The Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) launched the ENRICH (Enhancing Resources and Increasing Capacities of Poor Households towards Elimination of their Poverty) program as a flagship model for holistic poverty alleviation. This paper offers a critical triangulation, arguing that ENRICH’s design is fundamentally disillusioning and built on a philosophy that is not genuinely transformative for the poor. Utilizing a novel mixed-methods approach—integrating a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) of 2,443 households, and a Dynamic Game Theory analysis—this study deconstructs the program’s core failures. The CGE model reveals that ENRICH operates within a confined PKSF ecosystem, failing to generate significant positive spillovers into the broader economy and instead creating a “micro-enterprise trap” that depresses sectoral profits. The PLS-SEM analysis uncovers that institutional governance failures within PKSF itself perpetuate a high-risk environment, undermining the financial sustainability necessary for long-term impact. Dynamic Game Theory demonstrates the program’s failure to alter the strategic calculus of the poor, as its design is inadequate to overcome deep-seated social obligations or break the low-level equilibrium trap, where modest gains are quickly neutralized by systemic constraints and perverse incentives. The study concludes that ENRICH, constrained by its institutional weaknesses and monetary-centric approach, functions more as a palliative system for poverty rather than a cure, ultimately reinforcing the very structures of dependency and precarious entrepreneurship it claims to dismantle.
Keywords: Poverty Alleviation, Microfinance, Program Evaluation, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE), PLS-SEM, Dynamic Game Theory, Institutional Governance, Bangladesh, ENRICH Program.
Citation: Ali, M. M. (2026). Responsible Business Stakeholder Engagement and Policy and Sustainability : Development or Disillusionment? A Critical Evaluation of PKSF’s ENRICH Program in Bangladesh.J Business & Eco Insights.,2(1):1-16.