Hossain Zillur Rahman

For nearly 50 years, Bangladesh has been one of the world’s favourite outliers. Born in the trauma of 1971 with a shattered economy and a population of 75 million, the country was summarily dismissed as a “basket case.”

It has been a year since Bangladesh freed itself from the murderous clutches of a tyrannical regime that had made corruption the rule of business, extreme arrogance of power the norm, and brutal repression its operational style.

As Bangladesh seeks to recalibrate its path in the aftermath of recent upheavals, the time is ripe to revisit an oft-invoked but under-examined agenda: institutional reform. Institutions are crucial to understand, as they are foundational for governance, transformation, and economic development.

The evolution of poverty research in Bangladesh has been an intellectual adventure.

Exploring alternatives to SWAp in Bangladesh’s health sector is a pressing discussion.

No matter how tight the budget is, the social safety net sector has to be given its due importance.

The latest official data paints an alarming picture of 41.6 percent of girls married under 18 and 8.2 percent married under the lower age of 15.

How much can declared policy intentions be taken at face value when simultaneous administrative and political steps signal different intentions?