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Item How does financial literacy impact on inclusive finance?(Springer Nature on behalf of the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, 2021-12-01) Hasan M; Le T; Hoque AInclusive finance is a core concept of finance that makes various financial products and services accessible and affordable to all individuals and businesses, especially those excluded from the formal financial system. One of the leading forces affecting people's ability to access financial services in rural areas is financial literacy. This study investigated the impacts of financial knowledge on financial access through banking, microfinance, and fintech access using the Bangladesh rural population data. We employed three econometrics models: logistic regression, probit regression, and complementary log–log regression to examine whether financial literacy significantly affects removing the barriers that prevent people from participating and using financial services to improve their lives. The empirical findings showed that knowledge regarding various financial services factors had significant impacts on getting financial access. Some variables such as profession, income level, knowledge regarding depositing and withdrawing money, and knowledge regarding interest rate highly affected the overall access to finance. The study's results provide valuable recommendations for the policymaker to improve financial inclusion in the developing country context. A comprehensive and long-term education program should be delivered broadly to the rural population to make a big stride in financial inclusion, a key driver of poverty reduction and prosperity boosting.Item Construction of health among the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh : a culture-centred approach : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Massey University, Manawatu, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2023-12-21) Rahman, Md MahbuburRohingyas, the majority of whom are Muslims (followers of the religion of Islam) are the ethnic minority group of the Rakhine state of Myanmar, where they have lived for centuries. However, Rohingyas lost their citizenship rights through a state sponsored apartheid-like system in 1982 and since then they have been stateless. As a result of organised state-led persecutions and even genocide for decades, Rohingyas are now the largest stateless community of the world. It is estimated that around 3.5 million Rohingyas are now scattered throughout the world. Among them, only an estimated 600,000 Rohingyas are still living in Myanmar. However, the exact figure of Rohingyas in Myanmar is difficult to confirm. The largest group, more than 1.6 million Rohingyas, is in Bangladesh. The majority of the Rohingyas once living in Rakhine state of Myanmar fled to Bangladesh after the latest genocide perpetrated against them by the Myanmar authorities from August 2017 onwards. Most of the Rohingyas who fled from Myanmar are now living in 33 makeshift camps at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The Rohingyas have been living in the camps of Bangladesh for years without any citizenship rights or refugee status. In this thesis, the Rohingyas are deliberately designated as refugees as they fulfil all the conditions of refugees by various international laws. According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, "a refugee is defined as a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country or to return there because there is a fear of persecution" [Article 1(a)(2), 1951 Refugee Convention]. Bangladesh is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol and has avoided labelling the Rohingyas as “refugees.” Instead, Bangladeshi authorities refer to the Rohingyas as “Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals” (FDMN) and do not afford them the right to work or freedom of movement. Rohingyas who fled persecution in Myanmar have reason to fear persecution if they return and so they have been staying in the camps for years. In the Bangladeshi camps, while the local authorities and international agencies barely manage to provide minimum basic needs, the Rohingya people suffer from a lack of provisions for long-term needs, such as adequate healthcare services and education. The current study explores various health issues concerning the Rohingya people living in 33 camps of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. To discover their health issues, the localised, lived experiences of Rohingyas have been studied to identify the current health policy approaches and interventions addressing their health needs. This research employs a Culture-Centred ethnographic data collection methodology, with 41 in-depth interviews including some Focused Group Discussions. Purposive and snowballing methods were used to identify and recruit the Rohingya participants. The researcher has applied the Culture-Centred Approach (CCA) to find out the Rohingya refugees’ health needs. The Culture-Centred Approach is a theory of health communication that works through centring culture along with structure and agency and believes the community should have a voice in defining their problems and finding solutions. This thesis argues that the construction of Rohingya healthcare services at the refugee camps of Bangladesh follow the top-down approach and the services are predetermined by the local authorities and international agencies. The Rohingyas are the passive users of all of their basic needs including the health needs. The voices of Rohingyas are not being heard and there is no attempt to hear them, even when critical decisions regarding their health and life are being made. From that point of view this thesis examines the lived experiences of Rohingyas living in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh through dialogical exchanges between the researcher and the Rohingya refugees. The findings suggest a theory of “looking from below” through the lens of culture, structure and agency that enables a better understanding of Rohingya health issues in the ground-level micro-practices. The study demonstrates that, given proper opportunities to take part in the decision-making processes, the Rohingyas can improve their health utilising the existing health care facilities of the camps. This thesis also advocates the Rohingya refugees’ participation in any community engagement process so as to enable a better life for them in the refugee camps with the limited infrastructures and minimum opportunities. This study also argues for greater Rohingya involvement in medical care to provide facilities that may address the localised, culture-based health needs of the refugee community.Item The United Nations (UN) Card, Identity, and Negotiations of Health among Rohingya Refugees(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2023-02-15) Rahman MM; Dutta MJ; Plaza Del Pino FJ; Ugarte-Gurruxaga MIBeing persecuted and expelled from Myanmar, Rohingya refugees are now distributed throughout the world. The Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia has been a preferred destination for Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar's state-sponsored genocide and more recently in a bid to change their fates from the refugee camps in Bangladesh. Refugees are one of the most vulnerable groups in Malaysia and often face dire circumstances, in which their health and wellbeing are compromised. Amidst a plethora of structural challenges, Rohingya refugees try to claim some of their rights with the aid of the UN card (UNHCR ID cards) in Malaysia. Guided by the culture-centered approach (CCA), this study examined the perspectives and experiences of healthcare among Rohingya refugees while living in Malaysia, now resettled in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The participants' narratives showed that the UN card not only materialized their refugee status in Malaysia but also offered them a way of living in a world where documents anchor the materiality of health.Item Assessing the Dynamic Outcomes of Containment Strategies against COVID-19 under Different Public Health Governance Structures: A Comparison between Pakistan and Bangladesh(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-08) Zhang W; Huggins T; Zheng W; Liu S; Du Z; Zhu H; Raza A; Tareq AHCOVID-19 scenarios were run using an epidemiological mathematical model (system dynamics model) and counterfactual analysis to simulate the impacts of different control and containment measures on cumulative infections and deaths in Bangladesh and Pakistan. The simulations were based on national-level data concerning vaccination level, hospital capacity, and other factors, from the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the Our World in Data web portal. These data were added to cumulative infections and death data from government agencies covering the period from 18 March 2020 to 28 February 2022. Baseline curves for Pakistan and Bangladesh were obtained using piecewise fitting with a consideration of different events against the reported data and allowing for less than 5% random errors in cumulative infections and deaths. The results indicate that Bangladesh could have achieved more reductions in each key outcome measure by shifting its initial lockdown at least five days backward, while Pakistan would have needed to extend its lockdown to achieve comparable improvements. Bangladesh’s second lockdown appears to have been better timed than Pakistan’s. There were potential benefits from starting the third lockdown two weeks earlier for Bangladesh and from combining this with the fourth lockdown or canceling the fourth lockdown altogether. Adding a two-week lockdown at the beginning of the upward slope of the second wave could have led to a more than 40 percent reduction in cumulative infections and a 35 percent reduction in cumulative deaths for both countries. However, Bangladesh’s reductions were more sensitive to the duration of the lockdown. Pakistan’s response was more constrained by medical resources, while Bangladesh’s outcomes were more sensitive to both vaccination timing and capacities. More benefits were lost when combining multiple scenarios for Bangladesh compared to the same combinations in Pakistan. Clearly, cumulative infections and deaths could have been highly impacted by adjusting the control and containment measures in both national settings. However, COVID-19 outcomes were more sensitive to adjustment interventions for the Bangladesh context. Disaggregated analyses, using a wider range of factors, may reveal several sub-national dynamics. Nonetheless, the current research demonstrates the relevance of lockdown timing adjustments and discrete adjustments to several other control and containment measures.Item Organisational self-assessment : a catalyst for development outcomes? : a research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2002) Wayne, Robert DavidOrganisational self-assessment (OA) is an emerging development practice, often situated within capacity-building interventions. This study places OA at the confluence of the literature on participation, organisation development, and capacity-building for sustainable development. Reports on the nature and merits of several techniques are documented, and a framework developed to describe and classify them. The study then turns to investigate the extent to which organisational self-assessment is able to influence development outcomes. Using field-level research with community based organisations (CBO's), local NGO's, and health facilities in Bangladesh, the Appreciative Inquiry technique is evaluated for its ability to meet the stated objectives of the implementing organisations, the participants' experience of the process, and its potential to catalyse development. OA is found to have significant potential to generate development outcomes through its ability to combine the motivation for collective action with a plan of specific actions. This study recommends the extension of its use to new areas of application, such as community disaster preparedness and community water supply management, though with several caveats about how this is implemented.Item Healthcare and the oppression of sexual and gender diverse communities in Bangladesh : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the School of Social Work, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand(Massey University, 2021) Khan, Kanamik KaniSince Bangladeshi society is socio-culturally and religiously conservative, sexual and gender diverse communities live with stigma, violence, and discrimination. One form of discrimination lies in the healthcare system. The purpose of this study is to investigate the healthcare experiences of these communities to depict the oppression they face, and to understand the continuing influence of colonialism and patriarchy that maintain this oppression. To investigate this, healthcare is argued as either a human right from the social justice point of view or a tool for oppression for marginalised communities. The methodology used is phenomenological to examine the lived healthcare experiences of the participants. To collect data, I used qualitative methods including participant interviews, a focus group discussion, and key informant interviews. I worked as a volunteer with one local agency that works with sexual and gender diverse communities in Bangladesh. Volunteering helped to build networks and recruit participants. Thematic methods are used for data analysis and full ethics approval is obtained from Massey University, New Zealand. The participants live in a repressive environment with stigma, harassment, limited education and employment opportunities, lack of family support, mental health issues, and inadequate health support. They frequently experience — depending on their disclosure — humiliation, neglect, insults, and discrimination in healthcare settings. Lack of awareness and an unsupportive attitude from government representatives and institutions further contribute to their oppression. Although healthcare, in theory, is regarded as a human right, it is not fairly and equally provided for marginalised communities and thus cannot be claimed as a universal human right. Discriminatory healthcare experiences, stigma, colonial law, and sexual assaults imply that colonial values and patriarchy have an influence on the overall oppression of these communities. The most significant contribution of this study is to expose the patriarchal nature of Bangladeshi society as a legacy of the British Regime. This study offers methodological insights into how to conduct research in politically sensitive environments, which is another unique contribution to methodological knowledge. As a result of this research, it is clear that the Bangladeshi government needs to change its attitude, acknowledge the existence of these communities, and take initiatives to provide equal healthcare facilities for all.Item Embedding sustainability into global supply chains : evidence from Bangladeshi multi-tier apparel suppliers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Nath, Shobod DebaSustainability and supply management in global supply chains (GSCs) have received much attention over the recent years from industry leaders, academics, and policy makers worldwide. However, scant attention has been paid to investigating the implementation of sustainable supply management (SSM) practices from the perspective of multi-tier suppliers located in a developing country context. To address this knowledge gap, this study examines why and how Bangladeshi multi-tier apparel suppliers implement SSM practices in GSCs. This study is positioned within an interpretivist paradigm and employs qualitative research methodology, drawing on data from interviews with 7 owners and 39 managers of Bangladeshi multi-tier apparel suppliers and their 15 key stakeholders. This thesis contains three empirical findings chapters. The first chapter investigates the factors that drive or hinder multi-tier suppliers’ implementation of SSM practices, drawing on integrative stakeholder theory, institutional theory and contingency theory. The findings suggest that buyers’ requirements, increased factory productivity and external stakeholder expectations are key drivers for multi-tier suppliers to embed SSM practices. Conversely, cost and resource concerns, and gaps in the regulatory framework are dominant barriers encountered by multi-tier suppliers in the effective implementation of SSM practices. The second chapter examines how institutional pressures and mechanisms affect the implementation of SSM practices across multi-tier suppliers, and why these suppliers decouple implementation practices. Drawing on institutional theory, the findings indicate that institutional pressures and mechanisms – coercive, mimetic and normative – vary across multi-tier suppliers, thereby affecting their divergent implementation of SSM practices. However, managers and owners of multi-tier suppliers apply three key decoupling approaches – avoidance, defiance and manipulation – in response to institutional pressures. Specifically, the findings suggest a multiplicity of logics across multi-tier suppliers, which conflict with or complement each other during the SSM implementation process. The third chapter investigates how multi-tier apparel suppliers integrate social and environmental issues to improve SSM outcomes. The findings suggest that multi-tier apparel suppliers are implementing various social and environmental practices to improve SSM outcomes. Although the level of implementation of sustainability practices is high within first-tier suppliers, second-tier and third-tier suppliers either adopt specific social practices on an ad hoc basis or symbolically implement environmental practices. Reflecting on the overall findings, this study contributes to theory by offering a series of research propositions and expounding a holistic SSM implementation framework for multi-tier suppliers. In addition, this study provides significant implications for practitioners including factory owners, managers, and policy makers who seek to implement SSM practices in GSCs. The key limitation of this study concerns generalisability due to context-specific challenges. Future research should therefore focus on a cross-country data set to understand any differences in the emerging framework for multi-tier suppliers’ SSM implementation.Item Power, empowerment and children in Dhaka's poor urban communities : understanding and measuring children's empowerment : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of International Development at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Hamilton, HarleyThis thesis is about children, power and empowerment. It seeks to both understand and measure power and empowerment from the perspectives of poor urban children living in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Children have been largely overlooked in development studies literature and although empowerment and measurement have been mainstreamed into development practice, children’s perspectives on these two essentially contested concepts are marginal. This thesis contributes to existing understandings of children’s power and empowerment, with a specific focus on poor urban children living in Dhaka. To do this, this thesis draws on two competing research paradigms, those of interpretivism and positivism respectively. I show how these two research paradigms can be brought together into a single mixed methods methodology when employed to answer distinct, but related research questions. This enabled me to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and analytical strategies: task-based visual methods employed in a creative art and storytelling workshop; a qualitative thematic analysis; indicator construction; a survey and a descriptive statistical analysis. Bringing together these two competing research paradigms allows for the in-depth, contextual knowledge that qualitative research uncovers, with the ability to use this knowledge as a basis for measurement. In this thesis, I draw on empirical evidence uncovered through my research methods and insights from post-structuralism, development sociology and the literature on the relationality of childhood to argue that power can be viewed as boundaries to action. Boundaries of power exist as social structures that demarcate fields of action, possibility and imagination and are not resources that any actor has or uses but instead exist as boundaries which constrain all actors. I explore five boundaries of power that were highlighted by my research participants: personal relationships with family and friends; access to material and financial resources; the natural environment; education and children’s work. I present 34 indicators of empowerment I created that were derived from these boundaries of power. I discuss the survey and descriptive statistical analysis I undertook to measure these indicators with a small group of poor urban children. These indicators are therefore context specific and intended to be relevant and meaningful to those who are to be affected by development. They are a tool that could be used by development practitioners to measure a baseline of the relative empowerment or disempowerment of children in Dhaka and to track and measure change over time. Drawing on both my qualitative and quantitative findings, I show that viewing power as boundaries is not to claim that all power relations are equal. Instead I show that actors are placed in differential positions within power’s boundaries and have different channels for action. I suggest, therefore, that empowerment can be reconceptualized as a temporal issue that should first seek to expand the channels for action available to actors within power’s existing boundaries, and second, to shift the formation of the boundaries themselves to provide new conditions for future agency.Item Effects of early life arsenic exposure on the respiratory system, blood pressure and renal function in children and adolescents in rural Bangladesh, Matlab : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Public Health (Epidemiology), Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2016) Khan, Md AlfazalAbstract not suppliedItem Drifting into debt? : exploring household over-indebtedness amongst salaried microborrowers in Bangladesh : a case study of Kailakuri Health Care Project : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of International Development, Massey University, Manuwatu, New Zealand(Massey University, 2017) Vickers, NadineSalaried microborrowers in Bangladesh take loans for a variety of reasons but they can fall into repayment difficulties, leading to further loan-taking and potentially household overindebtedness. This thesis uses a case study of Kailakuri Health Care Project staff to explore over-indebtedness amongst salaried microborrowers. Data was gathered from two participantgroups, namely twenty four KHCP staff and eleven microfinance lenders. Four focus groups were held. Seven staff participated in a set of household interviews and financial diaries, which tracked their income, expenditure, savings and borrowing behaviour over a one-month period. The thesis explores local meanings of over-indebtedness and compares these to academic definitions. It compares the lending terms and conditions of microfinance lenders including moneylenders, banks, credit unions, NGOs and others with outstanding loans to research participants. It also examines how borrowers perceive the advantage and disadvantages of different lenders and the strategies they use to manage multiple repayments. Finally it considers how borrowers’ decision-making influences their risk of household over-indebtedness, as well as the effect of their income, expenditure, savings and borrowing-related behaviour. The research findings show that in contrast to the literature, which provides a mainly financial analysis, research participants focused on social symptoms of over-indebtedness such as the stigma attached to lender visits, deceitful behaviour by borrowers and debt-related stress. What is also illuminated is that borrowers weigh up a number of factors aside from interest rates when deciding on which lender to approach and they tend to prioritise NGO loan repayment because of the pressure on timely installments. This can lead borrowers to fall behind on other repayments to moneylenders, banks and credit unions, leading to an increased risk of overindebtedness. Many borrowers struggle with over-indebtedness because of insufficient income, social aspirations, cultural expectations and a number of other factors. However, microfinance lenders are unlikely to reduce interest rates and fees due to financial sustainability concerns. This thesis concludes that it is crucial to look outside the lender and borrower bubble and to consider the external pressures which are creating the demand for so much credit. The Bangladeshi government and international NGO community have an important role to play.