Bjorn Lomborg

Over the next 15 years, the Sustainable Development Goals will influence more than USD 2.5 trillion of money in development aid...

The project 'Bangladesh Priorities' set out to have a conversation on what is best for Bangladesh. In that spirit, I welcome the commentary from Nick Beresford of UNDP Bangladesh on September 29. His concerns merit a considered response.

Poor nutrition continues to impede Bangladesh's progress. The effects include maternal mortality, infant mortality, and stillbirths. Also, poor growth among small children results in stunting, which in turn has life-long consequences. Affecting about six million Bangladeshi children under the age of five, the condition decreases cognitive development, leads to worse health outcomes and school performance.

If you had Tk. 250 billion to use for Bangladesh's future, how would you choose to spend it? That would alter the spending of

Over the past two decades, Bangladesh has remarkably managed to feed an increasing population better - the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that in 1993...

With increased liberalisation, there would be costs to domestic producers and markets that become exposed to foreign competition. Some workers in these industries may even lose jobs. The most affected areas of the Bangladeshi economy would be light manufacturing, utilities and construction, livestock and meat markets, and mining and extraction.

I refer to the commentary by Dr. Sebastian Groh of Saturday 28 May, responding to my article, "Bringing Electricity to More Bangladeshis".

Bangladesh's manufacturing sector has grown steadily as the country has industrialised. Manufacturing now accounts for 30 percent of GDP, nearly double the share of agriculture.

It turns out that switching five households from kerosene lamps to a single diesel-powered generator would be 12 times more cost-effective than solar power - each taka of spending would do an impressive 24 takas of good.

In Bangladesh, an additional year of school boosts girls' lifetime earnings by an estimated 13.2 percent. When combining the health and education benefits, the small investment in family planning gives 3 takas of benefits for each taka spent.

Providing all pregnant Bangladeshi women with iron and folic acid would decrease the risk of anaemia in mothers by 69 percent and reduce low-weight births by nearly 3 percent. The majority of the benefits would come from avoiding lifelong productivity losses that arise from low birth weight.

Cleaning the river and improving its facilities would make it safer for residents who live nearby, avoiding a massive Tk. 91.6 billion in healthcare costs.

Dhaka is one of the fastest-growing megacities in the world. A population of just 3 million in 1971 has ballooned to 18 million today.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world when it comes to climate change.

Their first solution looks at mangroves. Bangladesh could protect and replant mangroves in coastal regions, which would serve as a natural buffer to cyclones while also sequestering carbon.

The complexity of the system and tendency for officials to delay or block the process encourages people to rely on informal title arrangements. But this informality weakens the security of property rights and undermines economic activity.

Every hour, tuberculosis kills nine Bangladeshis. Another seven die each hour from arsenic in drinking water. Simple and cheap

A third chronic illness that the researchers examine is cervical cancer. It is one of the most deadly cancers for women in Bangladesh—it causes about 10,000 deaths each year. Although we know how to help, it turns out to be rather costly.

Each year, Bangladesh spends more than Tk. 72,000 crore on government procurement. That includes paying for anything from Padma Bridge...

Why would microfinance institutions agree to use flexible repayment strategies? Simply because delivering a new product opens a new market, allowing the institutions to reach people who have irregular income flows, while maintaining their profit share.