Why Bangladesh Is Poor and Always Will Be Poor - Essay Sample

Bangladesh is poor and will always be poor because of a maelstrom of factors and forces that conspire to constantly dim Bangladeshs economic star and frustrate her efforts to promote social welfare and reduce inequality. With an estimated population of 156,186,882 in 2016, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries on earth and though family planning and contraception success have managed to rein in the high fertility rate, advances in medicine have ensured a lower maternal and infant mortality rate and enhanced the quality of life. Rising from the ashes of a tumultuous independence war from Pakistan, Bangladesh has been through a series of coups with the first one coming three years after independence in 1975 and several more taking place until 1991 when the first democratic government took over (Wood, 2016). The economy has grown at a steady rate of six percent since then and Bangladesh has managed to reduce the population that lives under the poverty line from a half in 1991 to a third in 2016. The country attained lower middle income status in 2015 but the glaring inequality in the country indicates that this status may only indicate a small proportion of the populations success. The country is still one of the poorest in the world in terms of Gross Domestic Product per Capita and according to the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook in 2016 is 177th in the world by this measure("The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency", 2017). This paper aims to explore the reasons for Bangladeshs continued economic underperformance and the reasons why this trend is expected to continue in the foreseeable future. The paper will also attempt to make recommendations that can reverse this trend and propel Bangladesh into the heights of economic prosperity.

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Though Bangladesh has made concerted efforts to improve the welfare of her people by investing in basic services like health and sanitation, increased corruption in the public service has been a hindrance to efficient service delivery and is a contributing factor to poverty in the country. In January 2007, an Interim Caretaker regime backed by the military took over the country in an effort to stem the corruption in public service (Rahman Belal, & Owen, 2007). The aftermath of that caretaker government was the prosecution of several politicians and government officials for corruption but what the caretaker government failed to solve is the bitter rivalry and the political dominance of the two biggest political parties in the country. The rivalry between the Awami League and the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party which has been the highlight of the Bangladeshi political landscape since independence has made Bangladesh one of the most politically polarized countries in the world even though the policy differences between these two parties are not significant (Rahman, 2007). The instability spawned by this rivalry has made the Bangladesh economy which is already fragile to be more strained especially during periods of regime change.

In addition to the glaring corruption that has plagued the countrys public service, the high population density has strained public resources and delivery though the country has made considerable progress in the provision of basic services such as drinking water and sanitation services. The countrys high population is still not sufficiently covered by medical services and may have a challenge accessing quality health ("The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency", 2017). The series of governments in the country since independence have pursued food security and have largely successful in this regard. However, a third of this large population still subsist on less than two dollars a day and the dependency ratio in the country is not a favorable prospect for the countrys economic security (Rahman Belal, & Owen, 2007).

Bangladesh has a Gross Domestic product per capita of just above 2200 dollars as at 2016. This places it as one of the poorest countries on earth even though the country is 31st in the world in terms of total GDP ("The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency", 2017). Though Bangladesh is a lush, arable and agriculturally productive country, the major contributors to the GDP are the services industry and the commercial sector. Though the country is relatively young it has had an exciting political and social history and this has played a major role in boosting poverty.

Though China has managed to expand its economy from a developing status to a first world economy riding on the strength of a two billion strength population, one of the main reasons for Bangladesh high poverty rate is the countrys huge population. With the countrys population estimated to be over one hundred and fifty six million in 2016, the country among the most densely populated on earth and this puts considerable pressure on the resources available and strains the available factors of production. Though the family planning campaigns have been successful in the past thus managing to tam the countrys high fertility rate, the countrys population continues to grow with a large proportion of the population as dependents thus choking economic growth("The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency", 2017).

Though the high population growth and the resultant high population are a factor in the poverty of Bangladesh, theyre not the only factors responsible for these state of affairs and indeed they are factors that can instead be harnessed to spur economic growth as was the case in China. Though more than half of the Gross Domestic product in Bangladesh is generated by the services industry, more than half of the countrys labor force are employed in the agriculture sector (Hossein, & Sen, 1992). While this by itself is a factor worth discussing as one of the reasons for the poverty in Bangladesh, it also serves as a reminder of how productive the majority of the countrys labor force is.

Political Instability, and especially the bitter rivalry between the Awami league and the Bangladesh Nationalist party, is one of the major reasons why Bangladesh continues to be a poor state (Stiftung, 2009). The deadly rivalry between the Awami league and the Bangladesh nationalist party have persisted since the countrys early days and have continued to characterize the political outlook in Bangladesh. Though there are no essential ideological differences between these two parties, they have been unable to reconcile their differences to unite Bangladesh and their history is marred with coups, elections boycotts, protests and sometimes death (Stiftung, 2016). While a thriving and liberal democratic free space is ideal for the development of a countrys economy, competition on the political arena is ideal if it is spawned by ideological differences and is wrought by policy difference and rooted in what each party thinks are the best way to run government business (Mallet, 2015). The political competition in Bangladesh has however shuttled past all this and is premised on flimsy ideological bases and historical and personal differences thus trapping the country in a web of personal intrigues and power struggles between these two parties (Vaughn, 2010). When the political competition is not based on differences in political ideology but rather on personal differences and power struggles then the power being sought is not power for the god of the country or for the good of the citizens but rather power for its own sake.

The political instability in Bangladesh has kept investors at bay as the instability makes the economy volatile and the currency, the Bangladeshi taka, fickle("The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency", 2017). As the political future of the country has looked so uncertain since independence, foreign investors are reluctant to cast their lot in Bangladesh and this contributes to economic stagnation and regression. Bangladesh is endowed with enough natural and human resources to pursue aggressive economic programs and policies that can propel her into the league of the worlds most prosperous economies. However, the uncertain and unstable political terrain compromises and jeopardizes the economic prospects for Bangladesh. The power struggle is also a large contributor to the massive corruption that has plagued the public service as public servants choose to stash wealth as the sun shines and before the next regime change (Hossein & Sen, 1992). The corruption in public office which is a byproduct of the unstable political environment is a thus a factor contributing to the poverty in Bangladesh as it makes it harder to access government services and also makes the business environment unfavorable. Statutory support for various stimulus and economic empowerment programs is also largely dependent on the will of the party in power and thus the instability on the political climate in Bangladesh makes the successful completion of such initiatives uncertain. The bitter political rivalry between the Awami League and the Bangladesh nationalist party came to a head towards the end of 2006 where a series of events that included election boycott led to the country being placed under a caretaker government for two years. The violence surrounding these events led to the deaths of more than 600 people and the destruction of property (Rahman Belal, & Owen, 2007). The unease and uncertainty spawned by such events are not good for the economy and such is only one instance of the aftermath of the bitter rivalry between the two parties.

The tumultuous history of regime changes in Bangladesh is also a factor contributing to poverty in Bangladesh. The regime changes between 1971 and 1991 mainly involved coups and these left a lasting impact on the economic prospects of the heavily populated Asian country("The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency", 2017). The deadly independence war from Pakistan though fought with Indian support also was a hindrance to the establishment of a stable political and economic foundations as the country was founded on nationalistic and ethnically populist sentiments. The major legacy of such a violent history as economic opportunities that are forgone during wartime may not be redeemable after the dust settles and if they can still be pursued, it will be at the expense of more pressing current engagements (Auwal, & Singhal, 1992). Such a history of violence also leaves in its slew many bitter sub conflicts which may boil over to successive generation and therefore continue hindering chances of economic progress for several years even after the main conflict has been resolved. Though it is possible for an economy to rise from the spoils of a civil war, the consistency of the antagonists in Bangladeshs political history makes it hard to conclusively bury the hatchet on any issue of conflict (Hossein, & Sen, 1992).

Though the major contributor to the gross domestic product in terms of percentage is the service industry, more than half of Bangladeshs active labor force are employed in agriculture which is the third largest contributor to gross domestic product by percentage (Sheikh, Ahmad, & Farooq, 2016). While this means that almost half of the population is engaged in a less profitable occupation than less than the third who are engaged in the services industries, it also points towards the inequality in the country and the skewed distribution of factors of production. The main agricultural product is rice, which is the staple of the Bangladeshi (Hashemi, Schuler, & Riley, 1996). While it could be possible to diversify the countries agriculture industry to ensure a higher return on invested resources, the government should also create subsidies that ensure that even though the farm...