ABSTRACT
Despite socio-economic improvements across many parts of rural Bangladesh, brought about by the improvement of physical infrastructure, rural development and poverty-alleviation programmes, there are still many poor people with severe food insecurity. The livelihoods of these people are constrained by many natural and unnatural factors that influence access to education, skills training, health facilities and the labour market, thus determining what type of work they can do and their wages. Poor access to these things reduces the options that the chronically poor have to generate income. As a result, low income, few assets, lack of education, reduced calorie intake, dearth of employment opportunities have all prevented them from improving their livelihoods.
