The “three-zero world” is already a well-known topic in today’s world. In the context of Bangladesh, it seems entirely appropriate to consider education management as a secondary and more relevant factor in the implementation of this strategy. The richness of our human resources is multidimensional. Appropriate management of education is the need of the moment to increase their innovative skills in terms of technical and engineering standards for the use of these resources at home and abroad. The practical reality of this declaration will play a positive role in building a “Bangladesh with three zeros”.
In 2017, Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, in his acclaimed book “A World of Three Zeros”, presented the idea of reducing the three major crises of “poverty, unemployment and carbon emissions” to zero, hailed as the “World of Three Zeros”. According to Dr. Yunus, “the current capitalist economy leads to the concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich, which further deprives the poor”.
DrYunus felt that it was not possible to eliminate poverty within the conventional economic system. He therefore advised the younger generation to become entrepreneurs rather than engage in the slavery known as jobs, so that young entrepreneurs could overcome economic inequality, solve the problems of environmental pollution and unemployment, and ensure environmental protection and sustainable development through the appropriate use of technology.
A new context has been created to implement the ‘three zeros’ theory at the state level to reduce poverty, unemployment, wealth inequality and carbon emissions in Bangladesh, and the country can be developed as a prototype or model state under the name ‘Three-Zero Bangladesh’. In this case, it is considered more reasonable and realistic to use the term ‘three zeros’ as a ‘metaphor’ rather than literally.
Bangladesh is the eighth most populous country in the world, and a country with great potential for youth. Despite its limitations, Bangladesh is the most modern and promising country in South Asia. In addition to a large working population, it has fertile alluvial soil, river water resources and all the ingredients of a green economy in the Bay of Bengal, making it a naturally rich and geopolitically important country. Bangladesh is currently in the peak labour force period of the 100-year cycle (2001-2100), which is around 2.5 million people per year. In 2024, the total working population was 11.4 million and by 2030, 12 million. The demographic dividend period is the best time to transform effective human resources. The world’s developed and rapidly developing countries have ensured sustainable development by improving the skills of the workforce. If this country’s huge workforce can be developed to become morally upright, able to work and technologically proficient, then the country can soon emerge as a model of a strong and prosperous state in South Asia and the world.
The demographic trap (the next stage of the demographic dividend) has become evident in developed countries, particularly in the West. Huge employment opportunities have been created in these countries. According to US-based training institute Netcom Learning, a total of 10 million IT professionals are expected to be employed at a rate of one million per year over the next ten years in North America alone. Cloud-based outsourcing also offers endless possibilities. The German government has made it easier for foreigners to enter its labour market. The Japanese government fears that its ethnic identity will disappear if the demographic crisis continues. Demand for Bangladeshi workers in five specific professions in Japan is increasing. Middle Eastern countries, where Bangladeshis constitute the largest employment market, have announced the recruitment of a technologically skilled workforce in all professions by 2030. There is also huge potential for internal employment. Education, training and skills development can be key tools in unlocking this potential.
Skills development alone can generate $100 billion a year in foreign exchange by sending one million workers into the global labour market each year over the next ten years. Bangladesh can be an important destination for skilled labour in the global labour market and can become a hub for multi-faceted development through technology exchange.
There is a direct relationship between skills development and a country’s socio-economic development. In the Global Competitiveness and Development Index, a country’s development is measured by the ability of its skilled workforce to meet the demands of that country’s labour market. Worryingly, the low level of skills and productivity of the workforce working in various sectors in Bangladesh has become the main obstacle to economic development and growth.
The low efficiency and low productivity of the workforce working in the 13 designated sectors of the economy have proved to be a major challenge to the country’s development and growth. While the country’s educated unemployment rate is 47%, the second highest in South Asia (after Afghanistan), around 2.6 million Indians and 500,000 Sri Lankans work in the Bangladesh labour market, a clear indication of the skills shortage in the workforce. Therefore, to ensure economic growth and sustainable development of the country, skill development and employment of the 12 crore (120 million) working population of the country needs to be ensured by 2030. In post-independence Bangladesh, various models were adopted for socio-economic development, but no integrated plan was put in place for manpower development. National Skill Policy Consultative Committee’ was constituted, and National Skill Development Policy-2011 was approved by concerned stakeholders, various Ministries, Organisations and Departments.
A labor market database has not been developed, there has been no visible progress in partnership activities with employment creation or training institutions even though the Industry Skills Council has been formed. Consequently, a fundamental reform of skills development programmes has become imperative. Legal, institutional and programmatic reforms are needed in this sector, in coordination with skills experts.
Otherwise, the country’s skills development and economic risk, as well as sustainable socio-economic development, are likely to face major difficulties and disasters. In 53 years, when the country’s skill development system has become lifeless and aimless, when the education system has failed to meet the needs of society and the state, when 40 million young people in the country live under the curse of unemployment, when 0.25 million new labour forces wander the world risking their lives every year in search of work, the question arises.
Poverty, unemployment and carbon emissions are global problems. A World with 3 Zeros explores the ability of social entrepreneurship to tackle these problems and reduce them to zero, to highlight the work of this new type of enterprise. A concept specifically designed to respond to social and environmental problems with entrepreneurs who joyfully aim for impact rather than profit maximisation, with solutions that can be shared or adopted elsewhere in the world for the common good.
Shahidul Alam Swapan is a Geneva Switzerland based private banking financial crime compliance expert, columnist and poet.