Selected background papers prepared for the regional workshop, 1993.

This book discusses Bangladesh’s economic and social development that may be called a “miracle” since the country has achieved remarkable development progress under several unfavorable situations: weak governance and political instabilities, inequality, risks entailed in rapid urbanization, and exposure to severe disaster risks. The authors examine what led to this successful economic development, and the potential challenges that it presents, aiming to elicit effective policy interventions that can be adapted by other developing countries.

This book evaluates Bangladesh’s impressive economic and social progress, more often referred to as a ‘development surprise’. In doing so, the book examines the gap in existing explanations of Bangladesh’s development and then offers an empirically informed analysis of a range of distinctive factors, policies, and actions that have individually and collectively contributed to the progress of Bangladesh. In an inclusive way, the book covers the developmental role, relation, and impact of poverty reduction, access to finance, progress in education and social empowerment, reduction in the climatic vulnerability, and evolving sectoral growth activities in the agriculture, garments, and light industries. It also takes into account the important role of the government and NGOs in the development process, identifies bottlenecks and challenges to Bangladesh’s future development path and suggests measures to overcome them. By providing an inclusive narrative to theorize Bangladesh’s development, which is still missing in the public discourse, this book posits that Bangladesh per se can offer a development model to other developing countries.

This book focuses on socio-economic developments of Bangladesh by challenging the dominant international narrative of the case being termed a "development surprise", "development paradox" or "development conundrum." In doing so, the book examines the political economic dynamics of the country and offers valuable insights into the current state of the Bangladeshi economy in light of stability, transformability and sustainability. Pointing to the 'high' rate of growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in Bangladesh, there is wide belief that economic growth can be obtained even without functioning institutions, and is more important than an inclusive political system. Advocates go on to argue that authoritarianism may be condoned as long as a steady course of development is perused. However, the inadequacy of comparative analysis on the state of the economy of Bangladesh vis-à-vis other relevant economies makes such claims myopic and parochial. This book thus investigates the numbers and narratives to ascertain the validity of such assertions and lamentations by looking at the necessary and sufficient conditions of development. The necessary conditions imply an incisive inquiry into the factors of economic growth: land, labour, capital and technology. As such, the book explores development by drawing variables of politics and economics to find out a causal relationship to themes such as growth, agriculture, manufacturing industry, financial sector, health, education, poverty and inequality. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir has worked in diverse constituencies, namely, academia, governments, think-tanks, international organisations and media. He has led numerous projects for diverse organisations including governments, development partners and international organisations at home, and abroad.

Textbook on the role of social policy and social planning in economic and social development - explains the need for an integrated approach to overcome poverty and to control population growth and social problems arising from rapid urbanization; discusses health policy, educational development, housing needs and social services; reviews development aid strategy and policy issues. Bibliography.