Ideology, foreign aid and rural poverty in Bangladesh: emergence of the like-minded group
Blair, H.W.
Journal of Social Studies 34: 1-27
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 1012-7844 Document Number: 325276
Since Bangladesh gained independence in 1971, the World Bank's annual economic reports have played a prominent role in discussion of its development. Since the Bank has been the largest international donor for Bangladesh over recent years, these reports have tended to frame the terms of debate about macroeconomic policy in Bangladesh. Partly in response to this domination, five smaller donor agencies in 1984 sponsored an alternative report, designed to focus on rural poverty in Bangladesh. This "Like-Minded Group" represented countries under social-democratic governments: Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. This multi-authored report, issued under the guidance of the North-South Institute in Ottawa, was published in April 1985, under the title Rural poverty in Bangladesh. A shorter version (the original was about 300pp.) was later prepared by Mosharaff Hossain and was released in January 1986. In February 1986, a widely attended seminar was held in Dhakar to discuss the report and its implications. This paper analyses the Like-Minded Group (LMG) report, its relationship to the World Bank's annual reports, and the implications for development strategy in Bangladesh. In particular the focus is on the following areas: trends in rural poverty; donor-influenced policies in the agricultural sector, especially the privatization initiative of the early 1980; and possible new strategies (and donor roles) for alleviating rural poverty through income generation activities.