Thinking Aloud: Volume X, Issue 11: April 1, 2024

The April 2024 issue of Thinking Aloud focuses on “COVID and post-COVID Challenges in Bangladesh”. The first-page article titled “How did COVID and post-COVID challenges affect poverty, inequality, and food security in Bangladesh?” outlines the COVID and post-COVID challenges in Bangladesh. There is a growing need to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-pandemic challenges on poverty, inequality, employment, education, healthcare, and food security. The recently completed SANEM-GDI Household Survey 2023 sheds some important insights in this regard. In 2018, SANEM conducted a nationally representative survey covering 10,500 households across Bangladesh. Between October/November 2023, SANEM, in collaboration with the Global Development Institute (GDI) of the University of Manchester, conducted another round of surveys with the same sample successfully covering 9,065 households. Based on the survey findings, four key issues are noted in this article. First, the national upper poverty rate has fallen from 21.6% in 2018 to 20.7% in 2023. This fall in poverty is primarily driven by the fall in rural poverty from 24.5% to 21.6%. However, it is noteworthy that a rise in the urban poverty rate from 16.3% to 18.7% has been also observed. Second, a wide disparity in household consumption expenditure patterns between poor and non-poor households has been observed. The third most important factor is in the case of education. The prolonged closure of the institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a great level of learning loss. The final but the biggest challenge most households in Bangladesh faced in the post-pandemic era was the high inflation rate. The second and third pages of this issue present the summary of Summary Findings from the SANEM-GDI Study on “Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Challenges on the Poverty Dynamics in Bangladesh”. The study recommended several key policies after sharing the findings. The fourth page showcases the events in March 2024.