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| Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Lecture, Oslo, December 10, 2006 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/yunus-lecture-en.html) . |
| “Poverty is a Threat to Peace” |
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| Current Hot Topics / Features |
| Bangladesh Awakening IFPRI film produced for the Bangladesh Food Security Investment Forum 2010. |
| Southern Promise IFPRI video produced for the Bangladesh Food Security Policy Workshop (Oct. 4-5, 2011). |
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| Easy Like Water A visionary architect is building floating schools to turn the front lines of climate change into a community of learning. |
May 31, 2018: Tobacco 4th leading cause of deaths in Bangladesh
As reported by Manzur H. Maswood in NEW AGE, every year, more than 161,200 people of
Bangladesh are killed by tobacco-caused diseases, according to The Tobacco Atlas. Since
2005, tobacco remained the fourth leading cause of deaths and diseases in the country,
according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a Washington-based global health
research institute. The economic cost of tobacco use in the form of loss of productivity and
direct healthcare costs of smoking-related illness in the country is around US$1.9 billion or 1.4
per cent of Bangladesh’s GDP, according to an estimation of the World Health Organization.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
May 13, 2018: SpaceX launches first satellite for Bangladesh
As reported by Marcia Dunn (Associated Press) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, SpaceX lifted
Bangladesh’s first satellite into orbit on Friday, May 11, 2018, using an upgraded rocket
designed for dozens of repeat flights, including back-to-back, same-day launches. The rocket
soared from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, into a hazy afternoon
sky, carrying a communication satellite named Bangabandhu-1, after the founding father of
Bangladesh.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Rana Plaza, five years on: safety of workers hangs in balance in Bangladesh
On April 24, 2018 (five years after the Rana Plaza building collapsed and killed 1,134 people),
the Guardian reporters Michael Safi and Dominic Rushe write that progress has been made but
fire safety initiatives are soon to end, unions are being stifled and wages are still the lowest in
the world.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
April 7, 2018: China can play a significant role in supporting regional and sub-regional
cooperation initiatives
In an exclusive interview, Farooq Sobhan, President of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, told
Xinhua that major Chinese foreign policy initiatives seek to establish a win-win relationship
among the countries in the region and beyond. Trade facilitation, joint-venture mega
infrastructure projects, supported by the Belt and Road Initiative, can change the face of Asia
and can help eliminate poverty from the region.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
March 16, 2018: Bangladesh has met criteria for graduation from the group of least-
developed countries (LDCs)
As reported by the Dhaka Tribune, the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP)
announced on March 16, 2018, that Bangladesh has met all three criteria for graduation from
the group of least-developed countries (LDCs) to the developing one. The UN Committee
determines the graduation of a least developed country from the LDC category on the basis of
its meeting at least two of the three criteria: Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, Human
Asset Index (HAI), and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI).
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
February 28, 2018: Countering Jihadist Militancy in Bangladesh
A new Report by the International Crisis Group (Asia Report N°295 of February 28, 2018)
states that two groups, Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh and Ansarul Islam, dominate
Bangladesh’s jihadist landscape today. Attacks since 2013 have targeted secular activists,
intellectuals and foreigners, as well as religious and sectarian minorities. The ruling Awami
League has politicized the threat; its crackdowns on rivals undermine efforts to disrupt jihadist
recruitment and attacks.
LEARN MORE (Intl. Crisis Group Report; PDF) --->
______________________________________________________________________
February 7, 2018: Why Bangladesh Needs a Refugee Compact
Cindy Huang (the Center for Global Development's Co-Director of Migration, Displacement, and
Humanitarian Policy) explains why Bangladesh needs a refugee compact and provides three
big ideas to make it happen.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
February 1, 2018: Stealing Shahbag and Re-legitimizing Islamism
Based on an original public opinion survey, a new BDRC Working Paper by Anupam D. Roy
shows how Islamism was re-legitimized in the aftermath of the Shahbag movement. The
Shahbag movement emerged in early February of 2013 as a sit-in protest in the Shahbag
square of Dhaka city on the demands of capital punishment of war criminals of the 1971
liberation war of Bangladesh. The paper demonstrates how the Shahbag movement was
coopted by the ruling party, which transformed the frame of the movement and made the
Shahbag movement a force against political Islam. Such a reframing of the Shahbag movement
opened it up to being criticized as an anti-Islamic movement.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
January 22, 2018: Start of Rohingya Repatriation to Myanmar Delayed
As reported by Voice of America, the repatriation of 750,000 Rohingya Muslims will include
involvement from the United Nations’ refugee agency, said A.H Mahmood Ali, Bangladesh’s
foreign minister. Human rights group Amnesty International, which had previously condemned
the deal, called the Bangladeshi government's decision to postpone the return of Rohingya
refugees a welcome relief for hundreds of thousands currently living in Bangladesh.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
January 19, 2018: Bangladesh continues to grow above 6 percent
As reported by the New Delhi Times, according to the Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh’s
economy grew by 7.1% in 2016, the fastest expansion in 30 years. It was also the sixth year in a
row that GDP growth was greater than 6%. As a result of this inclusive growth, poverty rates
have plummeted. In 1991, well over 40% of the population lived in extreme poverty. Today, the
World Bank says that less than 14% still does.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Previous Hot Topics
As reported by Manzur H. Maswood in NEW AGE, every year, more than 161,200 people of
Bangladesh are killed by tobacco-caused diseases, according to The Tobacco Atlas. Since
2005, tobacco remained the fourth leading cause of deaths and diseases in the country,
according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a Washington-based global health
research institute. The economic cost of tobacco use in the form of loss of productivity and
direct healthcare costs of smoking-related illness in the country is around US$1.9 billion or 1.4
per cent of Bangladesh’s GDP, according to an estimation of the World Health Organization.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
May 13, 2018: SpaceX launches first satellite for Bangladesh
As reported by Marcia Dunn (Associated Press) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, SpaceX lifted
Bangladesh’s first satellite into orbit on Friday, May 11, 2018, using an upgraded rocket
designed for dozens of repeat flights, including back-to-back, same-day launches. The rocket
soared from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, into a hazy afternoon
sky, carrying a communication satellite named Bangabandhu-1, after the founding father of
Bangladesh.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Rana Plaza, five years on: safety of workers hangs in balance in Bangladesh
On April 24, 2018 (five years after the Rana Plaza building collapsed and killed 1,134 people),
the Guardian reporters Michael Safi and Dominic Rushe write that progress has been made but
fire safety initiatives are soon to end, unions are being stifled and wages are still the lowest in
the world.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
April 7, 2018: China can play a significant role in supporting regional and sub-regional
cooperation initiatives
In an exclusive interview, Farooq Sobhan, President of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, told
Xinhua that major Chinese foreign policy initiatives seek to establish a win-win relationship
among the countries in the region and beyond. Trade facilitation, joint-venture mega
infrastructure projects, supported by the Belt and Road Initiative, can change the face of Asia
and can help eliminate poverty from the region.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
March 16, 2018: Bangladesh has met criteria for graduation from the group of least-
developed countries (LDCs)
As reported by the Dhaka Tribune, the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP)
announced on March 16, 2018, that Bangladesh has met all three criteria for graduation from
the group of least-developed countries (LDCs) to the developing one. The UN Committee
determines the graduation of a least developed country from the LDC category on the basis of
its meeting at least two of the three criteria: Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, Human
Asset Index (HAI), and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI).
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
February 28, 2018: Countering Jihadist Militancy in Bangladesh
A new Report by the International Crisis Group (Asia Report N°295 of February 28, 2018)
states that two groups, Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh and Ansarul Islam, dominate
Bangladesh’s jihadist landscape today. Attacks since 2013 have targeted secular activists,
intellectuals and foreigners, as well as religious and sectarian minorities. The ruling Awami
League has politicized the threat; its crackdowns on rivals undermine efforts to disrupt jihadist
recruitment and attacks.
LEARN MORE (Intl. Crisis Group Report; PDF) --->
______________________________________________________________________
February 7, 2018: Why Bangladesh Needs a Refugee Compact
Cindy Huang (the Center for Global Development's Co-Director of Migration, Displacement, and
Humanitarian Policy) explains why Bangladesh needs a refugee compact and provides three
big ideas to make it happen.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
February 1, 2018: Stealing Shahbag and Re-legitimizing Islamism
Based on an original public opinion survey, a new BDRC Working Paper by Anupam D. Roy
shows how Islamism was re-legitimized in the aftermath of the Shahbag movement. The
Shahbag movement emerged in early February of 2013 as a sit-in protest in the Shahbag
square of Dhaka city on the demands of capital punishment of war criminals of the 1971
liberation war of Bangladesh. The paper demonstrates how the Shahbag movement was
coopted by the ruling party, which transformed the frame of the movement and made the
Shahbag movement a force against political Islam. Such a reframing of the Shahbag movement
opened it up to being criticized as an anti-Islamic movement.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
January 22, 2018: Start of Rohingya Repatriation to Myanmar Delayed
As reported by Voice of America, the repatriation of 750,000 Rohingya Muslims will include
involvement from the United Nations’ refugee agency, said A.H Mahmood Ali, Bangladesh’s
foreign minister. Human rights group Amnesty International, which had previously condemned
the deal, called the Bangladeshi government's decision to postpone the return of Rohingya
refugees a welcome relief for hundreds of thousands currently living in Bangladesh.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
January 19, 2018: Bangladesh continues to grow above 6 percent
As reported by the New Delhi Times, according to the Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh’s
economy grew by 7.1% in 2016, the fastest expansion in 30 years. It was also the sixth year in a
row that GDP growth was greater than 6%. As a result of this inclusive growth, poverty rates
have plummeted. In 1991, well over 40% of the population lived in extreme poverty. Today, the
World Bank says that less than 14% still does.
LEARN MORE --->
______________________________________________________________________
Previous Hot Topics