Transcript Social Protection in Bangladesh

Social Protection in Bangladesh:
Experience and barriers to
expansion
Presentation
by
Dr. Muhammad G. Sarwar
Email: [email protected]
Civil Service College, Dhaka
27 June 2011
Contents of Presentation
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Social Protection: historical context
Social Protection: Bangladesh Context
Social Protection in Bangladesh: graduation process
Social Protection Policies and Strategies in Bangladesh
Social Protection Programs
Limitations of Social Protection Policies and programs
Barriers to Extension of Social Protection in Bangladesh
Affordability of Social Protection: concluding remarks
Social Protection: historical context
• The idea of Social protection came to highlight in
western rich countries after the Great depression in
1930s and the Second World War.
• In developing countries, social protection has been
evolved as a post-colonial policy measure.
• Universal Human right Article 22:‘Everyone as a
member of society, has the right to social security…..’
• Article 25: ‘… the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old
age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond
his control’.
Social Protection Defined
• ILO defines social protection broadly covering all
safeguards and guarantees against loss of income due
to illness, old age, unemployment, or other hardship
(ILO Website).
• World Bank defines social protection narrowly as public
interventions oriented to human capital and social risk
management to help individuals, households and
communities better manage risk, and provide support
to incapacitated poor (World Bank 1999, 2000).
• Bangladesh Government social protection policy is
close to World Bank definition of social protection.
Social Protection: Bangladesh Context
• Pervasive poverty in early 1970s immediately
after independence (around 75% of its
population was below poverty line)
• Social protection issues came out as a prominent
agenda while framing the state constitution of
Bangladesh
• Bangladesh Constitution, Part II, Articles 15:
‘It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the
State to attain, through planned economic
growth, a constant increase of productive forces
and a steady improvement in the material and
cultural standard of living of the people, with a
view to securing its citizens -
Social Protection: Bangladesh Context
(contd.)
• (a) the provision of the basic necessities of life,
including food, clothing, shelter, education and medical
care;
• (b) the right to work, that is the right to guaranteed
employment at a reasonable wage having regard to the
quantity and quality of work;
• © the right to reasonable rest, recreation and leisure;
and
• (d) the right to social security, that is to say, to public
assistance in cases of undeserved want arising from
unemployment, illness or disablement, or widowhood,
or orphan hood or in old age, or in other such cases’.
Social Protection in Bangladesh:
graduation process
• Early 1970s: the state was not in a position to provide social
protection to its citizen due to the collapse of macroeconomic management.
• NGOs like BRAC, Gonashasta, etc. grew up with assistance
from external sources to delivery some kind of social
protection to the hard core poor.
• Bangladesh economy deteriorated further by 1973 due to
Arab-Israel war that led to global oil price rise that
coincided with the devastating flood in 1973 causing
famine in Bangladesh in 1974.
• Social protection intervention like Grameen Bank’s microcredit and ‘Food for Work’ programme was introduced by
the Government in that backdrop to protect the hungry
people.
Social Protection in Bangladesh:
graduation process (contd.)
• Bangladesh experienced devastating floods again in 1988 and 1989. But,
due to inadequate rural infrastructure it faced hurdles in emergency
delivery.
• Need for emergency delivery paved the way for formation of LGED (Local
Government and Engineering Department) in 1989 to expand the network
of rural road infrastructure. That contributed immensely in rural
development and poverty reduction during the 1990’s – by facilitating
service delivery in remote areas.
• After the 1998 flood in Bangladesh another social protection intervention
VGF/VGD (Vulnerable Group Feeding/ Vulnerable Group Development)
were introduced by the Government.
• In 2007/2008, the world economy experienced oil and food price shocks
that led to global financial crisis. Food inflation shoot up more then 40
percent in Bangladesh in 2008 resulting increasing hunger and poverty. To
tackle the deteriorating hunger and poverty situation Care Taker
Government introduced the 100 days guaranteed employment program.
Social Protection Policies and
Strategies in Bangladesh
• Social protection policies, strategies and
programs in Bangladesh are centered on
poverty reduction policies, strategies and
programs (NSAPR II, 2009-11), and Sixth Five
Year Plan (2011-15).
• Social Protection Policies and Strategies and
Programs are implemented through ADPs
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Social Protection Policies and
Strategies in Bangladesh (contd.)
• Social Protection Focus Areas:
– social safety net programmes;
– food security;
– disaster management;
– micro-credit and
– rural non-farm activities.
Social Safety Net Programs
Social safety net is defined operationally to
include all kinds of cash and kind transfers to
the poor, all welfare activities, unemployment
benefits for retrenched workers, subsidized
health care, shelters for the homeless, and
pension benefits, which prevent individuals
from falling into poverty.
Social Safety Net Programs (contd.)
Major goals of SSNPs are:
– safety net interventions for the protection of poor
people and the prevention of chronic poverty as
well as transient poverty;
– encourage NGOs, CBOs and the private sector to
augment their role and contributions to expand
the social safety net; and
– increase coverage through increased budgetary
allocation each year.
Food Security
• Food Security policies focus on:
– ensure adequate and stable supply of safe and
nutritious food;
– enhance the purchasing power of the people for
increased access to food; and
– ensure adequate nutrition for all, especially
women, children and persons with disabilities.
Food Security (contd.)
• Food Security programs include:
– Open Market Sales (OMS);
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–
–
–
–
–
–
FFW programme;
VGD programme;
VGF programme;
Test Relief (TR);
Gratuitous Relief (GR);
Food aid to CHT area people;
Food subsidy; and
Employment in char areas.
Disaster Management
• Disaster Management (DM) is prevention and protection of
lives and properties from any kind of hazards with priority
given to disaster risk management along with mitigation.
• Strategies for Disaster Management will focus on:
– collective action of public sector, NGOs and community
organizations to reduce the risk of disasters in the country,
– increase the mitigation capacity of the community and
NGOs,
– promoting optimum coordination and best utilization of
resources along with ensuring community participation,
and
– undertaking measures for dealing with disasters such as
Tsunami and earthquake.
Disaster Management (contd.)
• Disaster Management will include:
– improving the cyclone signal system to make it clear to common people
and improving flood forecasting to be able to make forecasts 6-7 days
ahead instead of 3-4 days as currently made;
– strengthening coordination among the government agencies, NGOs and
civil society institutions and coordination and management at grassroots
level;
– creation of a disaster relief fund to support victims of natural disasters; (iv)
developing insurance system to cover disaster-related losses of property;
– avoiding overlap in relief distribution and rehabilitation initiatives,
– providing adequate health facilities for the disaster victims, quick
transportation of the affected people and instant treatment of the injured
people, and
– improving capacity for adequate and quick response to emerging and
potential disaster like sea-level rise, bird flu, etc.
Microcredit
Challenges with regard to microcredit are:
– prevalence of high interest rates ,
– vicious cycle of microcredit - the poor are borrowing from one
microcredit organization to repay another;
– microcredit programs have not been very successful in
including the hardcore poor;
– rate of graduation to above the poverty line among the
microcredit borrowers is low, indicating persistent
dependency on microcredit;
– profitability of micro enterprises is small and often is not
sustainable on a long-term basis because of saturation of
markets for products that are traditionally produced by
microcredit borrowers.
Rural Non-Farm Activities
Objective for rural non-farm activities (RNFA) is
to foster effective poverty reduction activities
for women in particular. RNFA strategies focus
on two broad areas:
– improving the rural investment climate; and
– supporting institutional framework.
Social Protection Programs/Projects
• Social Protection programs are being financed
from both revenue and development budget
(Annual Development Program). These social
protection programs are grouped as:
– Cash transfer,
– Food Assistance, and
– Social Empowerment programmes.
Social Protection Programs/Projects (contd.)
70 + programs / projects are being implemented by different
ministries viz.
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Ministry of Food and Disaster Management,
Ministry of Social Welfare,
Ministry of Women and Children Affairs,
Ministry of Agriculture,
Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock,
Ministry of Finance,
Ministry of Rural Development and Cooperatives,
Ministry of Primary and Mass Education,
Ministry of Education,
Ministry of Health and Family Planning,
Ministry of Environment and Forest,
Ministry of Youth and Sports,
Liberation War Affairs Ministry,
Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Ministry, and
Ministry of Commerce.
Cash Transfer Programs, FY 2010
Sl.
1
2
Programs
(Ministry)
Old age allowance (MoSW)
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Allowance for widowed, deserted & destitute
Women (MoWCA)
Allowance for financially insolvent disabled
(MoSW)
Maternity allowance for poor lactating mothers
(MoWCA)
Honorarium for insolvent & injured freedom
fighters (MoFWA)
Grants for residents in Govt. orphanages & other
institutions ( MoSW)
Grants for students in non-govt. orphanages
(MoSW)
General Relief Activities (MoFDM)
9
Block allocation for disaster management
3
4
5
6
7
Coverage
Budget
ml person/m
ml Taka
2.25
8100.00
0.92
3312.00
0.26
936.00
0.08
336.00
0.14
2814.00
0.02
233.90
0.09
433.2
0.05
332.0
1000.0
Cash Transfer Programs, FY 2010 (contd.)
Sl.
Programs
(Ministry)
10
Non-Bengali rehabilitation program (MoFDM)
11
Coverage
ml person/m
Budget
ml Taka
0.01
151.0
Allowance for distressed cultural personalities (MoCA)
0.001
8.00
12
Allowance for CHT beneficiaries
0.054
15.00
13
Pension for retired govt. employees
0.325
35323.30
14
Stipend for disabled students
& Grants for school for disables (MoSW)
0.028
98.00
15
Housing Support (MoFDM)
0.01
50.00
16
Agricultural rehabilitation (MoA)
2.75
550.0
Food Assistance programs, FY 2010
Sl.
Programs
(Ministry)
17
Subsidy on OMS (MoFDM)
18
Coverage
ml person/m
Budget
ml Taka
30.00
12000.00
VGD (Vulnerable Group Development)
8.83
6580.70
19
Test Relief Food (MoFDM)
3.33
9931.90
20
Gratuitous Relief –Food (MoFDM)
6.4
1640.90
21
Food Assistance for CHT
0.63
1891.60
3.13
9388.20
36.70
14102.30
22 Food for Work (FfW)
23
VGF (Vulnerable Group Feeding)
Micro-Credit Programs
Sl.
Programs
(Ministry)
Coverage
ml person/m
24
Fund for FKSF
25
Social Development Foundation
26
NGO Foundation
27
Self-employment
Freedom Fighters
6.5
Budget
ml Taka
2000.00
2950.00
200.00
credit
for
.01
100.00
Social Empowerment program through
ADP, FY 2010
Sl.
Programs
(Ministry)
28 Stipend for primary students
Coverage
ml person/m
Budget
ml Taka
5.5
4875.20
29 School feeding program
0.60
342.60
30 Stipend for drop-out students
0.50
928.90
31 Char livelihood
0.25
936.00
32 Housing
0.04
935.50
2.8
3390.0
0.19
700.0
0.176
1730.0
33 Stipend for secondary & higher
secondary students
34 Maternal health voucher scheme
(MoHFW)
35 National Nutrition Program
Social Empowerment program through
ADP, FY 2010 (contd.)
Sl.
Programs
(Ministry)
36 Protection of Children at risk
Coverage
ml person/m
Budget
ml Taka
0.024
293.70
37 Empowerment of the poor
2.10
578.30
38 Basic education for urban working
children
39 Participatory Rural Development
0.32
828.40
0.01
196.50
40 Rural employment for creating public
assets
41 Rehabilitation for climate refugees
0.024
756.00
0.05
913.50
Limitations of Social Protection Policies
and Programs
• Low coverage: Only fractions (less then 10 percent of
the poor) of those who need social protection are covered
and reach less then 5 million people (WB 2006).
• Inappropriate targeting: overlapping and inclusion
of ineligible persons in Safety Net Program is common
• Leakage: leakage is more prevalent in in-kind programs
than in cash programs
Barriers to Extension of Social Protection in
Bangladesh
• Bangladesh needs a comprehensive universal social protection
for its hard core poor citizens who are the bottom 20 percent of
its population.
• Major barriers to prepare a universal social protection in
Bangladesh are:
– negative elite perception about Universal Minimum Social
Protection for the hard core poor, especially among the
policy makers in the Finance Ministry; and
– limited capacity of the fiscal institutions in generating
required resources and to administer Social Protection
programs.
Affordability of Social Protection:
concluding remarks
• A minimum universal social protection would
generate faster economic growth and strengthen
market economy by expanding domestic markets
through injecting cash in the local economy
• Bangladesh economy has graduated to a stage when
it can afford a minimum social protection for its hard
core poor. Bangladesh currently spends around 4.5
percent of its GDP for social protection programs (2.5
percent of its GDP on Social Safety Net Programs,
and another around 2.0 percent of GDP for primary
health care and education).
Affordability of Social Protection:
concluding remarks (contd.)
• If Bangladesh could increase social protection
spending to another 1.5 percent of GDP, it can
provide universal minimum social protection
to its hard core poor.
• This additional spending for social protection
would be possible by reprioritizing existing
public spending, fiscal effort to generate
additional domestic resources and with some
additional assistance from the development
partners.
Thanks