Bangladesh almost halves its poverty rate, allocates $12 bn for social programs

23 / 09 / 2023

By Marwa Nassar - -

Bangladesh has succeeded to cut its poverty rate from 41.5 percent in 2006 to 18.7 percent in 2022 and allocated in the current fiscal year $ 12 billion for the social safety net programs, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikha Hasina Wazed said.

Addressing the annual debate of the UN General Assembly, the Prime Minister went on to say that Bangladesh has been transformed from a lower-middle income country to a middle-income country.

Emphasizing on Bangladesh’s commitment to ensure women empowerment and gender equality within a stipulated timeframe, she said: “We have given special attention to overall education including female literacy… Starting from the primary to higher education, about 23 million students are being provided with stipend, scholarship and one time grant. More than half of those recipients are female.”

Turning to climate change, Ms. Hasina pointed out that despite contributing less than 0.47 per cent of global emissions, Bangladesh is one of the most climatically vulnerable countries in the world. She added that adverse effects of climate pose serious threats to the country’s security and economic prosperity.

Calling upon the major emitters to submit and implement ambitious NDCs, she said: “The developed economies must fulfill their $100 billion commitments… We also demand an urgent operationalization of loss and damage funds as agreed in COP27.”

Highlighting the Government’s commitment to the cause, she noted “we established the ‘Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund’ back in 2009 to finance climate adaptation and allocated 480 million US dollars to this fund so far from our own resources.”

Sheikh Hasina said that achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries has been greatly impeded by lingering impacts of the pandemic, the effects of an existential climate crisis, and the wide ramifications of the war in Ukraine affecting global food, financial, and energy securities.

She appealed to world leaders gathered at the UN “to shun the path of war and confrontation, and to work collectively for enduring peace … and economic prosperity for our people and future generations.”

Looking ahead to next year’s Summit of the Future to reset the global push to attain the SDGs, she said: “We must make all efforts to collectively address the common challenges of humanity to secure a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable future for all.”