Economic Development in Bangladesh

IIRD Offers Hope to the Poorest of the Poor

Poverty in Bangladesh is so pronounced that former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, once called it the “basketcase of the world.” But a hopeful transition is taking place. Thanks to the work of William Christiansen, founder of the Institute for Integrated Rural Development (IIURD), tens of thousands of women in the poorest regions of Bangladesh, along with their children and their families, have been empowered economically with meaningful and productive jobs.

IIRD’s numerous Bangladeshi projects include laboratories that manufacture disease-free plants; fish and duck farms; a silk-industry that employs almost l,000 women; a $40 million tree planting initiative for flood control and reforestation; water purification and sanitation projects; the creation of 400 new schools; 131 tree nurseries that produce fruit and timber saplings, and housing developments to help settle the nation’s homeless.1

IIRD’s growing presence in Bangladesh is the manifestation of an almost life-long dream which began for Christiansen in 1958 when he was in the l0th grade. A special presentation was given at his high school in Missouri introducing the basic concepts of “social justice.” The spark of inspiration grew into a vocation to serve the poor. Between 1978 and 1986, Christiansen’s life was consumed by missionary work in India. From India, he sought to implement models of authentic economic development.

Before breaking ground on his first project, Christiansen studied UN documents on Bangladesh and attended international workshops which gave him a basic familiarity with the nation. He met extensively with leaders and economic development experts in the US, including Norman Kurland, Executive Director of the Center for Economic and Social Justice in Washington. DC. He toured throughout Bangladesh, in search of its poorest regions.

With resources to begin his work from groups such as Caritas International, and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), HRD broke ground in the ten poorest regions of Bangladesh. IIRD’s main donor is the European Commission. The Belgian government has also been generous, says Christiansen.

Basic health care is high on IIRD’s list of needs, but USAID has shown little interest in helping out.2 IIRD does not support population control spending or advocate for the distribution of contraceptives to poor women. The real need in Bangladesh is not population control programs or “reproductive health” supplies, but economic development.

IIRD industries are self-sustainable and offer “living wages” primarily to women who are able to work to provide first-time or additional income for their families and children. The average per capita in- come in Bangladesh is still only $260, but it is has increased 25 percent in the last four years. IIRD has helped with this upswing.

Development or Contraceptives?

In 1996, Planned Parenthood and USAID described their population control programs in Bangladesh as remarkably successful, but this boasting was undercut when the economy of Bangladesh stalled at $200 per capita GNP. Population expert Jacqueline Kasun notes that “family planning” programs in Bangladesh have failed to remedy per capita poverty.3

Since Bangladesh gained its independence from India in 1971, the US along with other foreign aid groups have viewed “overpopulation” as the main obstacle to its prosperity.

The population controller’s “solution” to eradicating poverty has been an attempt to eliminate the number of people who are born poor, or to sterilize or contracept a number of people living in poverty. Population control efforts in Bangladesh have been fierce. Kasun writes:

The list of foreign agencies promoting birth control in Bangladesh reads like a VIP roster for a UN conference: the US Agency for International Development, the UNFPA, the World bank, the Population Council, Johns Hopkins University, Save the Children, the Asia Foundation, the East-West Center, Marie Stopes… almost all of them supported by American taxpayers.4

The primary targets in this alleged “war against poverty” are women. Bangladeshi women have been forced, bribed and insulted into using Norplant and other contraceptives against their will for decades.5 Relatively little foreign aid for food assistance or basic health programs have been provided. USAID has donated no funds to generate economic development which could benefit the poor directly.

Christiansen views population in Bangladesh under a different light. The highest densities in Bangladesh are only about as high as in other great deltas through- out the world, such as the Nile, Mississippi and Sacramento. What is needed to attack poverty is not population control, but authentic economic development.

IIRD offers a working alternative to women in Bangladesh. “All the workers in our industries are women. They receive equal salaries .… This gives families two salaries and helps uplift women, many of whom are single mothers or whose husbands have died or have left them.”6

Another recurring problem along the road to economic recovery in Bangladesh has been governmental intrusion into the private sector. The government dominates the country’s “poverty-stricken, disaster-prone and aid-dependent economy .… [T]axes soak up the funds that might be invested in job-creating industry…. The government-owned textile and jute mills, and steel and chemical plants regularly lose money. A bloated bureaucracy earns its keep by deregulating then re-regulating private business and extracting bribes. Privatization has stalled.”7

IIRD by contrast, has stimulated economic development in the private sector by effectively by-passing governmental bureaucracy. “The process is snowballing. It is tailored to individual families,” he says. “System organization is critical” to ensuring that authentic economic development continues.”8

Christiansen estimates that 18,000 families so far have been lifted out of poverty in Bangladesh thanks to IIRD, and hopes that IIRD will flourish even more in the future.

For more information on IIRD, William Christiansen may be reached at: IIRD, PO Box 23130, St. Louis, Mo., 63 l56.

ENDNOTES ’ Center lor Economic and Social Jus- tice {CESJ). “Social Justice Comes l’ull Circle in Baitgludesh,” ‘Hw .*·.’t‘o.·:omi’r‘ Jie.s·r¢'<‘t* Morrftor. Summer I99R, l—4. i Michael Flach. l;).Z{)I1tlII1iL’ Resurgence in Bangladesh.” AC Herrild, E? August I998, 9. ·’ .lacq:1eline Katsun. “With Friends l.il<C These: Fertility Rcduction Fails to X-‘l21l·<c Bangladesh Rich.” PR! R.<.·1·ie»tv. July! August. W9?. 6. ” K:1s11n.t:. 5Davi•;I Morrison. VVHIIIICII in Banglutlcsh Still Fight Norplant.” PR! Re·t·i’t>n·. Jann- aryfFehrt1z1r}‘ l99′.·’. l2. ” Flacli, 9. 7 Kastm. * l·’lnc|i. 33.