Wind turbines and poverty alleviation

In 2003, I wrote an article titled "Bangladesh must improve its energy situation". In that article, I discussed, among other things, the urgent need for Bangladesh to harness its recoverable (at the economic level), as well as affordable energy resources including the wind energy for accelerating the implementation of the poverty reduction strategies. It was in that, as well as other contexts, I suggested a number of measures as to how to increase the per capita energy consumption in the country; examined the role of wind energy; analysed the engineering, technological and environmental aspects of the present day wind turbines; and recommended the use of pertinent local, as well as non-local expertise including those of the GE, the biggest domestic turbine manufacturer in the US, to mention a few. The article was published in a number of leading dailies between 9 September 2003 and 24 September 2003, both days inclusive.

Now that Bangladesh has decided to invest in the pioneering wind power project, one of its key challenges would be: how to optimise the eventual benefit of the project in the pursuit of eradicating poverty from Bangladesh within a minimum possible time. The time mechanics would play a critical role in meeting the above challenge because of its relationship with, say, the costs of poverty alleviation in Bangladesh.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The next meeting of the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) is expected to be held in Dhaka in May 2004. Bangladesh should take that opportunity to explore, among other things, additional donor support for expediting its poverty reduction through a rapid enhancement of the country's per capita energy consumption. A comprehensive, well articulated, pragmatic and marketable energy driven anti-poverty strategy having high result generating potentials and stringent development accountability requirements could inter alia facilitate positive outcomes of the above effort.

Bangladesh would need to work hard to improve private sector participation (including multinational companies') in, and attract additional FDI for, the energy sector. It can negotiate grant-cum-cost sharing arrangements with the bilateral and multilateral donors for supporting the utilisation of the country's energy resources in a more productive, as well as equitable fashion.

Bangladesh should be mindful about the fact that mobilising resources for development activities is, in many senses, relatively less difficult than creating and sustaining optimal outcomes from those resources with '100 percent' accountability to the stakeholders. One of the ways to deal with the difficulties is through a continuous strengthening of the accountability regime for developmental outcomes. It is expected the BDF would deal with the matter in a more innovative, as well as user-friendly manner in its discourses and debates leading to the meeting in May this year.

In fine, I would like to congratulate the government and in particular, the Bangladesh Power Development Board, on the wind power initiative. It is hoped Bangladeshis would, among other things, be able to witness the completion of the project in time.