The World Bank in Bangladesh: -

Bangladesh has an impressive track record for growth and development, aspiring to be a middle-income country by its
50th birthday. The World Bank has supported Bangladesh since 1972 providing more than $15 billion in support.
Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty, supported by sustained economic growth. Based on
the international poverty line of $1.90 per person per day, it reduced poverty from 44.2 percent in 1991 to 14.8 percent
in 2016/17. In parallel, life expectancy, literacy rates and per capita food production have increased significantly.
Progress was underpinned by 6 percent plus growth over the decade and reaching to 7.9 percent in 2017/2018,
according to official estimates. Rapid growth enabled Bangladesh to reach the lower middle-income country status in
2015. In 2018, Bangladesh fulfilled all three eligibility criteria for graduation from the UN’s Least Developed
Countries (LDC) list for the first time and is on track for graduation in 2024.
Sustained economic growth has rapidly increased the demand for energy, transport and urbanization. Insufficient
planning and investment have resulted in increasingly severe infrastructure bottlenecks. To achieve its growth
aspiration of becoming upper-middle income country by its 50thbirthday in 2021, the country needs urgently to
implement structural reforms, expand investments in human capital, increase female labor force participation, and raise
productivity through increased global value chain integration. Improving infrastructure as well as the business climate
would allow new productive sectors to develop and generate jobs.
The World Bank has been a longstanding partner of Bangladesh since its independence. Since then, the World Bank
through its concessional lending arm—the International Development Association (IDA)—has committed more than
$29 billion in grants, interest-free and concessional financing credits to Bangladesh. In recent years, Bangladesh has
been among one of the largest recipient countries of the IDA fund with the largest ongoing IDA program. The World
Bank has also been the largest external funder of Bangladesh providing over a quarter of all foreign aid to the country.
The World Bank has been supporting the government efforts in economic development and growth, power,
infrastructure, disaster management, climate change, human and social development and poverty reduction.
The World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Group’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF)
for 2016-2020 supports Bangladesh to achieve its vision of reaching middle-income status by its 50th birthday in 2021.
During the period, the World Bank Group’s technical and financial assistance focuses on
accelerating growth by helping to remove bottlenecks to growth and shift more financing to increase electricity
supply and improve transport connectivity;
foster social inclusion by building on Bangladesh’s impressive gains in human and social development.
strengthen climate and environmental management with the aim to enhance Bangladesh’s resilience to natural
disasters, improving water and natural resource management and modernizing agriculture. The framework is anchored
in the government’s seventh Five Year Plan which covers the same period.