Development

In Bangladesh, remittances from people living and working abroad added up to nearly Tk. 1.2 trillion last year—more than four times the nearly Tk. 250 billion that foreign aid agencies spent in the country.

Almost 5 percent of the total working age population is now migrant workers, and every year, roughly half a million more people leave the country to work overseas. Bangladesh Bank estimates that they send the equivalent of 7.4 percent of GDP back to family and friends, from 2001-2015; this totalled to Tk. 9.6 trillion.

In northern rural Bangladesh, the autumn lean season is the most difficult time of year, especially in Rangpur, where close to half of the 15.8 million residents live below the poverty line.

The landless poor in Rangpur primarily work as day laborers on neighboring farms. But in September, while waiting for crops to mature in the fields, there is no farm work to be done. Wages fall, and at the same time, food becomes scarce because harvest is still months away, so the price of rice goes up.

Si los medios de comunicación globales fueran su única fuente de información, se le podría perdonar por pensar que el mayor problema de salud del mundo en estos momentos es el virus Zika, o que el año pasado fue del Ébola o, antes el SARS y la gripe aviar.

Bangladesh's public sector faces serious challenges. Poor infrastructure is one of the main factors that hold back economic growth. Government-funded health clinics struggle to provide the population with quality, specialised services.  And beyond primary school, quality public education opportunities are extremely limited. These are just a handful of the challenges, and they are partly due to a stark fact: the country has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world.

During the dry season, Dhaka is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Air pollution levels during this period of the year reach 13-16 times higher than the international quality standard, and that outdoor air pollution kills 14,000of the city's residents annually.

The need to reduce air pollution in the capital may seem obvious. But using scarce resources to fight outdoor air pollution means less funding will be available from the national budget, international donors, or private citizens for other proposals that can do good.

If the global media were your only source of information, you could be forgiven for thinking that the world’s biggest health concern right now is the Zika virus, or that last year it was Ebola – or SARS and the Avian Flu before that.

Wenn die Weltmedien Ihre einzige Informationsquelle wären, so könnte man Ihnen verzeihen, falls Sie glaubten, dass die derzeit größte gesundheitliche Bedrohung das Zika-Virus sei, oder dass es im vergangenen Jahr Ebola war – oder davor SARS und die Vogelgrippe.

Kdyby vaším jediným informačním zdrojem byla globální média, dala by se vám odpustit představa, že největším zdravotním problémem světa je momentálně virus zika nebo že loni to byla ebola – a předtím SARS a ptačí chřipka.

Panika kolem těchto nákaz se šíří rychleji než nemoci samotné. Ve skutečnosti je počet obětí všech těchto chorob dohromady nepatrný ve srovnání se hlavními infekčními nemocemi, o nichž slýcháme mnohem méně: průjmy, tuberkulóza, AIDS, malárie, tetanus či spalničky. Počet úmrtí na nepřenosná onemocnění, jako jsou mozkové či srdeční příhody, je ještě vyšší.

When it comes to cooking indoors over open fires, the harmful health effects can be equal to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. This indoor air pollution plagues nearly nine out of every 10 Bangladeshi households, which use wood and other biofuels to cook inside.

Over time, exposure to smoke from indoor cooking leads to deadly diseases such as lung cancer, stroke, and heart disease. This is why it's the most deadly environmental problem in the world. In Bangladesh, such indoor air pollution is responsible for 10-15 percent of all deaths.

When it comes to the biggest challenges facing Bangladesh, surely poverty is one of the most crucial. And there is still much work to be done.

Despite cutting the rate of extreme poverty from 34 percent in 2000 to just 13 percent today, 20 million Bangladeshis still live in conditions considered to be ultra poor. Living on less than Tk. 43 per day can be immensely difficult, and for some, it can create a trap that's almost impossible to escape.