BIGD, in partnership with the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network, the Institute of Development Studies, and DEEP, Oxford Policy Management, organized this research dissemination event to share findings from a mixed-methods study tracing how intersecting crises compound and shape poverty in Bangladesh. This event also served as an important platform for dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and members of the civil service and the government of Bangladesh to share their perspectives on challenges and opportunities to implement the learnings from the research in the country’s context.
Presentation and Discussion of Research Findings and Policy Recommendations
The event opened with an introduction to the research and the day’s proceedings by Dr. Imran Matin (Executive Director, BIGD). The findings of the research were then shared by Dr. Vidya Diwakar (Deputy Director, Chronic Poverty Advisory Network & Research Fellow, IDS), Dr. Andrew Shepherd (Director, Chronic Poverty Advisory Network), and Syeda Salina Aziz (Fellow of Practice and Head of the Governance and Politics Cluster, BIGD, BRAC University). This was followed by a discussion on the findings and their policy recommendations, featuring Dr. Ashikur Rahman (Principal Economist, Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh – PRI) and Maheen Sultan (Senior Fellow of Practice, BIGD, BRAC University).
Rapid-Fire Presentations on DEEP Bangladesh Challenge Fund on Wellbeing in Bangladesh
The following session featured presentations from three of the eight teams that won grants under the DEEP Bangladesh Challenge Fund, which focuses on generating data-driven evidence for national poverty reduction. Presenters at the session included Khadija Islam Tisha (Assistant Scientist, Health Economics and Financing, Health Systems and Population Studies Division, icddr,b), who presented on Measuring and Validating the Multidimensional Poverty Index by Identifying the Characteristics of Urban Poverty in Bangladesh; Saadman Faisal (Senior Program Coordinator, BIGD), who presented the team’s Predictions of Internal Migration in Bangladesh: A Data-Driven Approach for Policymaking; and Dr. Md. Moniruzzaman (Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka), who presented on Farm-to-Non-farm Transition and Poverty Dynamics in Rural Bangladesh: A Gendered Analysis.
Policy Panel
The final session of the event was a policy panel moderated by Mehnaz Rabbani (Director, Operations, Strategy, and Partnership, BIGD), which focused on how best to tackle the challenges of poverty alleviation in the country. The panel featured Dr. Rashedur Rahman Sardar (Deputy Secretary, Finance Division, Ministry of Finance, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh), Makshuda Hossain (Joint Secretary (Joint Chief), Programming Division, Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh), M. M. Mahamudullah (Additional Director (Institution), Department of Social Services, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh), and Dr. Zahidul Quayyum (Professor, Health Economics and Chair, Institutional Review Board, Co-Director CUEH, BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health).
