PPRC’s poverty research had its origin in the pioneering research project, Analysis of Poverty Trends Project (APT), conceived and led by Hossain Zillur Rahman in the late 1908s and early 1990s. Many of the issues first projected through that research and the subsequent publication Re-Thinking Rural Poverty (SAGE, 1995) such as monga, crisis and vulnerability and extreme poverty went on to become central elements of the national poverty agenda. Starting from survival dynamics, safety nets, monga elimination, marginal communities, poverty pockets, MDGs and SDGs, nutrition and universal health coverage (UHC), the Centre’s poverty research has increasingly focused on issues of social protection, graduation, the interface with growth and markets, and the impact of macro trends.
PPRC team’s research from 1990 to 2007 served a critical role in scaling up policy engagement with the issue of monga and extreme poverty. The organization has also led national efforts on scaling up social protection through comprehensive studies on safety nets, including Safety Nets in Bangladesh Volumes 1 & 2 (PPRC & UNDP).
PPRC’s current engagement on the poverty agenda is on the efficacy of safety nets (Spot Checks of five major Disaster Ministry programs) and bringing to policy attention the third poverty frontier, namely excluded and marginalized communities (EU-supported project being implemented jointly with SEHD).
