Some thoughts from my trip to Bangladesh

I recently just returned from a trip to Bangladesh. In addition to rediscovering my family roots, I have some thoughts to share about the country and its people:

• Bangladesh is not a "poor" country. Contrary to the images of starving children, hardly anyone is going hungry. Not to mention everyone has a cell phone or two, even those living in the slums or the villages.
• The number of beggars on the streets has drastically declined- and more people sell things as opposed to outright begging. Now, whether that is due to government policy or a general decline in poverty is up for discussion.
  
• The country is experiencing two different issues: a rapid population increase and rise in wealth, which are causing new problems. For example, as the population increases and more and more people are able to afford and buy cars, the streets are increasingly congested. Traffic jams are a a huge problem- it takes one hour to get somewhere that should take ten minutes, and I am not exaggerating. The roads and infrastructure are the same as before, but the changing demographics and livelihoods has made them unfit for present day needs.
  
• Cities are creeping into the villages- with a very thin line separating the two
• Within the last 8 years- the last time I was there- there has been considerable change in the number of women in hijab- while you used to see one or two people when you went out, now at least 20-50% of the women are covering their heads depending on where you are.
• The healthiest looking people are the working class because they eat a healthier diet and are constantly exercising due to their job or having to walk or bike places. Most of the elite class -especially elite women- were all overweight (diabetes and heart disease is a major source of death among the elite). Its not hard to imagine why that is, it is nearly impossible to exercise outdoors, go on walks, etc. due to safety or the pollution.

When Governments Dont Communicate with Each Other

There are few people in the Inambari River area who support a Brazilian and Peruvian government sponsored hydroelectric dam. The funny thing is that this dam imposes on another project (the Inter-Oceanic Highway) The Economist reports:

Inambari is one of up to six proposed hydroelectricity schemes on Peru’s jungle rivers, costing around $16 billion, contained in an agreement signed in April by the president, Alan García, and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Inambari dam would be the first to be built. It would generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity—twice the output of Peru’s largest existing hydroelectric plant, and almost half its current electricity consumption. Most of the power would be exported to Brazil to start with, but the proportions would slowly reverse and after 30 years Peru would own the $4 billion project.

The dam would create a lake of up to 450 square kms (175 square miles), flooding some 60 villages, as well as roads and forest. Egasur, a Brazilian-owned consortium promoting the scheme, says that people displaced by the dam would be rehoused in better conditions.

Peru’s environment minister, Antonio Brack, has dropped his earlier opposition to the scheme. He says it offers benefits, including fish farming. The government claims local politicians are whipping up dissent ahead of local elections next year.

But for whatever reason, opposition is growing. Locals are keener on another big project, the paving of the grandly named Inter-Oceanic Highway linking Pacific ports in southern Peru to the Brazilian city of Rio Branco, from where a highway goes on to São Paulo, 3,600 kms (2,250 miles) from Cusco. The two governments agreed in 2005 to asphalt the road. Work is proceeding rapidly and both presidents would like it to be finished before they leave office in 2011. Inconveniently, the Inambari dam would flood 120 kms of the highway, on which upgrading work has already begun. It seems that in both Peru and Brazil the ministries of transport and of energy don’t talk to each other.

Touring Poverty

I have blogged earlier about a new fad in the tourism industry: slum tours.

Now a new program has started a Millennium Village Tour which "is a unique experience that introduces the … poverty traps in south-eastern Rwanda and the successful intervention package of the UN Millennium Villages Project" But, be sure not to "not give anything to the villagers -- no sweets.”

Here is Bill Easterly on the Jeff Sachs’ Millennium Villages- tours.

And here is the response by the tour operator.

Peter Singer and Tyler Cowen Address Immigration as a Way to Solve Poverty

Tyler Cowen interviews Peter Singer about his new book and then asks him about why Singer does not mention immigration as a way to solve global poverty. Singer critically analyzes the suggestion and then says he has not spent enough time thinking about it. This conversation is 3 minutes in to 6 minutes.

Migration Can Solve Poverty

Michael Clemens et. al explain the ridiculous inefficiency of migration barriers in the “The Place Premium: Wage Differences for Identical Workers across the U.S. Border.” Center for Global Development Working Paper 148:

Findings:

• Gaps in wages represent one of the largest remaining price distortions in any global market
• For many countries, the wage gaps caused by barriers to movement across international borders are among the largest known forms of wage discrimination, typically much larger than wage discrimination based on ethnic group or gender within spatially integrated labor markets
• Wage gaps imply that simply allowing labor mobility can reduce a given household’s poverty to a much greater degree than most known antipoverty interventions inside developing countries.

(HT: Trade Diversion)

Gains from Immigration

Lant Pritchett:

• The gain from a lifetime of microcredit is the same as 8 weeks working in the USA
• Total annual gain to Grameen Bank borrowers (around) $30 million
• If I get 3,000 Bangladeshi workers into the US, do I get a Nobel Peace Prize?

(HT: Trade Diversion)

Participation in Development

Participation and empowerment are buzz words in the field of development. Bill Easterly gives us some insight:

The main function of buzzwords such as “participation” and “empowerment” is to paper over the ugly reality that there will be some battles of conflicting interests between “the poor and disadvantaged” and other more powerful groups like the World Bank and rulers of poor countries -- and that the poor will almost always lose such battles.

What is real participation? Sadly, I agree with Easterly that participation as done by development and humanitarian organizations is often just another check mark to go through as we work in other countries. Real participation means recognition of how people already participate and using that to enhance their own personal liberty.

The World Bank and Development Induced Displacement...

From CGD:

As word leaks out that the World Bank effectively funded the demolition of homes of the very poor residents of a small village, Jale, in Albania, and then refused to speak about it for more than a year, one can only hope that the Bank will spend as much time thinking through what went wrong as it will doing damage control.

This is not the first time the Bank has gotten into trouble over resettlement. In June 2000, an internal inquiry faulted the Bank for violating its own guidelines in a resettlement project in Tibet.

Criticisms in a review of resettlement in connection with a dam project in Indonesia in 1985 indicated problems there as well.

What can the World Bank do to increase accountability?

First, the Bank can become a lot more transparent in its activities. By using its own website and other forms of Internet-based technology, the Bank can make the initial project statement -- the Project Concept Note or PCN--available to the public, to invite comments (which could also be posted on a website) prior to finalizing the project design.

Second, the Bank must develop a culture of seeking information from the public and responding to it. In the case of Albania, urgent messages from the residents of Jale went unheard for weeks. A Bank team visiting the country two weeks after the demolitions reportedly did not speak to individuals whose homes were destroyed. An Office of Civic Engagement that can use Internet-based methods of communication as well as traditional ones, might be worth thinking about -- not only to talk with NGOs or civic groups, but also to reach out to individuals.

Third, the Bank's management (rather than lower-level staff) must be held accountable for its actions. It can easily hide behind the fact that it was the Albanian government that undertook the demolitions; the government in turn is already blaming the Bank and hinting that it will not compensate the victims.

Finally, Mr. Zoellick can take a big step to increase accountability by making public the results of his new investigation.