Bangladesh’s proposed new anti-poverty program is being criticized for being too generous.
“The country’s poverty rate is now below 30%; then why should 50% of the population be eligible for social transfers?” Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman said of the National Social Protection Strategy.
Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith pointed out that the country’s extreme poverty rate is now only 11% and the poverty rate is 26%.
Planning Minister A.H.M. Mustafa Kamal said the draft seems “to have been copied from the Rwanda model.”
