A Review of the Energy-employment Nexus in Bangladesh: Rural-urban Electrification and Sectoral Occupation Patterns
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13052/spee1048-5236.4134Keywords:
Energy access, employment, urban, rural, BangladeshAbstract
Energy access, more specifically electricity access, is one of the prerequisites to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Around one-tenth of the global population remained without access to electricity in 2019. Bangladesh has shown substantial progress in electricity access. This paper aims at reviewing the association between electricity access and employment in the core three sectors: agriculture, industry, and service. The study finds that rural access to electricity is steeper in progress than that of urban areas; and overall access to electricity is increasing, while the urban-rural disparity in energy access is decreasing over time. The proportion of female employment in agriculture has reduced by one third during 1991–2018. Agricultural employment, in general, decreases with an increase in electricity access, which is counterintuitive. The government should consider the issue to keep the agricultural employment stable to ensure food security and the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product.
Downloads
References
Abram, S., Winthereik, B. R., and Yarrow, T. (2019). Current thinking – An
introduction. In S. Abram, T. Yarrow and B. R. Winthereik (eds.) Electri-
fying Anthropology: Exploring Electrical Practices and Infrastructures.
London, Bloomsbury, pp. 3–19.
Amin, S., Mansur, A.H., Kamal, S.M., and Groh, S. (2022). Power-
ing up a country into the middle-income club – The story of
Bangladesh. In: Springer Conference Proceedings: Decentralized Elec-
trification, Network Interconnection and Local Power Markets. Groh, S.,
Hirschhausen, C., Karplus, V. (Eds.). Springer International Publishing,
Switzerland, Forthcoming.
Awad, A. and Yossof, I. (2016). Electricity production, economic growth and
employment nexus in Sudan: A co-integration approach. International
Journal of Energy Economics and Policy 6(1).
Azimoh, C. L., Klintenberg, P., Wallin, F., Karlsson, B. and Mbohwa, C.
(2016). Electricity for Development: Mini-grid Solution for Rural Elec-
trification in South Africa. Energy Conversion and Management 110:
–277.
S. M. Rahman et al.
Bayer, P., Kennedy, R., Yang, J., and Urpelainen, J. (2020). The need for
impact evaluation in electricity access research. Energy Policy doi.org/
1016/j.enpol.2019.111099
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics [BBS]. (2015). Bangladesh Population
and Housing Census 2011. Socio-economic and demographic report,
National Report Volume 4. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Dhaka.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics [BBS]. (2018a). Labour Statistics
Bangladesh: am empirical analysis. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics,
Dhaka.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics [BBS]. (2018b). Yearbook of Agricultural
Statistics 2017. 29th Series. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Dhaka.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics [BBS]. (2019). Women and Man in
Bangladesh: Facts and Figures 2018. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics,
Dhaka. http://bbs.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/bbs.portal.gov.
bd/page/b343a8b4 956b 45ca 872f 4cf9b2f1a6e0/Women%20and%
men%20in%20Bangladesh-Facts%20and%20figures%202018.pdf
(accessed 6 September 2020).
BEZA. (2020). All Economic Zones. Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority.
Dhaka Retrieved from https://www.beza.gov.bd/all-zones/ (Accessed
September 2020).
Bouzarovski, S., Pasqualetti, M., Cast ́an Broto, V. (eds.) (2017). The Rout-
ledge Research Companion to Energy Geographies. London, Routledge.
BPDB. (2022). Annual Report 2020–21. Bangladesh Power Development
Board, Dhaka. Retrieved from https://bdcom.bpdb.gov.bd/bpdb new
/resourcefile/annualreports/annualreport 1640756525 Annual Report 2
-2021 latest.pdf (Access 9 March 2022).
Bryan, J., Evans, N., Jones, C., and Munday, M. (2017). Regional electricity
generation and employment in UK regions. Regional Studies 51(3):
–425.
Cabraal, A., Ward, W.A., Bogach, V.S., and Jain, A. (2021). Living in the
Light – The Bangladesh Solar Home System Story. International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. Washington.
Cast ́an Broto, V. and Kirshner, J. (2020). Energy access is needed to maintain
health during pandemics. Nature Energy 5: 419–421.
Cast ́an Broto, V., Baptista, I., Kirshner, J., Smith, S. and Alves, S. N. (2018).
Energy justice and sustainability transitions in Mozambique. Applied
Energy 228: 645–655.
A Review of the Energy-employment Nexus in Bangladesh 337
CDKN. (2016). Bangladesh’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribu-
tions. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Cape Town and
New Delhi. Retrieved https://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Ba
ngladesh%E2%80%99s-Intended-Nationally-Determined-Contribution
s.pdf (Accessed 26 September 2020).
Chowdhury, S.A., Aziz, S., Groh, S., Kirchhoff, H., Leal Filho, W. (2015).
Off-grid rural area electrification through solar-diesel hybrid minigrids
in Bangladesh: resource-efficient design principles in practice. Cleaner
Production. 95. pp. 194–202.
Cotton, M. D., Kirshner, J., and Salite, D. (2019). The political economy
of electricity access: Lessons from Mozambique. Energy Insight series.
Oxford Policy Management, Oxford, UK.
Dakshayini, M., & Prabhu, B. B. (2020). An effective big data and blockchain
(BD-BC) based decision support model for sustainable agriculture sys-
tem. In EAI International Conference on Big Data Innovation for
Sustainable Cognitive Computing (pp. 77–86). Springer, Cham.
Degani, M., Chalfin, B. and Cross, J. (2020). Introduction: Fuelling Capture:
Africa’s Energy Frontiers. The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
(2): 1–18.
Dhaka Tribune. (22 December 2020). Bangladesh’s largest solar power plant
connected to national grid. Dhaka Tribune. Retrieved from https://www.
dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2020/12/22/bangladesh-s-largest-solar-
power-plant-connected-to-national-grid (Accessed 23 February 2021).
Dorband, I., Jakob, M., Steckel, J. (2020). Unravelling the political economy
of coal: Insights from Vietnam. Energy Policy 147.
Dumitrescu, R., Groh, S., Philipp, D., and von Hirschhausen, C. (2020).
Swarm Electrification: From Solar Home Systems to the National
Grid and Back Again? Published in: Sustainable Energy Solutions for
Remote Areas in the Tropics. Oktoviano Gandhi, Dipti Srinivasan (Eds).
Springer International Publishing.
Dumitrescu, R., L ̈uth, A., Weibezahn, J., and Groh, S. (2022). Prosumer
Empowerment through Community Power Purchase Agreements: A
Market Design for Swarm Grids. Economics of Energy & Environmental
Policy. 11(1), 127–144.
Easterling, K. 2014. Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space.
London, Verso.
Gellert, P. K. and Ciccantell, P. S. (2020). Coal’s persistence in the capitalist
world-economy: Against teleology in energy “transition” narratives.
Sociology of Development 6(2): 194–221.
S. M. Rahman et al.
GOB. (2015). Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, Ministry of
Environment and Forests. Government of Bangladesh, Dhaka. https:
//www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/PublishedDocuments/Banglade
sh%20First/INDC 2015 of Bangladesh.pdf (Accessed 5 September
.
GOB. (2019). Bangladesh Economic Review 2019. Ministry of Finance,
Government of Bangladesh. Dhaka. https://mof.portal.gov.bd/sites/
default/files/files/mof.portal.gov.bd/page/f2d8fabb 29c1 423a 9d3
cdb500260002/Ch-02%20%28English-2019%29.pdf (Accessed 6
September 2020).
Groh S. (2014). The role of energy in development processes – The Energy
Poverty Penalty: Case study of Arequipa (Peru). Energy for Sustainable
Development. Volume 18, February 2014, pp. 83–99.
Groh S., Pachauri S., Rao N. (2016). What are we measuring? An empirical
analysis of household electricity access metrics in rural Bangladesh.
Energy for Sustainable Development. Vol. 30. pp. 21–32.
Groh, S., Z ̈urpel, C., Waris, E., and Werth, A. (2022). Analytics on Pricing
Signals in Peer-to-Peer Solar Microgrids in Bangladesh. Economics of
Energy & Environmental Policy 11(1), 2022.
Gulagi, A., Ram, M., Solomon, A. A., Khan, M., and Breyer, C. (2020). Cur-
rent energy policies and possible transition scenarios adopting renew-
able energy: A case study for Bangladesh. Renewable Energy, 155,
–920.
Hanusz, Z., Tarasinska, J., Zielinski, W. (2016). Shapiro–Wilk test with
known mean, Revstat Statistical Journal 14(1), 89–100.
Hasanuzzaman, M., Al-Amin, A. Q., Khanam, S. and Hosenuzzaman, M.
(2015). Photovoltaic Power Generation and its economic and environ-
mental future in Bangladesh. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable
Energy 7(1), https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4906910
Huber, S. and Mach, E. (2019). Policies for increased sustainable energy
access in displacement settings. Nature Energy 4, 1000–02.
International Energy Agency [IEA]. (2020). SDG7: Data and Projections:
Access to Electricity. IEA, Paris. https://www.iea.org/reports/sdg7-dat
a-and-projections (Accessed 9 March 2022).
International Renewable Energy Agency [IRENA] and International Labour
Organization [ILO]. (2021). Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual
Review 2021. Abu Dhabi, Geneva. Retrieved from https://www.iren
a.org/publications/2021/Oct/Renewable-Energy-and-Jobs-Annual-Rev
iew-2021 (Accessed 21 February 2022).
A Review of the Energy-employment Nexus in Bangladesh 339
Kamal, A., and Kamal, S.M. (2020). Bangladesh at Work: Job Creation
and Inclusive Growth in the Era of Covid-19. Centre for Research and
Information. Dhaka, Bangladesh. https://cri.org.bd/files/Bangladesh a
t work in the era of COVID-19.pdf (Accessed 22 February 2022).
Khan, J. and Arsalan, M. H. (2016). Solar power technologies for sustainable
electricity Generation – A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews 55, 414–425.
Kim, D., and Jeong, J. (2016). Electricity restructuring, greenhouse gas
emissions efficiency and employment reallocation. Energy Policy 92,
–476.
Komatsu, S., Kaneko, S. and Ghosh, P. P. (2011). Are micro benefits negli-
gible? The implications of the rapid expansion of Solar Home Systems
(SHS) in rural Bangladesh for sustainable development. Energy Policy
(7), 4022–4031.
Mondal, M.A.H., and Denich, M. (2010). Assessment of renewable energy
resources potential for electricity generation in Bangladesh. Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Vol. 14(8), 2401–2413.
Laufer, D. and Sch ̈afer, M. (2011). The implementation of Solar Home
Systems as a poverty reduction strategy—A case study in Sri Lanka.
Energy for Sustainable Development 15(3), 330–336.
Lenz, L., Munyehirwe, A., Peters, J., and Sievert, M. (2017). Does large-
scale infrastructure investment alleviate poverty? Impacts of Rwanda’s
electricity access roll-out program. World Development 89, 88–110.
Macabebe, E. Q. B., Guerrero, R. C., Domdom, A. C., Garcia, A. S., Porio, E.
E., Dumlao, S. M. G. and Perez, T. R. (2016). A Review of Community-
based Solar Home System Projects in the Philippines. In MATEC Web
of Conferences, 70, 12002. EDP Sciences.
Massey, F. J. (1951). The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for Goodness of Fit,
Journal of the American Statistical Association 46 (253), 68–78.
Mensah, J. T. (2018). Jobs! Electricity shortages and unemployment in
Africa. The World Bank. Washington DC. http://pubdocs.worldban
k.org/en/677481527998963759/66-Mensah-2018.pdf (Accessed 19
August 2020).
MOST. (2018). Bangladesh in the Nuclear World. First Concrete Pouring
Ceremony. Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Second Unit. Ministry of
Science and Technology, Dhaka.
Omoju, O. E., Oladunjoye, O. N., Olanrele, I. A., and Lawal, A. I. (2020).
Electricity Access and Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa:
Evidence from Panel Data. In The Palgrave Handbook of Agricultural
S. M. Rahman et al.
and Rural Development in Africa (pp. 89–108). Palgrave Macmillan,
Cham.
Pachauri, S. (2011). Reaching an international consensus on defining modern
energy access. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 3(4),
–240.
Pachauri, S., Brew-Hammond, A., Barnes, D. F., Bouille, D. H., Gitonga, S.,
Modi, V., . . . and Zerrifi, H. (2012). Energy access for development. In:
Global Energy Assessment: Toward a Sustainable Future. Eds. Team,
GEA Writing, pp. 1401–1458 (October 2012): Cambridge University
Press and IIASA.
Parks, L. (2016). Reinventing television in rural Zambia: Energy scarcity,
connected viewing, and cross-platform experiences in Macha. Conver-
gence 22(4): 440–460.
Pelz S, Pachauri S, Groh S (2019). A critical review of modern approaches for
multidimensional energy poverty measurement. WIREs Energy Environ.
; e304.
Perez-Sebastian, F., Steinbuks, J., F ́eres, J., and Trotter, I. (2020). Electricity
Access and Structural Transformation: Evidence from Brazil’s Electrifi-
cation. Policy Research Working Paper 9182. World Bank, Washington,
DC.
Pode, R. (2013). Financing LED solar home systems in developing countries.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 25, 596–629.
Rahman, S. M., and Ahmad, M. M. (2013). Solar Home System (SHS) in
rural Bangladesh: Ornamentation or fact of development? Energy Policy
, 348–354.
Rao, N.D., Min, J., Mastrucci, A. (2019). Energy requirements for decent
living in India, Brazil and South Africa. Nature Energy 4(12), 1025–
Riva, F., Ahlborg, H., Hartvigsson, E., Pachauri, S., and Colombo, E. (2018).
Electricity access and rural development: Review of complex socio-
economic dynamics and causal diagrams for more appropriate energy
modelling. Energy for Sustainable Development, 43, 203–223.
Rodgers, J. L. and Nicewander, W. A. (1988). Thirteen ways to look at the
correlation coefficient. The American Statistician 42, 59–66.
Sengupta, P., and Puri, R. (2020). Exploration of relationship between FDI
and GDP: A comparison between India and its neighbouring countries.
Global Business Review 21(2), 473–489.
A Review of the Energy-employment Nexus in Bangladesh 341
Sharma, V. (2019). Access for adaptation? Reviewing the linkages between
energy, disasters, and development in India. Energy Research & Social
Science 52, 10–19.
Singha, U., and Maezawa, S. (2019). Farmer Preferences in Choosing Mid-
dleman Known as Faria as Their Sales Partners in the Vegetable Supply
Chain: A Case Study from the Lalmonirhat District of Bangladesh. Jour-
nal of the Japanese Society of Agricultural Technology Management,
(2), 45–53.
The Daily Star (2020). M’singh solar power plant ready to roll. September
Retrieved from https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/news/msi
ngh-solar-power-plant-ready-roll-1966381 (Accessed 26 September
.
WNA. (2020). Nuclear Power in Bangladesh. World Nuclear Association.
Retrieved from https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/co
untry-profiles/countries-a-f/bangladesh.aspx (Accessed 26 September
.
World Bank. (2019). Social Safety Nets in Bangladesh Help Reduce Poverty
and Improve Human Capital. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.or
g/en/news/feature/2019/04/29/social-safety-nets-in-bangladesh-help-r
educe-poverty-and-improve-human-capital#::text=They%20are%20in
%20the%20form,poverty%20and%20improving%20human%20capita
l.&text=Since%20the%201970s%2C%20the%20government,nets%2
focused%20on%20vulnerable%20women. (Accessed 26 September
.
World Bank. (n.d.). The World Bank Database. Gini index (World Bank
estimate)-Bangladesh. Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/ind
icator/SI.POV.GINI?locations=BD (Accessed 26 September 2020)
https://aeeeuropeenergy.com/