Vulnerabilities to COVID-19 in Bangladesh and a Reconsideration of Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the high-risk countries of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent losses due to social and economic conditions. There is a significant possibility that economic stagnation would push a large population back into poverty. In the present study, we have reviewed the chronology and epidemiology of COVID-19 in Bangladesh and investigated the country’s vulnerabilities concerning COVID-19 impacts. We focused primarily on four areas of vulnerabilities in Bangladesh: The garment industry, urban slums, social exclusion, and pre-existing health conditions. The result implicated that the country would take time to recover its economy due to the vulnerabilities mentioned above, and many people in Bangladesh would not be able to tolerate the current situation because they do not have enough reserves to do so. We concluded that if at least some Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) had been at least partly attained, the situation would not be as dire as it is now. Based on this conclusion, we suggested a tolerance capacity to indicate how long people can survive without outside support. It is a holistic assessment rather than the indicators presently defined in each SDG, but it should be attained through a harmonized approach to SDGs.