Principal Investigator
• Dr. Abu S. Shonchoy
• Dr. Selim Raihan
• Dr. Tomoki Fujii
Project Area
District: Gaibandha
Project Background
Project Description
Bangladesh has been a success story in promoting employment for its growing population. Taking advantage of its abundance of relatively low-skilled labor, Bangladesh engaged in world markets through light manufacturing, which created wage employment in large numbers, providing opportunities for rural migrants. The expansion of the light manufacturing sector has allowed for the integration of young women into the labor market. Agricultural modernization, labor migration, and social policies have altered the jobs landscape of Bangladesh, but these changes have not generated a major formalization and the share of formal jobs has not increased much over the past decade.
Concerns have also emerged concerning increasing skills and productivity and ways to move up the manufacturing ladder. Considering the above issues, the project was decided to implement unanimously as a partners association with Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK), South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), Singapore Management University (SMU), Growth and Labor Markets in Low-Income Countries Program (GLM | LIC) and International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Seventh Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) and raising awareness on the aforementioned key labor issues for Bangladesh with the help of a strong and wider dissemination of the research findings. To influence the policymaking process further, SANEM proposes to form a National Reference Committee (NRC) on growth, labor, and poverty including policymakers, academics, and journalists. NRC will comprise three policymakers from the National Planning Commission, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, and other relevant ministries, two senior academicians/technical experts who are not involved in the project, and two other representatives (from media/NGOs/civil society groups/etc). Finally, the project will contribute to the technical capacity development of the relevant stakeholders in terms of a better understanding of the conceptual issues and making use of information and research findings.