Annual BIDS Conference on Development (ABCD) 2024
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) organized a four-day long international conference titled “Annual BIDS Conference on Development (ABCD) 2024: Equality, Opportunity, Freedom, and Dignity: Restructuring Institutions for Equitable and Sustainable Development”. This annual flagship event acted as a crucial space which brought together scholars, policymakers, and members of civil society and other relevant stakeholders. Featuring a range of presentations, keynote addresses, and public lectures, it explored the complex interconnections between equality, opportunity, freedom, and dignity, with the goal of addressing urgent development challenges both in global and local contexts relevant to Bangladesh.
Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud, Hon’ble Adviser, Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Education, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, graced the inaugural session of the conference as the Chief Guest. The special address for the conference titled, “On Equality” was delivered by the Hon’ble Adviser. The opening remarks “Introducing the Theme of Interconnectedness: Equality, Opportunity, Freedom, and Dignity” were delivered by Binayak Sen, Director General, BIDS. The inaugural address “The Middle-Income Trap” was presented online by Indermit S. Gill, Senior Vice President, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, World Bank Group.
The first public lecture “Agenda for Economic and Social Reforms” was presented by Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
A total of 30 papers, 2 keynote addresses, and 12 public lectures were presented in the four-day conference. The academic discussions covered extreme poverty, poverty trends, poverty dynamics, supply chain dynamics of RMG industry, structural changes in industry and manufacturing sector, food policy, and price stabilization etc. Also, there were presentations on inflation, unemployment, out-of-pocket health expenditure, public debt, child marriage, unpaid domestic work of women, agricultural productivity, and corporate agriculture.
Esteemed scholars like Vibhor Matthur, Joe Devine, Mathilde Maitrot, Imran Matin, Geof Wood, Dhruv Sharma, Nethra Palaniswamy, Sergio Olivieri, Ayago Wambile, Abdoulaye Seck, M. Mozammel Huq, Mahtab Uddin, Sajjad Zohir, Paul Dorosh, Benjamin Belton, Shahidur Rashid, Ahmad Ahsan, M.G. Quibria, AK Enamul Haque, S.R. Osmani, Mustafizur Rahman, Martin Mattsson, Moogdho Mahzab, Mehrab Bakhtiar, Syed M. Ahsan, Debapriya Bhattacharya, Stefan Dercon, Ruchira Naved, Muhammed Nazmul Islam, M. Niaz Asadullah, Sajeda Amin, Quazi Shahabuddin, Sultan Hafeez Rahman, and Umar Salam actively participated in the conference.
BIDS researchers, Binayak Sen, Kazi Iqbal, Mohammad Yunus, Monzur Hossain, S M Zulfiqar Ali, Azreen Karim, M A Sattar Mandal, Abdur Razzaque Sarker, Taznoore Samina Khan, Mohammad Harunur Rashid Bhuyan, S.M. Zahedul Islam Chowdhury, Tahreen Tahrima Chowdhury, Mohammad Riaz Uddin, Muntasir Murshed, Jayed Bin Satter, Rizwana Islam, Md. Nadim Uddin and Farhin Islam delivered presentations.
The four-day conference concluded with the Public Lecture titled, “Poverty Dynamics amidst Intersecting Crises in Rural Bangladesh," delivered by Vidya Diwakar, IDS, Sussex University, UK. Kazi Iqbal, Research Director, BIDS and convener of the ABCD 2024 organizing committee concluded the ABCD 2024 by a vote of thanks.
The presentations and videos of the program are available below:
Day 1: Saturday, December 7, 2024
Inaugural Session: Restructuring Institutions for Equitable and Sustainable Development 
Opening Remarks: Introducing the Theme of Interconnectedness: Equality, Opportunity, Freedom, and Dignity 
Binayak Sen, Director General, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS)
Inaugural Address: The Middle-Income Trap (zoom)
Indermit S. Gill, Senior Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist, the World Bank Group (with Somik V. Lall, Director, WDR 2024)
Chief Guest: Wahiduddin Mahmud, Hon’ble Adviser, Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Education, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Special Address for the Conference: On Equality
Wahiduddin Mahmud, Hon’ble Adviser, Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Education, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Public Lecture 1: Agenda for Economic and Social Reforms
Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)
Session Chair: Binayak Sen, Director General, BIDS
Academic Session 1: Session on Dignity of the Excluded by University of Bath
Paper 1: Dignity and unfree labour in India (zoom)
Vibhor Matthur, University of Bath, England
Paper 2: Extreme poverty in Bangladesh: An intersectional exploration of dignity
Joe Devine and Mathilde Maitrot, University of Bath, England
Session Chair: Imran Matin, Executive Director, BIGD
Public Lecture 2: Keeping Democracy Alice in Bangladesh or Anywhere
Geof Wood, Professor Emeritus, Department of Social & Policy Sciences, University of Bath, UK
Session Chair: Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, Former civil servant and author
Academic Session 2: Session on Poverty in Bangladesh based on HIES 2022 by World Bank
Paper 1: Recent Macro and Poverty Trends in Bangladesh
Dhruv Sharma, Senior Economist, World Bank
Nethra Palaniswamy, Senior Economist, World Bank
Paper 2: Which Households are Vulnerable to Falling into Poverty in Bangladesh?
Sergio Olivieri, Senior Economist, World Bank
Paper 3: Is Education Supporting Intergenerational Mobility in Bangladesh?
Ayago Wambile, Senior Economist, World Bank
Session Chair: Abdoulaye Seck, Country Director, World Bank
Keynote Address 1: Equality and Opportunity (zoom)
Ravi Kanbur, T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Professor of Economics, Cornell University, USA
Day 2: Sunday, December 8, 2024
Academic Session 3: BIDS Work I: Technology, Supply Chain and Employment in Firms
Paper 1: Supply Chain Dynamics for Sustainable RMG Growth in Bangladesh
Monzur Hossain, Research Director, BIDS
Tahreen Tahrima Chowdhury, Research Fellow, BIDS
Md. Nadim Uddin, Research Associate, BIDS
Paper 2: Technological upgradation in RMG industries in Bangladesh: Some preliminary findings
Kazi Iqbal, Research Director, BIDS
- Mozammel Huq, Retired Senior Academic, Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde, UK
K.M. Nabiul Islam, Former Senior Research Fellow, BIDS
Paper 3: Structural Changes in Industrial Sector of Bangladesh: 2012 to 2019
Mahir A. Rahman, Research Associate, BIDS
Jayed Bin Satter, Research Associate, BIDS
Kazi Iqbal, Research Director, BIDS
Paper 4: How would technological progress impact employment in the manufacturing sector of Bangladesh? An empirical projection
Mahtab Uddin, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka
Farhin Islam, Research Associate, BIDS
Session Chair: Sajjad Zohir, Executive Director, Economic Research Group (ERG)
Academic Session 4: Session on Agriculture and Food Security by IFPRI
Paper 1: Food Price Policy in South Asia: Cereal Stocks, Prices and Trade
Paul Dorosh, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI
Paper 2: Aquaculture Value Chain Development: Emerging Policy Insights
Benjamin Belton, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI
Paper 3: Rice Markets and Price Stabilization in Bangladesh (zoom)
Nick Minot, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI
Session Chair: Shahidur Rashid, Director, South Asia Region, IFPRI
Public Lecture 3: Corporate Agriculture
M.A. Sattar Mandal, Professorial Fellow, BIDS and Former Vice Chancellor, Bangladesh Agricultural University
Session Chair: Md. Asaduzzaman, Former Research Director, BIDS
Academic Session 5 : BIDS Work II: Living Conditions, Inflation and Well-being
Paper 1: The State of the Manufacturing Workers in Bangladesh
Binayak Sen, Director General, BIDS
Mohammad Harunur Rashid Bhuyan, Research Fellow, BIDS
Kashfi Rayan, Research Associate, BIDS
Mahmudul Hasan, Research Associate, BIDS
Papri Das, Research Associate, BIDS
Md. Nadim Uddin, Research Associate, BIDS
Paper 2: Inflation, Subjective Well-being and Aspirations: Evidence from Rural Households in Bangladesh
Binayak Sen, Director General, BIDS
- M. Zahedul Islam Chowdhury, Research Fellow, BIDS
Rizwana Islam, Research Associate, BIDS
Paper 3: How Rural Food Inflation Impacts Food Consumption Patterns: Evidence From 64 Districts (zoom)
Binayak Sen, Director General, BIDS
- M. Zahedul Islam Chowdhury, Research Fellow, BIDS
Rizwana Islam, Research Associate, BIDS
Session Chair: Syed M. Ahsan, Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, Concordia University, Canada
Academic Session 6: Is Urbanization Promoting Industrialization in Bangladesh?
Ahmad Ahsan, Director, Policy Research Institute
Session Chair: M.G. Quibria, Professor of Economics, Morgan State University, USA
Public Lecture 4: Shifting Sands: Navigating the Place of Bangladesh in the Global Trade Landscape
M.G. Quibria, Professor of Economics, Morgan State University, USA
Day 3: Monday, December 9, 2024
Academic Session 7: BIDS Work III: Education and Health
Paper 1: Understanding Unemployment among College Graduates
Badrun Nessa Ahmed, Research Fellow, BIDS
- M. Zulfiqar Ali, Research Director, BIDS
Rizwana Islam, Research Associate, BIDS
Paper 2: Out-of-pocket (OOP) costs of Kidney dialysis in Bangladesh
Abdur Razzaque Sarker, Research Fellow, BIDS
Rasedul Islam, Research Officer, BIDS
Paper 3: Community clinics and women’s healthcare-seeking behaviour: Evidence from Bangladesh
Mohammad Riaz Uddin, Research Fellow, BIDS
Session Chair: AK Enamul Haque, Deputy Vice Chancellor, UCSI University
Keynote Address 2: Can Bangladesh Renew its Elite Bargain for Development?
Stefan Dercon, Professor, Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, University of Oxford, UK
Public Lecture 5: The Effect of Teacher Training and Community Literacy Programming on Teacher and Student Outcomes (zoom)
Naureen Karachiwalla, Research Fellow, IFPRI
Session Chair: S.R. Osmani, Professor of Development Economics, University of Ulster, UK
Academic Session 8: BIDS Work IV: Macro, Energy and Environment
Paper 1: Impact of Russia-Ukraine war on Bangladesh Economy: Simulation vs. Reality
Tahreen Tahrima Chowdhury, Research Fellow, BIDS
Paper 2: How much income gap persists across Gender Dimensions due to Climate Change? New evidence from Bangladesh
Azreen Karim, Research Fellow, BIDS
Paper 3: Macroeconomic factors influencing urban-rural divide in electrification rates in South Asia
Muntasir Murshed, Research Fellow, BIDS
Session Chair: Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, CPD
Academic Session 9: Firm and Environment
Paper 1: Dual Misbeliefs and Technology Adoption: Evidence from Air Purifiers in Bangladesh
Martin Mattsson, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
Paper 2: Does Trade with Multinationals Induce Greener Production? Evidence from the Bangladesh Fashion Industry
Moogdho Mahzab, Associate Research Fellow, IFPRI
Session Chair: Mehrab Bakhtiar, Research Fellow, IFPRI
Public Lecture 6: Public Debt, Domestic and Foreign: How Much is too Much?
Syed M. Ahsan, Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, Concordia University, Canada
Public Lecture 7: The 1970 Bhola Cyclone and the Birth of Bangladesh (zoom)
Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Professor of Economics, Yale University, USA
Session Chair: Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, CPD
Day 4: Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Public Lecture 8: Building Resilience Among the Poor: Lessons from the Field (zoom)
Yasuyuki Sawada, Former Chief Economist, Asian Development Bank and Professor, University of Tokyo, Japan
Session Chair: Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Director, BIDS Graduate School of Economics
Academic Session 10: Child Marriage
Paper 1: Effectiveness of girls’ empowerment and social norm intervention in reducing child marriage
Ruchira Naved, Emeritus Scientist, icddr,b
Paper 2: Edutainment and the prevention of under-age marriages: The evaluation of a television series designed to promote positive role models in Bangladesh
Muhammed Nazmul Islam, Lead Researcher, Development Programs, Sajida Foundation
Atonu Rabbani, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka
And others
Paper 3: Can Child Marriage Law Change Attitudes and Behaviour? Experimental Evidence from an Information Intervention in Bangladesh
- Niaz Asadullah, Professor of Development Economics, Monash University Malaysia
Paper 4: Intrahousehold Bargaining and Girls’ Time-Use Spent on Unpaid Domestic Work (zoom)
Momoe Makino, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO)
Session Chair: Sajeda Amin, Senior Associate, Population Council, New York
Academic Session 11: BIDS Work V: Risk, Agricultural Productivity and Land Use
Paper 1: Agricultural Credit, Training, and Farm Household Welfare in Bangladesh
Mohammad Yunus, Research Director, BIDS
Taznoore Samina Khanam, Research Fellow, BIDS
Paper 2: Agricultural Productivity and Technical Efficiency in Bangladesh
Mohammad Yunus, Research Director, BIDS
M A Sattar Mandal, Professorial Fellow, BIDS
Azreen Karim, Research Fellow, BIDS
Taznoore Samina Khanam, Research Fellow, BIDS
Rizwana Islam, Research Associate, BIDS
Paper 3: Impact of International Migration on the Use of Agriculture Land: Evidence from Bangladesh
Kazi Iqbal, Research Director, BIDS
Md. Nadim Uddin, Research Associate, BIDS
Kazi Zubair Hossain, Research Associate (Temporary), BIDS
Session Chair: Quazi Shahabuddin, Former Director General, BIDS
Public Lecture 9: Political Economy of Food System Transformation (zoom)
Johan Swinnen, Director General, IFPRI & Managing Director, System Transformation Science Group, CGIAR
Academic Session 12
Research Methods on Poverty, Vulnerability, and Poverty Dynamics: OPM Supported Works (zoom)
Public Lecture 10: Constructing Synthetic Panels for the Study of Poverty Dynamics
Peter Lanjouw, Professor of Economics at VU University, Amsterdam
Public Lecture 11: Does Nutrition-Sensitive Social Protection Build Long-Term Resilience? Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh
John Hoddinott, Professor of Economics, Cornell University, USA
Public Lecture 12: Poverty Dynamics amidst Intersecting Crises in Rural Bangladesh
Vidya Diwakar, IDS, Sussex University, UK
Session Chair: Umar Salam, Senior Economist, Oxford Policy Management