Bangladesh paying External Debt at the Cost of Essential Services
Razu Ahmed
June 27, 2008 Developing human capabilities is regarded both as an end and
a means of development. Capabilities related to nutrition, health and education are of special importance. For example, literacy and education (especially female education) make wide-ranging contributions not only to economic growth but also to demographic change, social equality, political democracy, and many other aspects of development. Similarly, good health is a fundamental basis of the quality of life as well as of social progress.
Anywhere in the world, when poor people talk about what poverty means to them, services almost always feature. A lack of access to services is an intrinsic part of what it means to be poor. It is both a cause and consequence of poverty. As a cause, it increases vulnerability and reduces productivity. A lack of clean energy, water and sanitation, for example, has severe consequences for health. Smoke from cooking fires is a major contributor to the respiratory diseases which are the fourth biggest killer of people in the developing world. Slow and limited transport can reduce income-earning opportunities as farmers and small businesses are cut off from markets. Other businesses need inputs of energy or water and without these, opportunities for making a living are again limited. People's sense of dignity and self-esteem are also affected when they live in overcrowded neighborhoods blighted by poor sanitation, pools of stagnant water and heaps of refuse.
Both theory and evidence point to the importance of essential public services as it has direct bearing on poverty alleviation and over all social and economic advancement. Economic theory suggest that due to pervasive “market failures” in the private provision (especially unregulated provision) of essential services such as health care and education, extensive public action is needed to rapid reductions in malnutrition, illiteracy, ill health and related deprivations. In this context, state has an “inalienable responsibility to provide universally accessible and robust public delivery systems for essential services”.
There is an important complementarities between the emphasis on free and universal public services and the “rights approach” to social policy. In this approach, essential services such primary education and health care are seen as fundamental rights of all citizens, rather than as a form of state largesse. The rights approach can be of great value in shaping public perceptions of the social responsibilities of the state. It also draws attention to the possibility of legislative action to ensure that some essential services become enforceable legal entitlements (Jean Drèze: 2006).
(This article is a research report jointly prepared by Monowar Mostofa and Razu Ahmed)
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Tags: Bangladesh , External Debt , Essential Services
