In the United Nations Millennium Summit held in September 2000, the world leaders agrees to a historic declaration to combat poverty. The declaration demands that the world set its sights higher and aim for eight specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015.

In line with the MDGs, the Government of Bangladesh formulates a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). The strategy  aims at reducing income and non-income poverty in the country. The PRS defines Bangladesh as “one of the most vulnerable economies. It characterizes extremely high population density, low resource base and high incidence of natural disasters”. The PRS strategy addresses three key tasks face the nation:

1. Building on past achievements (the task of consolidating the past achievements).
2. Preventing slippages (the task of further strengthening the past achievements).
3. Addressing implementation (the task of addressing the new challenges that the nation confronts in the context of globalization. At the same time, new problems that arise from the present phase of domestic development).