Redesigning Budgetary Policy to Reach Public Resources to the Poor

The fifth monograph of the CPD-SACEPS series captures the multidimensionality of poverty in Bangladesh, and extracts broad canvas of budget in the context of eradicating poverty through economic and political empowerment of the poor. It reveals that due to its complex bureaucratic procedures, there is not much scope of the poor to participate in the budget making process. The tax structure is neither progressive nor pro-poor. High transaction cost of poverty alleviation projects is also evident. Poor women suffer from multiple deprivations, vulnerability and disempowerment in economic, political and social arena. Yet women-focused projects that are supposed to alleviate women’s poverty have been decreasing in number day-by-day. The monograph suggests for making the present budgeting system decentralised and participatory; democratising priority-setting process; creating space for citizen participation; expanding targeted allocations and social safety net programmes; shifting dependency on indirect to direct tax to reduce misery of the poor; and considering gender dimensions of poverty while formulating any budgetary policy, programme and project in order to make the budget making process transparent and pro-poor.

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