Country profiles

The Department for International Development in the UK (DFID) provides country profiles including news, programmes, case studies and publications:

• Bangladesh
  DFID country profile
  During the inception phase, initial assessments for developing strategic plans were carried out for Bangladesh - see below.
• Cambodia
  DFID country profile
• India
  DFID country profile
• Nepal
  DFID country profile
• Vietnam
  DFID country profile

Bangladesh: initial assessment

Uniquely for a country with a vulnerable ecology, Bangladesh has established a record of sustained economic growth (6% annually over the past decade) and is on track to meet most of the MDG targets. Over 70 million of its people are classified as poor, with 20% of the population in the poorest category. Three-quarters of the country’s population and 85% of the poor live and earn their living in the rural areas. The vast majority of the rural poor are simultaneously engaged in crop production, fishing, aquaculture, horticulture and livestock production. The agricultural and natural resources sector is gradually evolving from subsistence towards market-oriented production. Climate change poses significant risks for Bangladesh, which is likely to face increased flooding in addition to rising temperatures and more frequent and severe storms. If these risks materialize, they will have damaging consequences for food security and poverty alleviation. The RIU will need to factor these risks into the selection of RNRRS outputs for scaling up.

Priority opportunities for RIU engagement have been identified in connection with rice-based cropping systems, floodplain systems and aquaculture. There are a number of potential RIU entry points and the country has a dynamic entrepreneurial ethos. The challenge for the RIU in this setting is not necessarily to stimulate entrepreneurship per se but to learn lessons as to how research can benefit the poorer members of the population who rely on natural resources. To meet this challenge the management team may propose to operate a competitive scheme to select the best opportunities for learning about out-scaling methods that contribute to poverty reduction.