46 Bangladesh, Burma and the Rohingya crisis 4 Bangladesh Economic growth and development 105. DFID, and other commentators, regard Bangladesh is a development success story. There are various indicators commonly quoted: • the achievement of the majority of the Millennium Development Goals. • reaching Lower Middle-Income status in 2015 (after sustaining average annual growth of more than six per cent over the last 10 years and 7.3% in 2016–17). • the halving of poverty levels between 1990 and 2010, a marked rise in female employment and other recent improvements measured by the Global Human Development Index. • development activity that has been distinctively pervasive and distributed through the country (largely due to a substantial and active NGO sector).131 • a growth path that, if maintained, would lead to Middle-Income Country Status in 10–15 years and a development trajectory with some positive features for sustainable and inclusive growth.132 • For the immediate future, the youthfulness of Bangladesh’s population was highlighted; 48% of the population is aged under 26 years old. This represented both an opportunity and a test with 2.2 million people entering the job market each year. Challenges 106. Of course, significant challenges remain, both in terms of some weaknesses and fault-lines in the overall picture and potential fragility in the face of external ‘shocks’— such as the arrival of a traumatised Rohingya community expelled by Burma as well as Bangladesh’s well-evidenced vulnerability to natural disasters. Equality 107. The relatively impressive economic growth overall, unsurprisingly, is not distributed as equitable benefits throughout Bangladesh society. While DFID wrote that: “progress in poverty reduction has been impressive, and substantially ahead of what might be expected from the country’s income level”, the estimates of current poverty levels are of between 37–40 million people living in poverty, of whom 21 million were in extreme poverty. The Institute for Development Studies wrote that “comparatively high growth rates in Bangladesh have not automatically translated into decent work or living wages” nor have they generated the skilled labour force that Bangladesh’s needs for the future. Other witnesses agreed, saying that one of the country’s key challenges was to “get up the value chain”.133 Joe Devine, Social and Policy Sciences, Bath University, illustrated 131 132 133 Q106 Department for International Development (DBB016), BRAC (DBB036), Institute for Development Studies (DBB024), plus DFID country briefing Q110