yesmin farhana-Bangladesh:reaching the SDGs by 2030

2016

The economic growth of Bangladesh strides forward rapidly since 2000 with the decline in extreme poverty rate to 25% in 2014 from 31% of 2010. Nevertheless,Bangladesh is always on the edge of food insecurity due to number of intertwined factors. Still a large number of people remain unable to access food in the quantity, diversity and regularity required for a food secure life. Therefore, this article, by analyzing publicly available data on food security, climate change and Social Safety Nets Programs (SSNPs) of Bangladesh endeavors to critically revisit the underlying challenges and their implications. It finds that the situation of food availability, access and utilization remains challenged considering Bangladesh’s unique context and the emergence of issues such as climate change, food prices crises, and food safety and nutrition concerns. Hence, sustainable food security in the fullest essence is highly debatable here. It further terms that SSNPs in Bangladesh as weak since most of them are ‘ex-post’ coping initiatives only few remains to be ‘ex-ante’ preventive programs.It also reiterates that failure in‘trade-based entitlement’, ‘labor-basedentitlement’ and ‘transfer-based entitlement’ for the landless 11 million rural households is potentially generating food insecurity. Additionally, this paper tries to echo that Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 15 of Bangladesh Constitution obligates Bangladesh to take effective actions for ensuring food security for all. This paper concludes with the call for ensuring effective and efficient SSNPs and nutrition including food safety. The legal regime of food security in Bangladesh would therefore, be well advised to be revisited soon.

Prepared for the Asian Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition (AAHM) and the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) vi Action (2008-2015) is a set of prioritized and coordinated actions targeting towards NFP goals, while the Country Investment Plan 2011 states the corresponding investment requirements in line with the Sixth Five Year Plan and the Millennium Development Goals. According to NFP plan of Action, twelve prioritized investment areas are selected covering agricultural research and extension, water management, agricultural diversification, intensive training for small farmers, credit and insurance, effective marketing system, employment generation for women and disabled, social safety net programs, nutritional knowledge dissemination, disaster management, food safety and quality maintenance and so on. Considering agricultural development, food and nutrition security as an integrated goal, public investment on agriculture has been increased significantly, and various safety net programs like agricultural subsidies have been implemented to protect small-scale farmers, the most sufferers of government and international policy on agriculture.

2021

Food is the most important basic need for sustenance and survival, and the right to food is among the fundamental human rights. Access to sufficient food at all times to meet dietary needs of millions of people in Bangladesh is a matter of critical importance and should be an issue of paramount concern to those responsible for the nation's welfare. According to Article 15 (a) of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, it is a principal responsibility of the State to meet the basic food needs of all citizens. Furthermore, Article 18(1) of the Constitution has made the improvement of the nutritional status of the people and the improvement of public health, the primary responsibilities of the state. This book assembles a set of papers that collectively focus on the extensive undertaking of securing food for all in Bangladesh. The book addresses four broad issues: (1) agricultural technology adoption; (2) input use and agricultural productivity; (3) food security and output market; and (4) poverty, food security and women's empowerment. The chapters, fifteen in total, address diverse aspects within these four themes. Country Profile Bangladesh is located in South Asia and is bordered by India on the west, north, and northeast, by Myanmar on the southeast, and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. The country mostly consists of low, flat, and fertile land, except for the hilly regions in the southeast and to a lesser extent in the northeast, and patches of highlands in the central and northwest regions. A river system of some 230 rivers and their tributaries, with a total length of about 24,140 kilometres, flows across the country down to the Bay of Bengal. The alluvial soil is enriched by heavy silts deposited by overflowing rivers during the rainy season. The country has a subtropical monsoon climate characterized by heavy seasonal rainfall, high temperatures, and high humidity. Summer, monsoon, and winter are the most prominent of its six seasons. Natural hazards such as floods and cyclones accompanied by storm surges periodically affect the country. Food availability Food availability at the national level is determined by domestic food production, public and private food stockholding, food imports including food aid, and food exports. With the liberalization of international trade, global availability of food is of increasing importance for national food security. Availability of food at the household-level depends on the household's own capacity to produce food, household food stockholding, and availability of food in the local markets, which, in turn, is a function of market operations, infrastructure, flow of information, and seasonal variations in domestic food production.

Journal of Nutrition and Food Security, 2019

Background: Bangladesh is a developing country; so, it is faced with the great challenge of food insecurity. In spite of achieving self-sufficiency in food production, a huge number of people experience the food insecure situation in this country. Since long time ago, scientists are striving to feed the growing population of Bangladesh. However, this study was conducted to assess the present situation of food security in Bangladesh. Methods: This systematic study investigated the available literature and recorded the related and different dimensions of food security in Bangladesh. Results: Bangladesh has made remarkable improvements in food availability, access, and utilization in the last few decades, but it is not the case regarding the food stability. The country experiences numerous challenges regarding food insecurity. Bangladesh has made significant improvement in cereals (rice) production. Despite the increase in the income of people, the food quality is not good. Unequal land ownership and income distribution have made the food access below par. Food utilization has improved but balanced food intake is still far below the standard. A notable portion of people are still severly food insecure and malnourished. To ensure food security, government of Bangladesh has undertaken several programs but they were not sufficient to cope with this everlasting issue. Conclusion: Despite the improvement in many aspects of food security, people of Bangladesh still lack dietary diversification, which leads to nutritional imbalance. In addition, several factors challenge the food security. Therefore, GOs and NGOs should work from the same platform to address the challenges affecting food security in Bangladesh efficiently.

Bangladesh is a densely populated developing country in the Southern Asia. Since the independence in 1971, its main concern is food insecurity. Food production in the country becomes about tripled in 2013 than that was in 1971, but population became more than double. In Bangladesh, about 31.51% of the populations still live below the poverty line, heavily undernourished with inadequate access to safe and nutritious food for a healthy life. Global supply and demand of food commodities, low harvest and natural calamities are some causes of increasing of the food prices. The government of Bangladesh is trying to reduce poverty by implementing various kinds of Social Safety Net Programmes. The government also imposes subsidies in food, agriculture and agricultural materials to improve the food production. But these attempts will not provide permanent solution to food security and economic development of the citizens. In Bangladesh, during 2000 to 2005, income poverty reduced from 48.9 to 40.0% and 2005 to 2010 reduced from 40 to 31.50%. The present government has targeted to reduce poverty rate to 25 and 15% by 2013 and 2021, respectively. Various microfinance programmes also help the poor to reduce the food insecurity and poverty of the country.

The study investigate the impact of socioeconomic factors on malnutrition in children (under 5 years) using Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. The urban and rural areas are separately probed for stunting, wasting and under-weight children. The analysis revealed that birth-interval, mother's education and wealth index reduce the malnutrition in children for urban and rural household, while duration of breastfeeding and lower BMI of the mother increase the malnutrition in both urban and rural areas. Wealth index is more effective in rural areas as compared to urban ones. The male children are more likely to be malnourished in urban areas but female children are more likely to be malnourished in rural areas. The primary level of education of the women has no significant impact on nutritional status of children in urban as well as in rural areas. It has important policy implications that at least secondary level of education should be part of the education policy of Bangladesh. The incidence of diarrhea enhances the probability of stunting and wasting in both urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. From the policy perspective mother's education and birth-interval are required for achieving the nutrition status of children. For the long-run the socioeconomic status of the household expressed by wealth index is needed. The duration of breastfeeding needs to be reduced by initiation of the supplement food.