Browsing by Author "Matin, Imran"

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An adaptive governance and health system response for the COVID-19 emergency
(Science Direct, 2021-01) Khan, Mushtaq; Roy, Pallavi; Matin, Imran; Rabbani, Mehnaz; Chowdhury, Rajiv
In the absence of an efficacious and affordable vaccine, the current crisis of COVID-19 is likely to be a long drawn one for many developing countries. In Bangladesh, where the entire population is susceptible and strict lockdown has been relaxed (as of May 31st 2020) due to concerns over saving livelihoods, the best available resources and capacities in the country have to be mobilized for an integrated and adaptive response strategy. In this paper we argue that a suitable response strategy for a country with highly constrained health system, must consider how response components will be delivered at scale, along with what can be delivered. In order to save maximum number of lives, an optimal strategy will be one that is able to iteratively select the most feasible set of health response and the network of organizations that can deliver most effectively at scale. This might require thinking outside of the conventional vertical network of public health system. Given its history of high-capacity non-government organizations in Bangladesh, it is likely that there are multiple alternative horizontal network options for delivering any set of response interventions. In fact many horizontal networks are already actively engaged in COVID-19 response work. The goal should be to identify and coordinate these networks, create new networks, and embed mechanisms for scaling up what works and scaling down what does not work. For a rapidly escalating and unpredictable crisis such as COVID-19, an adaptive response strategy is needed which allows for old and new networks of organizations to align and work collectively with minimum loss of lives.
Bangladesh and Covid-19: Reversals and resilience
(Institute of Development Studies, 2022-07-27) Rahman, Atiya; Jahan, Nusrat; Matin, Imran; Rahman, Hossain Zillur
This article examines two primary data sets to identify the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on different sectors and vulnerable populations in Bangladesh. It attempts to identify how the trends in sectors such as agriculture, ready-made garments (RMGs), education, employment among youth, and women’s participation have changed due to the pandemic compared to pre-Covid-19 levels. The results show that the agriculture and RMG sectors demonstrated resilience due to sustained government policies. In contrast, the other sectors, such as education, youth employment, and women’s participation in the labour market, have been negatively affected, leaving a long-term consequence for the country’s development. The article concludes with suggestions for inclusive and targeted policies, and community-based approaches to pre-empt new challenges to make development progress in Bangladesh.
BRAC's microfinance canvass: financial services and strategic linkages
(BRAC, 2002-12) Matin, Imran; Alam, Amiul
The poor are a diverse group with diverse livelihoods, needs and potential, which change over time due to lifecycle, new opportunities and external shocks. This diverse and dynamic reality of poor peoples' lives forms the canvass within which BRAC conceptualizes and designs its repertoire of development programs, in which microfinance is a core element. This paper through a few program experiences attempts to reveal the conceptual innovativeness embedded in the way BRAC thinks and acts about microfinance. It is not only 'microfinance the tool' that is a powerful poverty-alleviating weapon, but also the institutional framework of microfinance that is created in delivering microfinance. The extensive outreach, connection, knowledge and network, that the microfinance institution and the people running it at all levels possess and generate in their every day working engagements, is an extremely powerful asset in the fight to overcome poverty. We are only beginning to harness the power embodied in the institutional capital of microfinance institutions. This will be the second generation challenge for all poverty focused microfinance institutions and Bangladesh can again lead the way.
Combining methodologies for better targeting of the extreme poor: lessons from BRAC's CFPR/TUP programme (TUP working paper -2)
(BRAC, 2004-08) Matin, Imran; Halder, Shantana R.
This paper aims to assess the effectiveness and draw lessons from the targeting strategy used in a new BRAC programme called Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction-Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR/TUP) that aims to experiment with a different type of approach to address extreme rural poverty. The underlying theme of both the CFPR/TUP programme and the targeting methodology used is an acknowledgement of the strength of combining different methods and approaches for greater effectiveness. The programme, for instance, combines promotion and · protection oriented mechanisms. Similarly, the targeting approach used in the programme combines various targeting methodologies and knowledge streams about the extreme poor. This paper uses programme data emerging out of its targeting exercise to assess questions of effectiveness of the approach used. Combining the various targeting approaches and drawing from different streams of knowledge has been the main innovativeness of the targeting methodology used in this programme. The large differences we found between the two closely ranked groups of the poor the extreme poor and those just above, also suggest that there is a structural break, rather than a continuum in terms of deprivation of opportunities, security and empowerment that is differentiating the extreme poor from others. It is through a better understanding of the various dimensions, dynamics and interlinkages of these structural breaks that we can design the most effective strategies and programmatic approaches for this group of the poor.
Combining targeting methodologies for better targeting of the extreme poor: some preliminary findings from BRAC's CFPR/TUP programme
(BRAC, 2002-09) Matin, Imran; Halder, Shantana R.
Since January 2002, BRAC has started a new program targeted at the extreme poor, called, 'Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction: Targeting the Ultra Poor' (CFPR/TUP). This Programme seeks to challenge the frontiers of poverty reduction by addressing two key limitations of much poverty reduction interventions to date. First, the Programme seeks to 'push down' the reach of development programmes through specific targeting of the ultra poor who have suffered relative neglect in most development programme interventions to date. Secondly, it seeks to 'push out' the domain within which existing approaches operate, by addressing dimensions of poverty that many conventional approaches fail to address. Specifically, this involves a shift away from the conventional service delivery mode of development programming to focussing on human capital, and the structures and processes that disempower the poor, especially women, and constraint their livelihood. It is an approach that puts social development, specifically a rights-based approach to health and socio-political empowerment, at the heart of the agenda. This paper has two objectives. The first is an introduction of the new BRAC Programme that aims to experiment with a different type of approach to attacking extreme poverty. More specifically, the focus in this paper is to introduce the targeting methodology used in this Programme. The underlying theme of both the CFPR/TUP Programme and the targeting methodology it used is an acknowledgment of the power and strength of combining methods and approaches and thereby leveraging each other. The Programme for instance combines promotion and protection oriented mechanisms to attacking poverty and uses this mix at various levels acknowledging the idea that the structures that create and reproduce poverty work at multiple levels. Similarly, the targeting approach used in the Programme also combines various targeting methodologies and knowledge streams about who the extreme poor are and where they live. The second objective of this paper is to use Programme data emerging out of the targeting exercise to undertake preliminary exploration of questions of effectiveness of the approach used. The combining of various targeting approaches and drawing from different streams of knowledge has been the main innovativeness of the targeting methodology used in the CFPR/TUP programme. The close correspondence between community perception of the variables distinguishing the extreme poor from the other wealth groups and what the Programme developed based on reading of existing poverty profile literature of Bangladesh points to the maturity and evolution of formal, more academic knowledge on poverty profile in being able to capture the categories and descriptions used by poor people themselves. This is encouraging. What is needed now is moving beyond more grounded poverty profile to more grounded understanding of the various mechanisms through which poverty persists for some and not for others and what can be done about it. However, the big differences between the two closely ranked groups of the poor-the extreme poor and those just above, also suggest that there is a structural break, rather than a continuum in terms of deprivation of opportunities, security and empowerment that is differentiating the extreme poor from others. It is through a better understanding of the various dimensions, dynamics and interlinkages of these structural breaks can we design the most effective strategies and programmatic approaches for this group.
Conversations with employers: Exploring graduate employability in Bangladesh
(2004) Matin, Imran; Ali, Tariq; Wiebe, Paul
The Bangladeshi graduate labour market is going through rapid and dramatic changes. The increasing importance of the private sector coupled with the intensifying forces of globalization has considerably changed employers’ needs regarding graduate employment. The research focuses on employers’ perspective in this rapidly changing graduate labour market. It specifically addresses two questions: What are the generic attributes that employers look for? And how do employers find individuals with these attributes? In order to answer these questions, we interviewed a range of employers. However, the paper focused on sectors that are desirable for BRAC University students. The major finding of this research is that the problem of employability is best understood in terms of the linkages between employability attributes, rather than the employability attributes per se. This is because the employability attributes are abstractions that function to describe a composite individual who can add value to an organisation. Skills are therefore not discrete and mutually exclusive categories and the employable graduate is more than the linear sum of employability attributes. The paper concluded that course design, pedagogy, the classroom environment, the reward system, the inclusiveness of the University environment, its regulation and its engagements with the wider social and political landscape, both local and global—and many more will all be important variables that will shape the agenda of enhancing graduate employability.
Crafting a graduation pathway for the ultra-poor: Lessons and evidence from a BRAC program
(BRAC Research and Evaluation Division, 2008-03) Matin, Imran; Sulaiman, Munshi; Rabbani, Mehnaz
The ultra poor are caught in a below-subsistence trap from which it is difficult for them to break free using available resources and mechanisms. Time is not an ally for the ultra poor, as things generally do not get better for them over time. More often than not, ultra poverty tends to be chronic and intergenerational. Existing development approaches largely do not work for the ultra poor and consequently, they tend to be left out. The ultra poor rely largely on informal charities, having its own rules of inclusion and exclusion based on complex systems of patronage. More importantly, such informal support tends to at best reproduce mere subsistence and does not provide a graduation pathway for the ultra poor. Social assistance programmes typically provide a period of relief through food and/or cash, but these too tend to focus less on graduation and more on immediate needs. In this paper, an innovative approach that BRAC has been experimenting with since 2002 to craft a graduation pathway for the ultra poor is described. Based on experiences of implementing this approach and evaluation research, a number of key lessons for the broader thinking on tackling ultra poverty are drawn.
Delivering inclusive microfinance with a poverty focus: experiences from Brac
(BRAC, 2004) Matin, Imran
Dimensions and dynamics of microfinance membership overlap – a micro study from Bangladesh
(Small Enterprise Development, 2002-06) Chaudhury, Iftekhar A.; Matin, Imran
The microfinance market of Bangladesh is getting rapidly crowded. In certain areas there is also quite high incidence of households taking loans from a number of microfinance providers. Why is this happening? How does it affect the providers? What should be done? These are some of the questions that this paper begins to address based on data collected from BRAC's operations in Tangail. We find that a number of crises often gives rise to an urgent need for lump sums of cash, and this is why households often need access to several loan sources. Though repayment irregularity is found to be on the increase, somehow it is being managed from turning into a major default problem, suggesting a level of in-built resilience of the system. This needs further research. In terms of what should be done, we chalk a broad agenda consisting of better information-sharing mechanisms and developing better risk-responsive financial products. In this sense, the phenomenon of multiple microfinance membership is as much an opportunity as it is a challenge.
Economic recovery of the new poor created by COVID-19: Evidence from Bangladesh
(Taylor and Francis, 2023-11-06) Gomes, Mohima; Jahan, Nusrat; Shatil, Tanvir; Tahsin, Nabila; Das, Narayan; Matin, Imran
The COVID-19 shock resulted in a large number of people becoming newly poor in Bangladesh, for whom recovery was slow and difficult. In response, BRAC implemented a nationwide program – credit, business planning support, and mentoring – targeting the economic recovery of the new poor. This paper estimates its impact using a mixed method and finds that the program had a significant positive effect on employment, income, and assets, indicating a faster economic recovery of program participants. The learnings from this program can have major policy implications for future disaster responses targeting livelihood recovery, specifically during the time-sensitive transitory phase from relief to long-term development.
Eighteen months of operation: exploring geographical poverty outreach and employment creation of BRAC Bank SME Unit
(BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED), 2004) Iglebaek, Monique; Matin, Imran
This section summarizes the results of the exploratory study on BRAC Bank SME Unit. The survey was conducted from February 22 to March 3, 2004, covering 85 BRAC Bank repeat borrowers. In addition, Focus Group Discussions with 43 selected repeat borrowers and CROs were also carried out. The objective of the study was firstly, to assess geographical poverty outreach of Bank’s SME Unit; secondly, to identify the effect of SME lending on employment creation; thirdly to explore which enterprises create the greatest employment for poor people, and to what extent BRAC Bank’s SME Unit support these enterprises.
Engaging elite support for the poorest? BRAC's experience with the ultra poor programme (TUP working paper -3)
(BRAC, 2004-09) Hossain, Naomi; Matin, Imran
This paper describes and draws lessons from the experience of engaging village elite in support of the ultra poor through the Gram Shahayak Committees (GSC), as part of BRAC's CFPR/TUP programme. The paper addresses the following questions: under what conditions can elite become engaged in support of interventions for the ultra poor? What are the risks and benefits of engaging elite in antipoverty programmes? After describing the origins and motivations behind BRAC's Specially Targeted Ultra Poor (TUP) programme, the paper goes on to explain how an important lesson from the programme as it evolved included the need for on-site, village-based protection and support for TUP participants and their newly-acquired assets. The paper goes on to explore some of the early impacts of the GSCs which were formed to fill this need, and to assess the motivations and factors underlying their effectiveness and success. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the lessons from the experience, including their implications for assumptions that dominate scholarship and programmes relating· to the rural politics of poverty in Bangladesh.
Engaging elite support for the poorest? BRAC`s experience with the ultra-poor program
(Taylor and Francis, 2007-11-22) Hossain, Naomi; Matin, Imran
This article draws preliminary lessons from the experience of engaging village elites in support of a BRAC programme for ultra-poor women in rural Bangladesh. It describes the origins, aims, and operation of this programme, which provides comprehensive livelihood support and productive assets to the extreme poor. Based on field research in the rural north-west, the article examines the conditions under which elites can support interventions for the ultra-poor, and the risks and benefits of such engagement. It describes the impact of committees mandated to support ultra-poor programme participants, and attempts to understand the somewhat paradoxical success of this intervention. Conclusions and lessons from the experience involve revisiting assumptions that dominate scholarship and programmes relating to the politics of poverty in rural Bangladesh.
Environment and business relations in Urban SMEs- A study on Mirpur Benarashi Palli
(BRAC University, 2007-01) Mortuza, Khaled Golam; Akter, Nasima; Matin, Imran
The concept of environmentally responsible business has the intention of promoting conscious involvement by the individual business clusters in developing and maintaining guidelines relating to environmental development issues and also promoting dialogue designed to strengthen the environmental aspects of laws and frameworks. Bearing this in mind, this study was designed to understand how an individual SME value their business strategy within an environmentally responsible business arrangement. The study location was in Mirpur Benarashi Palli areas, where there subsist a large number of urban SMEs involving the Benarashi Shari manufacturing activities. Environmental assessments were done based on standard EIA procedures. Findings require wider facilitating consultation services to improve environmental performances as these small business managers do not have sufficient access to information concerning environmental management and many do not have the capital or the expertise to undertake the sort of these approaches. This is considered necessary as because, environmentalism is all about prevention and enhancement of the physical environment and has a primary influence on societies overall development initiatives.
Ethnography of community governance: A case of COVID-19 response of an urban slum in Bangladesh
(Oxford Academic, 2023-04-02) Zaman, Shahaduz; Hossain, Faruq; Matin, Imran
Although COVID-19 cases and deaths in different clusters of Bangladesh were increasing rapidly for most of the year 2020, surprisingly very few cases were reported in the urban slums, identified as the potential hotspots of Coronavirus. While the epidemiological puzzle of the low incidence of COVID-19 in slums remains unresolved, an ethnography in an urban slum in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, reveals how, in the context of indifference from the state, the slum dwellers themselves initiated several informal but robust interventions to tackle the pandemic. This study reveals the power of community governance from below, which we understand using Bayat’s (2013) concept of ‘quiet encroachment’ and Roy’s (2009) argument about the role of informality in urban governance. To adapt to the pandemic situation, we applied an innovative ‘peer research’ approach for data collection.
Finding out fast about the impact of COVID-19: The need for policy-relevant methodological innovation
(Elsevier, 2021-04) Rahman, Hossain Zillur; Matin, Imran; Banks, Nicola; Hulme, David
In this viewpoint we explore one joint research initiative in Bangladesh to illustrate how methodological innovations using mobile phone technologies and pre-existing survey databases can generate rapid and insightful data on the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic with significant policy influence. Situating this innovation within theoretical and methodological antecedents for rapid appraisal, we show how strong local ownership can facilitate innovation, rapid research and strong policy engagement amidst even the most difficult research conditions. Such rapid surveys and analysis must remain a research priority in times of crisis. Academic researchers in partner organisations further afield must ask important questions around how they can best support such locally-led research initiatives: in preparing for, analysing or writing up the research or in joining efforts to communicate them to wider communities of policy-makers and practitioners globally.
Formation of BRAC: a historical account
(BRAC University, 2022) Zaman, Shahaduz; Matin, Imran; Ahasan, Abu; Iqbal, Sumaiya
Gram Shahayak Committees: a profile study
(BRAC, 2004-08) Matin, Imran
How social norms are increasing the digital divide between genders
(The Daily Star, 2021-01-03) Matin, Imran; Haque, Lopita; Jahan, Nusat
Lifting the lockdown: What are the options for low and middle-income countries?
(Social Science Research Network (SSRN), 2020-06-11) Chowdhury, Rajiv; Luhar, Shammi; Khan, Nusrat; Choudhury, Sohel Reza; Matin, Imran; Franco, Oscar H.
To limit the social, economic and psychological damage caused by strict social distancing interventions, many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are seeking to ease restrictions. However, it is unknown what a ‘safe reopening’ entails in LMICs given suboptimal diagnostic and surveillance capabilities. Here we discuss three community-based public health measures (sustained mitigation, zonal lockdown and dynamic rolling lockdowns) which seek to adequately balance the public health and economic priorities. Each of these options have limitations and prerequisites that may be context-specific and should be considered before implementation, including implementation and maintenance costs, social and economic costs, context-specific epidemic growth and the existing health resources.