Aiding Resilience Among The Extreme Poor in Bangladesh

This book comprises a selection of studies from the research team of the Extreme Poverty programme (EEP-Shiree), sponsored by GOB-DFID during 2008-16. Its core premise is that extreme poverty is significantly different as a socio-economic, political and cultural experience from being moderately poor in the society. This categorical distinction is centred around the principle of social isolation and exclusion from supportive networks of kin and social capital within communities, often reinforced by the prominence of female headed or managed extreme poor households. In many instances, they are too poor and without the capabilities to be attractive to others for the purposes of exploitation! The place of exploitative relationships in the reproduction of extreme poverty is thus an empirical question: is their condition more idiosyncratic than systemic?
However the categorical distinction between extreme and moderate poverty should not be overstated. Among the poor of any category, there is a churning of fortunes, moving up and down across externally established, monetised poverty lines, meaning that snapshot targeting has to be replaced by dynamic, more community level targeting approaches. The purpose of any targeting is to focus both productive assets and cash transfers upon those in need, but under conditions of inequality and poor governance can any gains be protected and sustained? The papers in this volume explore the experience of supporting the livelihoods of the extreme poor from these perspectives and draw attention to policy and practice being driven by the goal of resilience rather than just graduation from being extremely poor.

Contents:
Introduction: Geof Wood
Part 1 Strategic Issues> Extreme Poverty and the need for a new political settlement. The Case of Bangladesh” by Joe Devine and Geof Wood / Targeting the Extreme Poor: Learning from shire” by Hannah Marsden and Geof Wood / Poverty Thresholds Analysis” by Zulfiqar Ali with Joe Devine.

Part 2 Protecting the Gains> Extreme Poverty and Protecting the Gains: Lessons from Recent Research” by Hannah Marsden and Geof Wood / Making Productive Use of Khas land: Experiences of Extreme Poor Households” by Sonia Kabir and Korban Ali with cooperation from Shahidul Islam and Abdul Khaleque / Understanding the effectiveness of access to khasland: Comparing khasland receivers to Non-Receivers” by Sheikh Tariquzzaman and Sohel Rana.

Part 3 Resilience and Security> The role of social protection allowance programmes in extreme poor households’ resilience: Social means to economic resilience?” by Sheikh Tariquzzaman and Sohel Rana / Food Insecurity and Resilience among Extreme Poor Female Headed Households in Coastal Bangladesh” by Owasim Akram / Short-term needs and long-term aspirations of the extreme poor: Irrational behaviour, agency and cash transfers in Bangladesh” by Christopher Maclay and Hannah Marsden.

Part 4 Being Healthy and Able> Health and Wellbeing in the Lives of the Extreme Poor” by Joe Devine, Geof Wood, Rie Goto, Lucia da Corta / The effects of extreme poor Adivashi income-earners’ ill-health on the resilience of their households: A qualitative analysis from the CHT” by Rupa Datta, Sayeed Hasan Raza and Dr. Mathilde Maitrot / Economics of Disability in Bangladesh” by Zulfiqar Ali.

Part 5 Extremely Poor Women: Empowerment and Resilience> Assessing women’s choice in asset empowerment strategies in south west coastal region of Bangladesh” by Sally Faulkner / Building Resilience: A Gender Sensitive Analysis of ‘Shiree Interventions’” by: Sohel Rana, Sonia Jesmin, Abdullah-Al-Harun, Muzaffar Ahmed, Julie Newton, Mathilde Maitrot.

Part 6 Strategic Assessment> Exploring the impact of community solidarity building approach in addressing social discriminations” by M. Mizanur Rahman, Saifuddin Ahmed and S. M. Abdul Bari. / Revisiting Extreme Poverty and Marginality in Bangladesh: How Successful are the Policies and Programs in Reaching the Extreme Poor?” by Zulfiqar Ali and Mustafa K. Mujeri.