.
  
• Challenge Two Mainstreaming gender equity
  principles into policies, strategies and
  institutional practices.
  
• Challenge Three Gender sensitizing all
  institutions involved in implementing
  interventions for promoting gender equality.
  
• Challenge Four Protecting women against
  discrimination and domestic violence.