Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Mohammad Tofazzel Hossain Miah said Bangladesh has launched numerous projects aimed at eradicating poverty, placing the country in a leading position in poverty alleviation efforts.
“I think poverty reduction is one of the important achievements we can celebrate,” said Mohammad Tofazzel Hossain Miah.
The secretary was speaking as a chief guest at a workshop titled “Pathways to Prosperity for Extreme Poor People-European Union (PPEPP-EU) Project” at the auditorium of the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) in the city today (14 July).
European Union Ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley, Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Chairman M Khairul Hossain, its Managing Director Nomita Halder, among others, spoke at the event.
According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey -2022, the poverty rate has come down to 18.7% and extreme poverty has come down to 5.6%.
The workshop discusses key results, learnings and challenges of the three-year project in 12 poverty- prone districts across the country. The project is being jointly implemented by the European Union and Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF).
The main area of the project is to help extreme poor households with little or no income improve resilient livelihood, Inclusive finance, nutritions and primary health care. The project also helps improve disaster and climate resilience, women empowerment leading to gender equality and disability inclusion.
The result of the ongoing project shows that the prevalence of targeted extremely poor people below international poverty line came down from 56% to 28%. The incidents of stunting among children under five years reduced from 48% to 40%. The result also shows that the incidence of wasting among children under five came down from 17% to 4%.
The incidence of participating households with increased resilience to climate change and other shocks increased from 32% to 45%. The prevalence of participating women demonstration increased empowerment and household decision-making authority increased from 31% to 42%.
European Union Ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley said Pathways to Prosperity for Extremely Poor People-European Union shifts away from the traditional graduation model by applying more tailored livelihood packages including soft loans.
“The project uses inclusive approaches including nutritions, primary health care, inclusive finance, women empowerment and people with special needs,” said Charles Whiteley.
