7 CONCLUSION
140. DFID's programme in Bangladesh is broad-ranging
but also increasingly focused on its target areas of reducing
poverty, especially among the poorest; increasing access to and
quality of basic health, education and water; improving governance;
and supporting private sector development and growth. We have
reviewed each of these areas in this Report. Our assessment is
that Bangladesh is making reasonable progress in most of these
areas, but its general progress towards the MDGs has slowed down
in the past couple of years. For example, progress on poverty
reduction between 2000 and 2005 was the second highest among south
Asian countries but remains much lower than faster growing countries
such as Vietnam or Thailand. [211]
141. Until and unless governance improves, the benefits
of any further economic growth may bypass those who need it most—the
poorest, women and other marginalised groups. While DFID can help,
the impetus for change must come from within the country. We recognise
that this type of change will take many years. We hope that the
people of Bangladesh, living there or in other countries, will
nevertheless persevere in their quest for a more accountable polity
and a better future.
142. We remain uncertain whether DFID's programme
has sufficient ambition for Bangladesh. It is not enough that
primary school enrolment rates are on target; completion is the
goal. It is not enough that women are represented in parliament;
they need to be in managerial and leadership roles in different
sectors of the economy. It is not enough that maternal mortality
rates have fallen; they must fall much faster for the poorest
women. Climate change presents a clear and urgent risk to the
country: donors must be fully engaged in supporting the government
to address this across the board rather than just through discrete
projects, however effective.
143. We would like to see the UK's position as the
biggest bilateral donor driving a more ambitious development programme
which confronts these difficult issues. It will then be able to
make a more effective contribution to helping Bangladesh meet
the Millennium Development Goals and move steadily towards middle-income
status.
211 World Bank, Poverty Assessment for Bangladesh,
p vi Back
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