Increasing resources in the name of the poor is a wasteful alternative unless other measures are in place to correct the misallocation of the fund, he said at a 'Dialogue: Focus on pro-poor health strategies'.

All development efforts are targeted for the poor, but unfortunately much of the resources don't reach them, the minister said.

The two-day dialogue was jointly organised by the government, United Nations Population Fund and the World Bank at the National Economic Council auditorium of the planning commission.

At the opening session, World Bank Country Director Christine Wallich drew attention on accountability in the health sector. "Accountability is a complex issue that includes delegation, finance, performance, information and enforcement of rules and regulations."

Praising the government's draft action plan for the reforms in the health sector, Wallich said the plan aims at strengthening the link between policy-makers and the poor by devising mechanism to identify the poor and to target resources to them.

She also said the plan attempts to strengthen the line of accountability between the poor and the service providers through decentralisation of the authority and autonomy of the hospitals.

Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of UNFPA, said, "With total fertility rate having plateued and a large proportion of population being young often termed as 'population momentum', it is not possible to reach goals of replacement level rate by 2005 and stabilise population at 211 million."

Suneeta warned, "If replacement fertility is delayed by another 10 years to 2015, the population would stabilise after 25 years at 250 million. With 39 million more people, each excess birth is estimated to cost US $ 600."

Health Minister Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Secretary of Economic Relations Division Mirza Tassaduq Hussain Beg and Health Secretary AFM Sarwar Kamal also addressed the inaugural session.

Davidson Gwatkin of the World Bank, Dr Richard Leete of UNFPA and Professor Sushil Ranjan Howlader, director, institute of health economics, Dhaka University, presented papers in the technical session.