Invest more in Bangladesh's youth to reduce poverty

from One World South Asia

Bangladesh urgently needs to invest in better education, healthcare, and job training for its young people in order to produce stronger economic growth and reduce poverty.

At a seminar to publicize the World Bank’s World Development Report, speakers noted that a move to invest heavily in Bangladeshi’s between the ages of 12 and 24 would be one of the most significant ways the country could banish poverty and galvanize its economy.

The World Development Report 2007, titled Development and the Next Generation, is an annual flagship publication of the World Bank. The dissemination event, jointly organized by the World Bank and BRAC at the BRAC Center, was presided over by Dr. Salahuddin Ahmed, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of BRAC University. Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed, Chairman, Bishwo Shahitto Kendro, graced the occasion as chief guest. Qaiser Khan, World Bank Acting Country Director for Bangladesh, Julian Schweitzer, World Bank Director for Human Development and Mr. Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, Chairman, BRACnet also spoke.

The World Development Report 2007 focuses on youth— the capabilities they need and the transitions in a young person’s life: learning for life and work, staying healthy, working, forming families, and exercising citizenship.

Julian Schweitzer, Director for Human Development, World Bank said: “We cannot just develop primary education but need to also provide access to secondary and higher education. This will help turn the youth bulge problem into the youth bulge opportunity”

The WDR contains a number of Bangladesh-related information, summarized here:

• In rural Bangladesh, working while attending primary school had a sizable negative effect on the transition to secondary school, and starting to work while attending secondary school had even larger effects on secondary school completion.

• Channeling conditional subsidies directly to girls aged 11-14 by the Bangladesh Female Secondary Stipend Assistance Program has hugely increased girls' enrollment-despite strong biases against their schooling. Concerns about learning outcomes are being addressed in later programs.

• In Bangladesh, over 30 percent of 15-19 year old girls are mothers or pregnant, but few can identify life-threatening conditions in pregnancy.

• In Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, use of maternal health services is low among young women. In rural Pakistan, adolescent girls' mobility is highly limited. This may affect their ability to seek timely health services.

• Nearly 50 percent of teenage mothers in Bangladesh reported seeking no help for maternal complications. The report notes successful targeted programs such as Matlab district's 'doorstep delivery' program, which increased the use of ante- and post-natal services.

• In Bangladesh, men's exposure to social development activities as part of Grameen Bank's micro-credit schemes could explain lower fertility rates. WDR 2007 recommends that family planning and reproductive health campaigns should also target men.

• In an international survey of 15 to 24 year-olds, very few young Bangladeshi women thought they had the most influence on schooling or marriage choices.

• In Bangladesh, for example, the Underprivileged Children Education Program (UCEP) helps 10 to 16 year-olds who have dropped out of primary school, providing them with three years' schooling and feeding them into UCEP-run vocational programs.

BRAC’s Research and Evaluation Division (BRAC-RED) also disseminated their latest monograph Adolescents and Youth in Bangladesh: Some Selected Issues. This Monograph brought together a number of primary research studies of BRAC-Research and Evaluation Division (RED) focusing on some selected issues such as changes associated with adolescence; education, livelihood and participation in financial market; knowledge and practice regarding sexuality, pregnancy and pregnancy-care; morbidity and health-seeking behaviour; and life-style including drugs and role model.

Here is a link to the report