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The AEDSB Washington Seminar Series
“Poverty Reduction in Bangladesh: Creating
Opportunities and Bridging the East-West Divide” Findings from the Bangladesh
Poverty Assessment
Speaker: Ambar Narayan and Hassan Zaman, Poverty Reduction Group, The World Bank
When: Monday, April 20, 2009; 12.30 pm. to 2.00 pm (NEW TIME)
Where: Room MC 10-100, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20433
If you need a pass to attend the seminar, please contact one of the following:
SAhmed20@worldbank.
Abstract
Bangladesh has experienced rapid poverty reduction in recent years, reducing
the poverty rate by almost 2 percentage points annually between 2000 and 2005.
The presenters discuss this and other findings from the World Bank's 2008 Poverty Assessment
report which documents Bangladesh's trends in poverty and inequality since 2000
and the outlook for the future, taking into account shocks to the economy in
2007/08. The report highlights the key factors contributing to this success and
the constraints that need to be relieved in order to make further progress. The
decline in national poverty rate however masks rising disparities between
regions within the country. The report unpacks the factors that have
contributed to regional disparity, finding evidence that the lack of
integration of the lagging regions with the dynamic regions in the country can
be attributed to a number of constraints that demand urgent attention. The work
also includes a special focus on the dynamics of the labour
market, progress in human development outcomes and the effectiveness of safety
nets in mitigating the impact of shocks. It aims to provide concrete policy
suggestions so that analysis can be translated into actions which further
improve the lives of the poor.
Poverty in Bangladesh (ppt)
About the Presenters
Ambar Narayan is a Sr.
Economist in the PREM anchor, Poverty Reduction Group, working on poverty and
distributional analysis and impact evaluations of Bank programs. Up until July
2008, Mr. Narayan was in the South Asia Region, where
he worked on analytical reports, monitoring and evaluation and safety net
programs in countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and
Afghanistan. He has also been involved in a number of post-disaster emergency
operations and impact assessments in South Asia -including Sri Lanka after the
tsunami, Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake, and Bangladesh after the 2007
floods and cyclone.
Hassan Zaman is currently a Lead Economist in the
central Poverty Reduction Group of the World Bank. In his ten years at the
World Bank, Hassan has also worked in the Africa and South Asia regions as a
country economist during which time he was involved in a range of policy reform
and investment loans. He has carried out analytical work on food prices, public
expenditures, poverty, micro-finance and NGOs. Prior to joining the Bank, Hassan worked at BRAC in Bangladesh for four
years.