The poor hardly benefit from dev projects
WB economist tells BIDS seminar
Star Business Report
A World Bank (WB) economist has criticised the government and donor agencies for not monitoring the donor-funded poverty reduction projects and urged both the parties to increase allocation for supervision of the projects."Various studies reveal that due to lack of proper monitoring, poor people hardly benefit from development projects," Shantayanan Devarajan, World Bank chief economist for South Asia, told a seminar in Dhaka yesterday. Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) organised the seminar titled 'Making Services Work for Poor People' at its conference room to discuss the problems in implementing projects and their impact on poverty. About education and health services in Bangladesh, the WB economist said service quality for poor people is low in the country. Referring to a study he said absenteeism rates for doctors in primary healthcare centres is 74 percent. Some participants in the seminar raised the issue of rising political influence on project implementation and fund allocation. They said politics often remains as a key factor for the projects targeting poverty reduction. "It is politics which determines who will get the services like health, water and health," said Binayek Sen, an economist of the BIDS. Kazi Shahabuddin, director general of the BIDS, chaired the seminar attended by economists Abu Abdullah, Sazzad Zahir and M Asaduzzaman.
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