Social safety nets
Even though Bangladesh is on its way to become a middle income country (MIC), nearly a third of its population lives below the poverty line, making social safety net programmes an integral part of its economic development. Yet, the existing funds allocated to about one hundred plus programmes have turned out to be inadequate to cushion the poor against poverty. Bangladesh's allocation in its social safety nets is 2.2 percent of the GDP, which is paltry compared to other MICs. The problem was highlighted last Sunday at a discussion organised by a leading Bangladeshi daily on social protection strategy and budget.
To make matters even more grievous, half the state support does not even reach its intended recipient because of pervasive corruption, selection of ineligible beneficiaries and other misuse of funds. On top of it all, over a quarter of the allocation is spent to provide pension for government employees! Also, the schemes are not well coordinated and suffer from lack of transparency and accountability.
We believe that the government should prepare a detailed database of the number of people living below the poverty line, which will help the stakeholders involved in understanding the needs of different target groups and strategise result-orientated plans. Improved management of the schemes, along with an efficient use of resources and plugging the loopholes in the distribution process is crucial in making the social safety nets more effective. It is also important to strengthen the monitoring and supervision system relating to the implementation process to make the schemes more accountable.
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