Background

If you had BDT 250 billion to use for Bangladesh’s future, how would you choose to spend it? The research produced for this project, a collaboration with BRAC’s Research and Evaluation Division, provides you with the tools to answer that question.

We talked to more than 400 experts from government, international development agencies, think-tanks, and academics and heard more than a thousand proposals to boost Bangladesh.

We sharpened that down to a more manageable list, and brand-new research papers were written for Copenhagen Consensus by teams of Bangladeshi and international experts, examining 76 strategies to discover which solutions can yield the most benefits for every taka spent. 

This analysis includes economic benefits and costs but also the social, health, and environmental effects as well.

Next, we convened an Eminent Panel, including a Nobel Laureate economist, and asked these prestigious development and economics experts to read all the research papers, and spend three days discussing and questioning the authors about their papers and their findings. This Eminent Panel has looked at all 76 interventions, and came up with findings that highlight some phenomenal investments for Bangladesh. 

The Eminent Panel’s findings are an invaluable input, but should not be the last word in the discussion about priorities for Bangladesh. That is why we have hosted Rural Forums, to hear other perspectives on these important issues. 

The research and outreach activities for the Bangladesh Priorities project have been made possible by a generous grant from the C&A Foundation.

The international donor coordination is funded by SIDA as represented by the Swedish Embassy in Dhaka.