Analysis
of Poverty Trends Project: Interim Phase
Project Director: Hossain Zillur
Rahman
Funding Agency: The Like Minded Group comprising the bilateral
donors of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, and Canada.
To publish the book Dynamics of Rural Poverty 1987-1994 by
the University Publication Ltd., in collaboration with a foreign
publisher.
To conduct an international conference on poverty.
To prepare a proposal for a new phase of the project.
Assessment of Competencies of
Children of Class V in Bangladesh.
Project Director: Ayesha Banu
Funding Agency: Directorate of Primary Education, Dhaka.
A draft report was submitted to the Directorate of Primary
Education (DPE) and a meeting to discuss the findings was
held in June 1997 with representatives of DPE, National Curriculum
and Text Book Board and UNICEF. The final draft was submitted
after incorporating the comments emerging from the meeting.
The completion date of the project was extended from 15.6.97
to 1.8.97.
Systems Rehabilitation Project of the
Bangladesh Water Development Board
Project Director: M.A. Quasem
Funding Agency: Bangladesh Engineering and Technological Services
Ltd., Dhaka.
The study originally comprised three components
A benchmark study
A mid-term Evaluation and
A final Evaluation of the Systems Rehabilitation Project.
The benchmark component of the project was completed but the
evaluation studies were cancelled because very little progress
was in evidence regarding the rehabilitation works in irrigation
infrastructures and in the agricultural extension programmes
which were planned for implementation under the 10 FCD/1 projects.
Informal Sector Study in Bangladesh
Project Director: M.A. Quasem
Funding Agency: International Labour Organization, New Delhi,
India.
Due to political disturbance and national elections being
held in the country the study could not commence on time and
therefore overshot the due completion date by three months.
The study sample covered 267 informal enterprises located
in clusters in Dhaka city and two rural clusters, Bhaluka
and Gaffargaon in Mymensingh district. The study reviewed
the relationship between state policies and the growth of
the informal sector, and investigated entrepreneurship indicators
such as access to resources, inter-sectoral mobility of entrepreneurs,
and the impact of the enterprise on income, employment and
poverty alleviation.
Technological Change and Surplus
Utilization in Bangladesh Agriculture.
Project Director: Bimal Kumar
Saha
Funding Agency: BIDS/SRDF.
The objectives of the study are to
Estimate the level of surplus generated by farm households
of different size and categories at different technological
farm levels
Examine the pattern of investment and surplus utilization
of farm households in relation to technology adoption; and
Assess how the surplus is generated and distributed among
different groups of peasants.
FAP12- Agriculture Study
Project Director: M. Asaduzzaman
Funding Agency: ODA/JICA.
Evaluation of Poverty Alleviation
Programme
Project Director: M. Asaduzzaman
Funding Agency: SIDA.
Analytical Bibliography on Rural
Development
Project Director: M. Asaduzzaman
Funding Agency: DANIDA.
Status: A book was published.
Global Environment Issues
Project Director: M. Asaduzzaman
Funding Agency: Asian Development Bank.
Status: A monograph was published.
Asia Least Cost Green House
Gas Abatement Study
Project Director: M. Asaduzzaman
Funding Agency: Asian Development Bank.
Women in Poverty and Female
Headed Households in Bangladesh
Project Director: Rushidan Islam
Rahman
Fudning agency: UN-ESCAP.
The objective of the study was to analyze the situation of
women living in poverty. The study was based on primary data
from a sample survey of urban and rural households as well
as on date from secondary sources.
The study established that female-headed/ female-maintained
households (FHFM) in Bangladesh live in such deplorable conditions
and are faced with such constraints in economic opportunities,
that it is unnecessary to over-emphasize the need for improving
their situation by artificially exaggerating their proportion
among total poor households. Moreover the actual FHFM and
residential female-headed households (FHH) differ considerably
both in terms of current income and more permanent fall-off
position in terms of fixed assets. FHFM are poorer compared
to not only poor male-headed households but also to residential
FHH.
Since female-headed households, usually comprise widowed and
divorced/ separated women, and are the poorest within a community
of poor households, the marital status of the female head
was used to establish the link between marital status and
extreme poverty. Although there is a general concern about
the social constraints on widowed women, the study found that
both widowed and divorced/ separated women were equally disadvantaged
and that, while the earning prospect from paid employment
is better for the latter group because of their lower age,
the larger dependency ratio in such families prevent their
reaping greater benefits from a higher income.
Impact of Grameen Krishi Foundation on the Socio-economic
Condition of Rural Households
Project Director: Rushidan Islam
Rahman
Funding Agency: Grameen Krishi Foundation.
Grameen Krishi Foundation (GKF) was established with the objective
of accelerating agricultural production through efficient
utilization of deep tube well (DTW) irrigation and ensuring
equity through the provision of irrigation and other inputs
to small and marginal farmers and by increasing employment
opportunities for wage labourers.
The study evaluated the household level impact of GKF activities
and found that irrigation by DTW, whether GKF or non-GKF,
brings substantial changes in cropping patterns and thereby
contributes to an increase in cropping intensity, the cropping
intensity being somewhat higher in the GKF-DTW command area.
Yield rates of HYV Boro and HYV Aman were also observed to
be higher in GKF-DTW command area as a result of higher material
inputs applied by the farmers with the support of the GKF.
The study also found that although irrigated agriculture increased
the demand for hired labour input per acre of cultivated area,
the difference in employment per worker was dampened by the
overlap in the labour market of the irrigated and non-irrigated
villages, as the irrigated villages hired labourers from other
villages to a large extent. Inspite of the increase in labour
supply, the study found that the demand augmenting forces
of irrigated agriculture exerted positive influence on the
wage rate in these villages, wage rates in the GKF villages
being higher in all three seasons of the survey period.
Impact of Irrigated Rice Technology
on the Operation of Rural Labour Market
Project Director: Rushidan Islam
Rahman
Funding Agency: BIDS.
From the early days of the introduction of modern irrigated
rice varieties, an optimism prevailed about the increase in
labour demand by these crops together with an expected rise
in wage rates. Although a number of studies in the past investigated
the issue of labour demand by the new crops, they arrived
at contradictory results and failed to explain the causes
of the differences in the results. Furthermore, most of the
studies concentrated on total labour use, without taking into
consideration changes in other aspects of the labour market
which may be crucially important for determining the structure
of the rural economy and the benefits derived by the labourers.
The objective of the present study is a detailed analysis
of the impact of irrigation and modernization of agriculture
on the rural labour market.
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