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Development Letters
A journal by Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID)
Development Letters (ISSN: 3079-7934) is a periodical that aims to promote ideas with important policy and practical implications for a developing country like Bangladesh. This publication provides a platform to introduce thought-provoking ideas on broad development issues through short and concise articles that are comprehensible to policymakers and development practitioners.
Volumes and issues
Volume 6 (2025)About the Issue:
The second issue of Volume 6 of Development Letters, published in June 2025, comprises 10 articles on various socio-economic issues and realities of Bangladesh. These include, but are not limited to, the relationship between indirect taxation and income inequality, LDC graduation’s impact on Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical exports, exploratory approach of using AI-driven credit scoring for improving financial inclusion, determinants of rural vs. urban poverty and social protection enrolment, and usage of energy consumption data to measure the size of Bangladesh’s economy.
10 articles in this issue:
Development Letters
A journal by Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID)
The March 2025 issue of Development Letters comprises 10 articles on various socio-economic issues and realities of Bangladesh. These include but is not limited to the impact of inflation on poverty, nature of structural transformation of Bangladesh’s economy, insights about the quality adjusted yet lower price received by Bangladesh’s exports, pertinent issues related to the dry-ports of Bangladesh such as demand for them and adoption of cargo tracking systems, and insights about social protection such as inflation adjusting the benefit levels and adequacy of Old-Age-Allowance.
Development Letters
A periodical by Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) with the support from The Asia Foundation
The June 2024 issue of Development Letters comprises of nine articles that offer practical insights into the challenges and priority sectors for stablishing macroeconomic stability and addressing the ongoing banking sector as well as forex reserve crises in Bangladesh, along with a few topics on the educational, RMG, and social protection sectors of the country.
Development Letters
A periodical by Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) with the support from The Asia Foundation
The September 2022 issue of Development Letters comprises nine articles that include, amongst others, some practical ideas for understanding the middle-income trap, comprehending Bangladesh's response to the global economic crisis, addressing LDC graduation and economic partnership with the EU, investing in children, comprehending the impact of cross-border dataflow restrictions on digital services exports, amongst others.
Development Letters
A periodical by Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) with the support from The Asia Foundation
The July-August 2022 issue of Development Letters comprises nine articles that include, amongst others, some practical ideas for boosting exports of information and communication technology services, making the most of market access in China, improving water security in secondary cities (with a focus on Monga as a case study), addressing budgetary need of marginalized population, amongst others.
The April-June 2022 issue of Development Letters comprises nine articles that include, amongst others, some practical ideas for improving the condition of RMG workers through social protection system, strengthening education services in the coastal areas, utilising research-based data for policy localization, addressing issues beyond amount allocation in education budget 2022-2023, boosting resilience of vulnerable communities through floating WASH centres.
The July-September 2021 issue of Development Letters contains 10 articles that include, amongst others, some practical ideas on tackling vaccine hesitancy, curbing single-use plastic pollution, measuring economic progress through experiential indicators, utilising artificial intelligence for national budget, and potential impact of tariff liberalisation under free trade agreement (FTA) situations.
The April-June 2021 issue of Development Letters contains 10 articles that include, amongst others, several pragmatic ideas on ensuring distributive justice through the national budget, utilising sustainable finance for green growth, alternative strategies to COVID-19 lockdown measures, health reform in the aftermath of the pandemic, attracting foreign direct investment for export diversification and smooth LDC graduation, and addressing the mental health impacts on healthcare workers.
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The January-March 2021 issue of Development Letters contains 10 articles that include, amongst others, some practical ideas on COVID-19 vaccine supplies, preparation for LDC graduation, localisation strategy to implement sustainable development goals, and considering an alternative fiscal year timeframe to make the implementation of national budgets more effective.
The October 2020 issue of Development Letters comprises twelve articles. The contributors share various ideas to deal with the unfavourable circumstances triggered by the COVID-19 crisis in Bangladesh. Topics include green recovery from the pandemic, impact assessment of COVID-19 through a modelling approach, rethinking district-level health system planning, improving access to finance for women entrepreneurs, managing educational fallout of COVID-19, strengthening the parliament’s role in the budgetary process, rawhide management and environmental governance in the leather industry, onion price stabilization measures, economic growth forecast issues and welfare concerns of housemaids.