Bangladesh Studies

'Capacity is the ability to perform appropriate tasks and fulfill roles effectively, efficiently and sustainably. To achieve any developmental objective individually and collectively appropriate capacity of both at the individual and organizational levels is important. Capacity of both at the individual and organizational levels is important. Capacity building is the combination of efforts, initiatives and performance to enhance and utilize skills and capabilities of people and organization or institution at local, national, regional and global levels, aims at sustaining developments.

Building on a deep understanding of the transformative roles that digital technologies, such as the mobile phones, have already played around the world, this book, Going Digital: Realizing the Dreams of a Digital Bangladesh for All, takes us on a journey that could catapult Bangladesh from the age of old-style industrialization to the emerging new era of virtualization. The Internet and wireless communication technologies are rapidly obliterating distances or physical location as a relevant factor in how we conduct business in our personal and professional lives.

This book is destined to become the most comprehensive book on rural poverty in Bangladesh. The author reviews the methodological issues related to rural poverty and makes out a strong case for consistency and uniformity in measuring poverty. The strategies for poverty alleviation both in the public and private sectors pursued over the past twenty-five years are exhaustively and critically reviewed. Hasnat Hye's attempt at developing a theoretical framework to explain the phenomenon of mass poverty is interesting and should invite wider discussion.

This study presents a vision of Bangladesh in the year 2020. In articulating that vision, the authors - all Bangladeshi scholars - have chosen the path of cautious optimism by recognizing the enormous potentials on which to build a prosperous future, but warning that unless Bangladesh is ftrl1y prepared to face the challenges of a highly competitive world of the 21st century, accelerated growth and poverty alleviation could remain a dream.