Poverty and its Risk Factors for the Northeastern Wetland Region of Bangladesh

One of the main challenges facing developing countries is poverty, which is more complicated in rural areas like the wetland part of Bangladesh. That is why development policies based on national-level research occasionally fall short of resolving poverty in rural areas. So, the current study’s objectives are to estimate poverty and determine its risk factors for the northeastern wetland region of Bangladesh. This study used data from 2340 households collected by a research project sponsored by the GARE Program, Ministry of Education, GoB. The Cost of Basic Needs (CBN) method and logistic regression were applied to estimate poverty and to extract the potential risk factors, respectively. This study has also performed a bivariate analysis to identify the covariates for the multivariate model. According to the CBN method, 25% of the households lie below the lower poverty line (LPL) and 55% below the upper poverty line (UPL). The findings of the Binary Multiple Logistic Regression (BMLR) model show that geographical region, household size, religion, occupation, micro-credit status, NGO membership, per capita income, agricultural land, electricity connection in the household, and livestock ownership are the significant (p<0.05) risk factors of poverty based on LPL. On the other hand, geographical regions, household size, age, religion, micro-credit status, per capita income, agricultural land, and electricity connection in the household are the significant (p<0.05) risk factors of poverty based on UPL. The factors found in this study may be helpful in the development of strategies and policies aimed at reducing poverty among Bangladesh’s wetland populations.