A well‐being model of small‐scale microenterprise development to alleviate poverty: A case study of Bangladesh village

Abstract

Purpose

The paper's purpose is to present and empirically validate a learning model of participatory grassroots development among the poor and needy in Bangladesh.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach used is conceptual modeling and its empirical validation for a case study of poor women's sewing project in an interior village of Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Findings

A perpetual charity‐fund with endogenous values and productive transformation of the needy at the grassroots can prove to be an effective approach to socioeconomic development.

Research limitations/implications

The empirical validation can be enhanced with more data being generated with experience in the women's sewing project in the near future.

Practical implications

This is a policy‐oriented paper with practical ways and means‐test for implementation in development planning.

Originality/value

A formal modeling of grassroots development premised on human resource development and perpetual charity‐fund for financing and their empirical validation is presented. Such an approach is not presently found in the hierarchical models of development planning. It should be included for making development meaningful as the grassroots. Particular reference is made here to Bangladesh development planning.

Citation

Alam Choudhury, M., Shahadat Hossain, M. and Solaiman, M. (2008), "A well‐being model of small‐scale microenterprise development to alleviate poverty: A case study of Bangladesh village", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 28 No. 11/12, pp. 485-501. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443330810915206