Bangladesh cannot end the war in the Middle East. Nor can it prevent the next pandemic, commodity shock or geo-political disruption. What it can do is decide how exposed its citizens will be when the next shock arrives.
The constraint has never been a lack of opportunity. It has been risk, real and perceived. That is where development institutions can play a catalyzing role: Financing infrastructure, supporting regulatory reform and reducing risk.
The critics are right: the system is unjust. But addressing anger without repairing the economic wiring that produces it has only ever muted the noise. We are not risking a tinderbox. We are responsible for the one we are already living in.
