12-09-2022

MONDAy, SEPtEMbEr 12, 2022
4
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Monday, September 12, 2022
The picture of
poverty
Poverty reduction programmes need to
be accelerated. But the same must be in
tandem with the execution of other
policies aimed to improve governance in all
respects.
There are many reasons why all energies
need to be concentrated on poverty
reduction in the country. The good news in
the realm of poverty reduction is that the
country's population has more than
doubled since the time of independence. It
had a population of some 75 million at the
time of independence and more than twothirds
of that population had an existence
below the poverty line. The population
currently is over 160 million on a rough
estimate and out of this vastly increased
population 72.8 percent is considered to
have a standard of living above the poverty
level leaving some 67.2 million below the
poverty line. Thus, it appears that there has
been notable success in poverty reduction
since the pre-independence era when the
population was smaller but the
preponderant majority in that population
lived in absolute poverty.
The situation has changed appreciably
with the greater number in the more than
the doubled population seemingly judged
to be out of the throes of poverty. But, as
stated, the number of 67.2 million living on
less than a dollar a day, the UN benchmark
for determining poverty, is still a vast one
and points to the formidable goal faced by
Bangladesh in achieving substantial
progress and decisive victory in the struggle
against poverty.
Poverty reduction is umbilically linked to
economic expansion or economic growth.
Bangladesh is often pointed at as a lucrative
market as it has so many people living in it.
The present market size of over 72 million
people with reasonable purchasing power is
not a small one. The demand for various
types of goods and services generated by the
number of people not suffering from poverty
in the country is huge and provides ample
opportunities for businesses, local and
foreign. But the demand situation could be
far higher if some 30 or 40 million more
people could be helped to climb out of
poverty at an early date.
The point is that people not in poverty have
considerable purchasing power which then
translates into demand for goods and
services and businesses can attempt to
satisfy that demand with more production,
distribution and consumption. In sum, the
entire cycle of economic activities spins
faster or is greater when more people create
demand. The resulting increases in
production activities, job and income
creation all add up to boost the GDP size of
the country to increase cumulatively its
individual and national wealth. Thus,
poverty reduction makes preeminent sense
from the perspectives of economic growth,
business expansion and rise in the overall
standard of living of people and these are
expressly the reasons for the high
desirability of poverty reduction at a faster
pace.
The National Economic Council (ECNEC)
that approves economic policies at the
highest level, adopted the poverty reduction
strategy paper (PRSP). The PRSP adoption
was prompted by the urging of the donors .
It will be sought to be implemented over a
number of years.
Donors have been insisting on not only
the carrying out of the PRSP objectives
but various moves in the government
itself as supportive of the same. They have
stressed specially measures to be taken to
improve governance, reduce corruption
and reform the government
administration. Clearly, there is a
compelling need to score positive results
in these areas to hope for a positive
outcome in the PRSP implementation.
Government will have to do more than just
take some steps of approving the PRSP to
clear the ground for receipt of funds from
donors. It needs to sincerely address the
governance issues as prerequisites for the
successful implementation of PRSP goals.
Humanitarianism must adapt to climate change, too
Aid is finally reaching the millions of
Pakistanis whose lives have been
upended by devastating floods. The
United Nations has launched a US$160
million emergency plan; supplies are being
flown in from the Middle East and elsewhere
in Asia; and donors and publics across the
world are responding to this most recent
disaster appeal.
Pakistan's tragedy is the latest in a series of
global emergencies resulting from a rapidly
changing climate. And while the floodwaters
have not yet receded, it isn't too early to assess
what this crisis can teach us about the
challenges of humanitarian response in an era
of increasingly extreme weather.
Since the mid-20th century, humanitarian
action has made a measurable impact on lives
and communities. Disasters, especially
famine, kill far fewer people now than they
did before the 1960s. But the changes
wrought by the climate emergency mean
disasters will become deadlier unless the
humanitarian aid sector adjusts its strategy.
For all the good humanitarianism has done,
it has also created dependency on a system
that reacts to, rather than seeks to prevent,
disasters. Meeting the new challenges will
require rethinking some of the core tenets of
humanitarianism and speeding up reforms
and changes to create a more flexible,
proactive system built on principles of
prevention, resilience, and decentralized
disaster governance. First, risk analysis and
modeling must become firmly baked into the
heart of humanitarianism. Early warning
systems that can detect impending droughts
or floods have long been a feature of disaster
prevention and mitigation (and may have
helped limit the number killed in Pakistan's
floods, a tally that now exceeds 1,250).
Models predicting the impact of changes in
The Israeli occupation must not be forgotten
The Jerusalem municipal planning and
building committee this week
approved the construction of new
homes for Jewish settlers in the Givat
HaShaked neighborhood, which will
straddle the Green Line. The development
will be built next to the Palestinian quarter of
Beit Safafa. When I called my Palestinian
friend Hani to inquire about the issue and
how to stop it, he told me he was rushing to
meet the lawyer who is "the man" to handle
such delicate missions.
Hani started talking about his friend
Daniel Seidemann, an American Israeli in
Jerusalem. Hani explained that Seidemann,
the son of a young Jew who lived in Nazi
Germany and fled to the US as the Second
World War broke out, truly understands the
concept of displacement, so he really
understands what Palestinians are going
through.
The turning point in his life came in 1991,
when the government of Israel approved a
settlement in the neighborhood of Silwan, to
the south of the Old City of Jerusalem, in the
shadow of Al-Aqsa. He was asked by a
member of the Knesset to challenge the
decision in the Supreme Court. He then
discovered that there was a covert illegal
campaign to take properties from their
lawful owners and give them to settlers. This
is when Seidemann started his war against
injustice - an injustice inflicted by his own
people on the Palestinians.
Hani said: "Whenever he looks out of his
window, he says '40 percent of the people I
see are occupied by me, by my people, and
have no political rights, while I do'."
Every time a new settlement is built, it
PAKISTAN is widely branded as the
seventh country most affected by
climate change. We call attention to
our negligible contribution to global warming
compared to other parts of the world.
Yet, on our 75th anniversary, nature's
wrath has exposed how callous we too have
been as a nation in ignoring warning signals
of the looming threats of climate change and
rampant population growth - with dire
consequences.
It is no coincidence that the hundreds of
harrowing stories emerging from this
calamity focus on the predicament of poor
and pregnant women with more than five
children. Already severely disadvantaged, the
floods have only exacerbated their situation
and the media is transmitting images of those
who are most powerless and most affected by
the devastation. These women must now
deliver babies and nurse them in precarious
circumstances unfit even for animals.
A large part of this was avoidable.
We have neglected the reproductive health
of the millions of women and children
already lacking family planning, delivery and
maternal care services. Much alarm has been
expressed that close to a million women in
the most severely affected areas are currently
pregnant. But it should come as no surprise
temperature, precipitation, disease
outbreaks, and other variables are already
helping communities prepare for the worst.
But current systems need more funding to
maintain, and new systems must be
decentralized across global regions to
maximize their utility. Critically, data need to
be shared more widely between state and
civil-society organizations. Second, disaster
management must shift from a response
mindset to one of reducing risk and building
resilience before crises strike.
In 1970, flooding triggered by a massive
cyclone killed around 500,000 people in what
was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). A
similar cyclone and flood in the same area two
years ago killed just 30, thanks to extensive
flood-mitigation measures and policies.
Meanwhile, governments in Pacific Island
states such as Kiribati and Vanuatu are
investing in health infrastructure that will be
better able to withstand floods and typhoons,
as well as preparing community-based
disaster preparedness plans to respond more
rapidly and effectively.
It's not only countries of the Global South
that are focused on making systems,
structures, and societies more resilient. The
California state government recently
allocated an additional $15 billion to reduce
Dr. DANIA KOLEILAt KHAtIb
makes any political settlement more elusive.
Seidemann thinks the occupation is as
harmful to Israel as it is to Palestine. Either
Israel ends the occupation, or the occupation
will end Israel. He is not only working for the
Palestinians, but also for his own people and
his own family. He wants his children to live
in a decent society. The only way to have a
reconciliation between the two peoples is for
borders to be drawn and for Israel to no
longer rule over Palestinian lives.
However, Hani laments that many people
in Israel do not even think there is an
occupation - the concept is slipping out of the
public discourse, which is really dangerous.
He also explains that, while the current
government of Prime Minister Yair Lapid is
less malicious than those headed by
Benjamin Netanyahu, it has less cohesion.
Therefore, many things can happen, even if
not approved by Lapid. Hani explained that,
despite all Netanyahu's faults, he had
everything under his control. This is not the
case with the current government, which is
more of a loose association of ministers,
some of which are very pro-settlements, such
as Ze'ev Elkin, the minister of housing and
ZEbA SAtHAr
construction.
Talking with admiration about his dear
friend, Hani told me about Seidemann's
struggle to prevent a family in Silwan from
being evicted from their home. He fought for
19 years but ultimately the family was
evicted. He also fought to have schools built
for Palestinians in East Jerusalem. This is a
fight Seidemann has been involved in for 10
years and he has partially succeeded.
Culpable for injustice
that those regions most adversely affected by
the floods are the ones with the highest
fertility, maternal and child mortality rates.
These areas are largely deprived of family
planning services and essential information,
for instance, most rural women in Sindh and
Balochistan still deliver in unsafe conditions
remote from any health facilities. In contrast,
most pregnant women in urban Pakistan
deliver in institutions.
In a catastrophe of the kind, unseen
anywhere in the world, we - the educated -
are culpable for many injustices because this
was a tragedy foretold. We lament that
national and international relief are only
reaching a fraction of the millions whose lives
and livelihoods were swept away last month.
But these were the same populations who
were living in makeshift housing and who
eked out a living far from major roadways
and with no access to services.
Living on the edge with their multiple
vulnerabilities and now displaced under
open skies, they desperately await our help.
The saddest part is that most want to return
to their wretched conditions, resigned to
their fate of toiling in the fields and tending
livestock under the scorching sun. We prefer
to look away from living conditions we
ourselves would never endure.
MICHAEL JENNINGS
the risk and mitigate the impact of wildfires.
Ensuring transport networks, health systems,
and food systems can withstand shocks is
vital for protecting the most vulnerable
during a disaster.
Building resilience and preparedness is
often seen as falling outside the humanitarian
sector's area of responsibility, acting as it does
as the global first responder. Yet such activity
is core to disaster management, and must be
a core part of humanitarianism's mandate.
The third change is shifting how the sector
responds to disasters themselves. Here,
reforms are needed to speed up and better
First, risk analysis and modeling must become firmly baked into the
heart of humanitarianism. Early warning systems that can detect
impending droughts or floods have long been a feature of disaster
prevention and mitigation (and may have helped limit the number
killed in Pakistan's floods, a tally that now exceeds 1,250).
integrate local solutions that ensure more
resilient communities emerge when the
emergency passes.
In the aftermath of the devastating 2010
Haitian earthquake, humanitarian
organizations were criticized for failing to
work with local, state, and non-governmental
organizations in their responses, creating
parallel and separate systems that increased
aid dependency and made building back local
capacity harder.
Reflecting on those failures and others, the
humanitarian sector and donors have
committed to delivering more aid and
interventions through local organizations. To
date, however, progress has been slow and
Hani told me that Seidemann, a secular Jew, is working against
the weaponization of religion. He also understands the significance
of Al-Aqsa for Muslims around the world and he understands how
the erosion of the status quo by Jewish extremists and Israeli
nationalists, as well as the shows of Jewish triumphalism, nurture a
feeling of violation among Palestinians and Muslims.
We have neglected the health of millions of
women and children.
For a study on Impacts of Climate Change
in Vulnerable Communities in Sindh,
Pakistan, in 2021, the Population Council
conducted interviews in poor communities in
two districts most prone to climate risk -
Umerkot and Thatta. We confirmed that
climate change was already a known reality
in these communities. Unseasonable weather
patterns leading to droughts followed by
floods were already posing threats to health
and livelihoods.
A man from Kambhar Badha, Umerkot,
said: "If the family must evacuate, then
women suffer the most, they must face
difficulties during and after the move. Men
can live anywhere but women suffer [more]
on account of insecurity and [lack of]
privacy."
Many focused on women's suffering from
multiple hazards: "Our villages are
submerged in water. We have no safe place to
live. We don't even have a place to keep our
livestock and there is no fodder available for
them when heavy rains hit. During heavy
rainfall, no one can reach our village and
many pregnant women are likely to die," said
a woman from Izzat Khan Lashari, Thatta.
For a decade or more, thousands have been
limited. Embedding responses within local
contexts, with active participation from
affected communities, will enhance and
improve those responses.
But localization also needs to be integrated
more fully into global and regional
infrastructures. The United Arab Emirates
has played a critical role in coordinating
support to Pakistan, while Dubai's
International Humanitarian City is the largest
of a growing network of humanitarian hubs
that can respond quickly to regional disasters.
Such infrastructure can support the bridging
of global and local responses.
Many humanitarian organizations view
building more resilient systems as beyond
their remit, concerned that anything that
deals with social inequality and vulnerability
risks becoming politicized in a way that might
conflict with the humanitarian concept of
neutrality. But failing to address this necessity
will only perpetuate dependency on external
responses and organizations and worsen the
impact of disasters. The devastating human
toll of the floods in Pakistan is a warning to us
all. As the impact of the climate emergency
picks up pace, and as rich countries continue
to evade their culpability in its creation, the
poor, vulnerable, and marginalized are dying
as a result. These issues are already being
debated within the humanitarian sector, but
as Pakistan's horrific floods remind us,
commitments and discussions alone will not
prepare the humanitarian system for the
challenges that await.
Michael Jennings is reader in
international development at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, or SOAS
University of London, where he works on
issues related to global health and the
politics and history of global development
Hani told me that Seidemann, a secular
Jew, is working against the weaponization of
religion. He also understands the
significance of Al-Aqsa for Muslims around
the world and he understands how the
erosion of the status quo by Jewish
extremists and Israeli nationalists, as well as
the shows of Jewish triumphalism, nurture a
feeling of violation among Palestinians and
Muslims.
He added that Seidemann was now
preparing for his biggest battle, which is to
prevent the construction of the E-1
settlement. Every single American president
and European leader has been against this
settlement since it was first proposed in the
early 1990s. If it is approved, then the twostate
solution is finished, as this settlement
will be deep in East Jerusalem and will
fracture the West Bank in a way that means
creating a Palestinian state will be
impossible. However, now that the world is
preoccupied with so many disasters,
occupation is no longer a priority or even a
subject of discussion. The extremists in
Israel might take this opportunity to get the
settlement approved.
After he finished speaking about
Seidemann, I asked my friend: "And we
Arabs, what are we doing to help Daniel
and his ilk?" Hani answered while
sounding disappointed: "Nothing." But
why nothing? Don't we have countries that
have diplomatic relations with Israel?
Weren't the Abraham Accords marketed as
a step toward peace? Why don't we
promote people such as Seidemann, and
encourage and support him? Why don't we
inject an end to the occupation in the
process of normalization?
Arabs should not forget to stress the end of
the occupation because, if we forget about
this issue, it will come back and haunt us.
Promoting people such as Seidemann inside
Israel would be the best way to prevent that.
Now, with normalization, Arabs are on the
Israeli chessboard, and this is their chance to
make the right move. To do that, they need to
engage with people such as Seidemann.
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a
specialist in US-Arab relations with
a focus on lobbying. She is cofounder
of the Research Center for
Cooperation and Peace Building, a
Lebanese NGO focused on Track II.
forced to migrate annually from their homes
devastated by droughts, forest fires and
floods. Year after year, they must give up
everything and start again. Despite their
poverty and illiteracy, many living in the
climate vulnerable zones know that their best
chance for survival is to move to an urban
area. Only a few fortunate enough to own
land or have an education make it to the
urbanised districts which are more resilient
to climate change.
Yet even there, the glaringly obvious
exponential increase in urban populations
that puts a strain on existing resources goes
unaddressed.
Elsewhere, climate change strategies
ignore the mushrooming of fragile structures
being built for shelter that encroach upon
river and canal beds.
The important point is that from Gilgit-
Baltistan to Sindh, climate and population
pressures were manifesting even before the
deadly floods. This has led to shortages in
food because of the negative impact on our
ecology and biodiversity as well as
livelihoods, thereby exacerbating regional
inequalities.
The writer is Country Director,
Population Council.