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Increasing forcibly displaced populations worldwide are adversely affecting the poorest host communities' livelihoods. Livelihood programmes can reduce this tension by addressing host communities' skills and capital constraints. In this paper, we examine the effect of a customised version of BRAC's Ultra‐Poor Graduation (UPG) programme on the livelihoods of the host communities of Rohingya refugees. We find that the programme increases labour supply in self‐employment of working‐age men and women, household income, food expenditure and productive asset. Further, we find some weak evidence that the programme decreases the tension between hosts and Rohingya refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use change is a pressing concern for the livelihoods of people in tropical developing countries. Changes in land use from swidden (shifting cultivation) agriculture to smallholder tree‐dominated areas producing timber, fruits and cash crops can result in changing livelihood outcomes for rural communities. This paper examines land use patterns of rural households and the association with food production and income across three different zones of various forest proximity across a landscape gradient (remote, intermediate and on‐road) in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh. We conducted in‐depth semi‐structured surveys of households (175–300) and farm owners (30) to collect information on people's perceptions of land use change, present land use patterns and contributions to food production and income. Our research found that more than half of the surveyed households experienced a decline in the land available for food production over the past 30 years. The land use patterns revealed decreasing crop lands (mainly swidden shifting cultivation/land rotation farms) and an increase in areas of planted trees within this landscape. However, household use of the reduced crop land has not affected food production in the on‐road zone, whereas the diversity of food sources has declined. People living in more remote areas engaged in swidden farming and used larger areas of crop and fallow lands, fruit orchard and accessed natural forest lands that provide a diverse reservoir of food sources. The current land uses contribute to variations in annual household income across zones, with remote dwelling people earning less to those living closer to urban areas in the intermediate and on‐road zones. In summary, this transition of land uses over three decades and changes in income and food availability cannot be generalised across the region because of zone specific differences. We recommend a broader and context‐reliant landscape management approach in consideration of the diversity of forest and tree benefits for the livelihoods of people in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uncovers some important stylised facts about the structural changes in the rural nonfarm (RNF) economy in Bangladesh for the period 2000–2016 and identifies some broad determinants. Our work uses household‐level, secondary sources such as Household Income and Expenditure Survey, Labour Force Survey and Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey. We find that the positive relationship between landownership and rural income has become weaker in recent years, indicating the increasing role of nonland inputs in generating rural income. The share of RNF income in total rural income has increased substantially over the years. The increase in nonfarm income is largely driven by the nonfarm wage income of the richer households, indicating adverse distributional consequences. There are also indications for specialisation in nonfarm activities—the share of income from the 'mixed' sources of farm and nonfarm has decreased, and the 'only nonfarm' source has increased. Households tend to move away from agriculture and specialise in RNF occupations as the education level increases. Our results offer important insights into rural development strategies and contribute to the broader questions of the development discourse on the structural changes in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has brought about significant changes to the the learning process, prompted by the shift away from traditional physical classrooms to virtual ones. With unequal access to remote learning technologies, there are concerns regarding undergraduate students' academic progress. A primary survey was conducted to create a composite learning score to quantify learning losses. A significantly higher learning loss is visible among students belonging to families facing income losses during the pandemic, and public university students. We find that compared to India, students of Bangladesh and Pakistan are affected more severely in terms of learning losses. The article also measures the extent of psychological distress and academic demotivation related to online learning. We find that the same groups of students face higher psychological distress and academic demotivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]