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Govt must revamp social welfare plans

Economist suggests at launch of study on safety net programme

Star Business Report
The government must revise its strategy to revamp social protection programmes, a study suggested yesterday.
It needs to strengthen monitoring to stop leaks of social safety funds and make long-term plans, according to the study, jointly carried out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC).
“The core element of scaling up the strategy is a two-track approach," said Hossain Zillur Rahman, chairman of PPRC.
He suggested consolidation of
scalable models and innovations in benefit packages.
“The database on the extreme poor needs to be upgraded, while poverty micro-mapping is also important to widen the social safety net programme," said Rahman at the launch of the proposed action plan for development of the National Social Protection Strategy at the NEC Auditorium in Dhaka.
PPRC has undertaken a comprehensive study of social safety nets in Bangladesh with UNDP's support, and unveiled the second report yesterday.
The study emphasised policy challenges and found the gov-
ernment to have achieved some major successes in some areas.
"We tried to review the different issues concerning the safety net programme, and take insights from the targeted beneficiary groups across the country,” Rahman said.
Rahman suggested the government focus more on nutrition, healthcare expenditure and urban poverty in the existing programme.
In addition, the government needs to strengthen its monitoring to prevent fund leaks, such as informal entry fees particularly in programmes of higher value and longer duration, and 'ghost
workers' or fraudulent master rolls in public work programmes, he added.
The government will be able to stop 16 percent of fund leaks if it starts better monitoring, Rahman said.
The study showed that the government's social protection programmes achieved some major successes in food security and extreme poverty battle.
The study suggested adequate resource mobilisation to get a maximum outcome out of the programme.
Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, cabinet secretary, stressed the need to ensure
the quality of these safety net programmes, so the beneficiaries were able to achieve a qualitative change in their lives.
At present, the government has allocated Tk 22,600 crore for social safety net programmes and subsidies in the national budget of 2011-12. The government has around 84 such programmes, and is spending 2.5 percent of the country's total GDP on them.
The government is set to design a 'national social protection strategy' by December, and an action plan to reshape the existing strategies, with the help ofUNDP and PPRC.