Over the years, Bangladesh has produced seven National Human Development Reports (NHDRs), which have contributed to public debates and influenced the policy debate in the country (Box 1). Ultimately, human development is development of the people, development for the people and development by the people. Key Message 3: COVID-19 pandemic would inform and influence Bangladesh's future human development trajectory.
Combating COVID-19 will also require out-of-the-box measures to ensure that the country's human development trajectory remains intact.
Reflecting on human progress in Bangladesh
The impressive progress of Bangladesh in various socio-economic indicators has also been reflected in the Human Development Index (HDI), prepared by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Overall, the impact of climate change can have serious consequences for human development in the long term. Like many other countries, Bangladesh has also made progress in reducing inequality in the major broad dimensions of human development.
Gender-based inequalities in human development have also reduced over the past decade, as reflected in the Gender Development Index (GDI) and Gender Inequality Index (GII).
Pathway for future human development – an analytical framework
Human development is about acquiring more capabilities and enjoying more opportunities to use those capabilities. The human development framework in the 1990 Human Development Report also introduced a composite index – the Human Development Index (HDI) for assessing achievement in the basic dimensions of human development. Thus, the future human development path of Bangladesh needs to be shaped in the context of these challenges.
Both the direct and indirect dimensions of human development are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. The future path of human development, recognizing the basic as well as the supplementary and throughout Table 2.1: Dimensions of human development. Individually and collectively they would influence and shape the future path of human development of the country.
All these dimensions of inequality are important for Bangladesh as the country moves along the future path of human development. Thus, youth work has many positive implications for the future human development of Bangladesh. But it must be remembered that peace and prosperity and the other four dimensions of future human development are mutually reinforcing.
The impacts of COVID-19 on human development can be direct or indirect. The following chapters deal with an in-depth analysis of all the five emerging dimensions of human development that would influence the future trajectory of human development in Bangladesh.
Human development and inequality
Box 3.1: “Equality” and “Equality” Provisions in the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Real inequality is then created due to the unequal distribution of the remaining 50 percent of income between the top 10 percent and the bottom 40 percent of the population. And in this struggle for division, the disparity becomes more apparent when we find that of the 48 percent consumption.
Hence, a member of the bottom 40 percent consumer group is likely to suffer from stunted or limited human development along with different dimensions of consumption – food and non-food. Note: The Palma ratio is calculated from the income share of household deciles reported in BBS's Household Income Expenditure Surveys. It shows how most of the income will be split between the top 10 percent and the bottom 40 percent.
At the national level, for all Bangladeshi households, in 1973-74, the bottom 40 percent enjoyed only 18.4 percent of total income. Thus, we find that the U5MR for the richest quintile is generally always 40 to 43 percent lower than that of the poorest quintile. This means when the positive rate of income growth at the bottom end becomes less than that of the group at the top end.
The rate of decline in extreme poverty was higher overall than that of moderate poverty. And here too the rate of extreme urban poverty was always less than that of extreme rural poverty.
Climate change and human development in Bangladesh
Most of the saline and cyclone-prone districts belong to the coastal belt, while Haor is located in the northeastern region of the country. Climate change is linked to human development in terms of mortality and morbidity, access to health care services, schooling and literacy, and income and livelihoods of the climate-vulnerable population. Thus, most of the districts affected by climate change have a higher incidence of poverty than the districts less affected by climate change.
The burden of disease due to climate-induced disasters reduces the health stock of affected family members. The age of the climate-vulnerable population is an important determinant of climate damage at the individual level. The social positions of different population groups can be an important determinant of the differential effects of climate change.
Erosion of major riverbanks is one of the most important reasons for migration in Bangladesh. Vulnerabilities due to COVID-19 are linked to uneven distribution of livelihoods, access to health care, education and basic services in climate-vulnerable areas of the country. Thus, socio-economic inequality has widened due to the dual threat of COVID-19 and climate change.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has significant implications for human development in climate-vulnerable areas of Bangladesh. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Youth employment: a key to future human development of Bangladesh
196 which have a profound negative impact on the mental health of young people waiting to enter. Most educational institutions have limited capacity to provide labor market oriented skills such as competence development and communication skills to young people. This is likely to reduce job-related insecurities, improve wages and dignity for young people in the labor market.
The involvement of young people as 'employers' has improved over the years, implying an improvement in young people's choices. Income of the youth and that of the marginalized youth and inequality in paid work. But only 15 percent of young people said they were satisfied with their computer skills.266 A large proportion of young people in Bangladesh (75 percent) live in rural areas.
On the other hand, the progress of youth self-employment is also at risk. COVID-19 has also raised concerns about the physical and mental health of young people, which could be another driving factor for an increase in youth unemployment in the future. Shrinking jobs for young people creates uncertainty about the quality of living standards of young people now and in the future.
296 However, due to COVID-19, maintaining the existing jobs of young people in this sector has become a major concern. Third, household income, especially of poor households, has fallen due to the continued disruption of economic activities.
Dreams of adolescents
Adolescent dreams are again embedded in institutions such as family, school, peers, community and state. In most cases, the parents who send their children to madrassas are from the disadvantaged segment of society. Girls get scholarships under the Bangladesh Government Girls High School Scholarship Programme.
The dreams of young people are not homogeneous; nor their material and ideological situation. This dream is slightly less noticeable from the responses of the girls in both age cohorts. This adheres to their understanding of the perceived responsibility that they must take on in the future.
The section of the adolescents who are most interested in working for the people are girls from the late age group. Critical dimensions of the adolescent's well-being mentioned in the conceptual framework (health, education and skills, safety issues and leadership) go through various challenges. Some of the respondents anticipated that they might not go back to school because of poverty, child marriage and displacement (reverse migration from urban to rural areas due to COVID-19).
34; Adolescent Loneliness and Aggression in Chittagong." The Chittagong University Journal of Biological Sciences. 34; Understanding Determinants of Adolescent Nutrition in Bangladesh." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 10.111/nyas.13530.
A Peaceful and Prosperous Bangladesh
Strategies and Institutions
But one of the best testimonies of Bangladesh's commitment to peace is its contribution to global peacekeeping operations. Peace and Prosperity of Bangladesh and COVID-19 The preceding chapters have indicated the likely overall impact of COVID-19 (Chapter 2) and on specific issues such as human development and inequalities (Chapter 3), climate change. Chapter 4), youth work (Chapter 5) and adolescent dreams (Chapter 6). One of the routes through which COVID-19 may affect peace is through greater inequalities, as poor and marginalized groups of people will be more affected by the pandemic.
The second way through which COVID-19 can affect social peace and stability is through shrinking people's jobs and income opportunities, especially the poorest and most marginalized groups of people. One of the groups that would be asymmetrically affected by COVID-19 are girls and women. Since COVID-19 is a global phenomenon, which has adversely affected all nations, domestically-looking protectionist policies may be pursued by many countries.
Strategies must be aligned and mutually reinforcing: Strategies must be efficiently coordinated in terms of content and organisation. The kind of goods and services that a strategy matrix aims to offer people must be available and accessible to them. Strategies must be based on what worked and hard facts: Bangladesh now has extensive development experience that can guide the formulation of the strategy for future human development.
In addition, strategies should be based on solid data, time-series information, preferably disaggregated at different levels − gender, socio-economic groups, rural-urban divide, regions, etc. To ensure that strategies should be formulated in a safe and participatory way, so that citizens participate in their discussions and know exactly what action will be taken.
