A well‐being model of small‐scale microenterprise development to alleviate poverty

Abstract

PurposeThe 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/approachThe 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.FindingsA 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/implicationsThe empirical validation can be enhanced with more data being generated with experience in the women's sewing project in the near future.Practical implicationsThis is a policy‐oriented paper with practical ways and means‐test for implementation in development planning.Originality/valueA 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.