Oxfam's work in Bangladesh in depth

Livelihoods work

An Unfair Deal

Bangladesh is, at present, more exposed to the risks, and threats originating in the global market than at any time in the country’s history.

Bangladesh has been integrating with the global economy at a fast pace throughout the 1990s, when it graduated from a predominantly aid-receiving nation to a trading nation.

Therefore, issues related to access to global markets are becoming crucially important in terms of the future development of Bangladesh’s economy.

In the past most of today's most developed economies used policies to protect their industries from foreign competition until they were big enough to survive without support. But now they are using the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to deny poor countries the same route to economic development.

High tariffs on exports

Despite market access improvements during several trade meetings around the world, Bangladesh has been severely constrained by high tariff rates on its exports, such as textiles, jute, marine food, leather, tea, and fertiliser.

In real terms: with an export of $2.40 billion to the US market, Bangladesh has had a $331 million tariff slapped on her exports to the US markets. France also pays a tariff of $330 million on exports to the US. However France's annual export to the US market is worth about $24.2 billion – this is 13 times bigger than Bangladesh's!

Such high tariff rates undermine Bangladesh’s competitive strength, in the markets of developed nations, and is discriminatory.

Oxfam working to Make Trade Fair

Our campaign to make trade fair puts people at the centre of world trade. It says that trade rules should allow people to work themselves out of poverty by selling their products to rich countries, and other developing countries at a decent price.

They should also be able to protect their economies until they are established enough to compete with the more developed countries.

Our Livelihoods Programme in Bangladesh works on trade issues related to garment workers rights, market access, and agriculture. The programme is split into two components – projects implemented through partners, and campaigning through the Make Trade Fair Alliance that is made up of Oxfam’s partners and other organisations.

Through both our project and campaigning work, Oxfam in Bangladesh works to:

improve the livelihoods of garment workers, especially women;
advocate for fair trade rules for access to the markets of developed nations;
and uphold the rights of millions of Bangladeshi peasants to food security, and a secure livelihood.

Our agriculture is our life

Most Bangladeshis earn their living from agriculture. Rice and jute are the primary crops. Because of Bangladesh's fertile soil, and normally ample water supply, rice can be grown, and harvested three times a year in many areas. All the more reason that Bangladesh has been a very active participant in the Make Trade Fair campaign.

Giving it the name ‘Our Agriculture is Our Life’, the aim of the campaign in Bangladesh, is to ensure that the agriculture treaty does not turn into a draconian treaty offering generous opportunities, and scope for rich nations.

The Big Noise, a global petition calling for fairer trade, that was presented at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong in December 2005, saw tremendous participation from Bangladeshi peasants. From the ten million signatures collected globally, poor farmers from Bangladesh contributed 580,000 signatures to the Big Noise, to make trade fair in their country.