Development Support Credit

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Closed

The Development Support Credit for Bangladesh supports the implementation of the Government's poverty reduction strategy (PRSP), which focuses on: 1) Acceleration of pro-poor growth: The I-PRSP aims to raise the economy's growth rate from about 5 percent per annum to 6-7 percent, in order to attain the poverty reduction target in the Millennium Development Goals set for 2015. This will be accomplished by (a) ensuring a stable macroeconomic environment; (b) relying on the private sector as the engine of growth; (c) establishing a sound and well-functioning financial system and ensuring that the poor have access to financial resources; (d) taking advantage of the opportunities provided by globalization, (e) developing rural areas and accelerating rural non-farm growth; (f) creating the conditions needed for an expanding and dynamic manufacturing sector; and (g) substantially augmenting the capacity and quality of infrastructure services. 2) Promoting Good Governance: The Government's strategy of improving governance focuses on addressing three major areas: (a) improving the investment climate by creating a competitive environment across all segments in society; (b) establishing and enforcing clear rules and regulations for public sector administration; and (c) promoting voice and participation of the civil society, including women, the poor and disadvantaged groups, as a step toward a transparent and 'open' government. 3) Investing in Human Development: This is to be done through targeted public expenditures in health, education, and nutrition, and radically improved system of incentives for public service providers. Within the health sector, although some success has been achieved in preventive health care, a small proportion of poor people have access to public health care services. The strategy thus gives priority to completing the unfinished agenda and addressing the pro-poor concerns in health and nutrition. The introduction of a national nutrition program to address the malnutrition of children under two as well as pregnant and lactating mothers through the provision of food supplements, nutrition and health counseling is a positive step to address the problem. In the area of basic education, the plan is to improve quality, while increasing access for the poorest segments o f society. NGOs and private sector are envisaged as providers of high-quality education along with the government. 4) Promoting Women's advancement: While the gender-gap is closing in Bangladesh for most social indicators, the overall level of empowerment measured in terms of literacy, work force participation, property rights, and credit access, remains low. The strategy for furthering women's advancement includes emphasis on policies and institutional actions to combat continuing negative gender ratios, violence against women, high maternal mortality, and restrictions on women's employment and economic opportunities; and policies to ensure formal equality; supporting affirmative actions at all levels and in all spheres; and creating a women-friendly institutional environment overall. 5) Ensuring Social Protection: To help increase the poor's crisis-coping capability and form important risk-insurance policies for them, four sets of policies would be emphasized for the poor to cope better with various income (consumption) shocks. The first set of policies will continue focus on social safety nets; the second on policies that will address the vulnerabilities of the 'new poor'; the third will emphasize the development of social solidarity; and the fourth set concerns risk insurance, including measures to mitigate risks faced by the poor.

FY17 - Energy and Extractives,FY17 - Financial Sector,FY17 - Industry, Trade and Services,FY17 - Public Administration

World Bank Group

Project

Manufacturing (Industrial), Raw Materials, Government, Education