Poverty reduction through enabling factors, Dr Khurshed Alam
Dr Khurshed Alam 
Bangladesh Institute of Social Research (BISR) Trust
Bangladesh
Purpose: The objective of this paper is to identify factors which were instrumental to poverty reduction opposed to many factors that were considered as impediments to poverty reduction in a poor country like Bangladesh. The paper argues that rather than focusing on 'barriers' to poverty reduction, a country needs to identify and focus on its 'potential' factors of poverty reduction. The state needs to play the facilitating role rather than the instrumental in the case of poverty reduction.
Design/Methodology/approach: The study is an outcome of descriptive assessment of literature to identify the potential factors that contributed to poverty reduction in a poverty stricken country. The literatures covered wide range of issues including sectoral contribution to economic growth but none has exclusively dealt with instrumental role of the poverty reduction factors.
Findings: In order to reduce poverty, rather than attempting to change the 'culture of poverty', remove the 'structural trap' or 'kin system as poverty trap' it can be achieved through harnessing the enabling factors of poverty reduction. Utilisation of land and labour could bring a transformation in the rural economy of Bangladesh which was essential to poverty reduction. Harnessing country-specific enabling factors could leave the poverty behind where the dominant enabling factors for Bangladesh were agricultural development and remittance. Individuals could escape poverty largely through their own eff ort with policy support from the state.
Originality/value: The paper reveals instruments to poverty reduction where usual practice was to identify the barrier to development and to suggest the means of overcoming those barriers. It suggests how to look into the matter from other way round where instead of identifying the barrier attempt should be made to identify the enabling factors and to harness those enabling factors. The findings are based on the country experience reported in diff erent literatures but not generalised in the form as attempted here. The paper is expected to show a means of poverty reduction where country-specifi c strategy or home-grown model can be drawn out based on identifi cation of potential factors.
Keywords: Bangladesh; culture of poverty; poverty trap; kinship trap;
Citation: Alam, K. (2016): Poverty reduction through enabling factors. In Ahmed, A. (Ed.): Europe at a Crossroads and the Impact of Globalization, Vol. 14, pp. 187-200.
