Governance of Social Safety Net Programs, Responding to Emergencies in Bangladesh

Abstract

Social Safety Net Programs (SSNP) in any given setting have been in place to realize twin objective of protecting vulnerable citizens from falling to poverty beyond a certain level through redistribution and coping with natural calamities. In Bangladesh SSNPs are the services the successive governments have been delivering for decades in different forms. These SSNPs are of different types including Cash grants, food supplies and other forms of targeted benefits. These SSNPs are usually sponsored by different line ministries through their nation building departments at sub-national level. However, Union Parishads, the lowest tier of local government bodies in Bangladesh are made responsible for making these distribute to the target beneficiaries by making list according to the SSNP specific selection criteria. Needless to say, in Bangladesh long-term SSNPs are being delivered by a range of ministries, including the Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, and Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs. The SSNPs of emergency type are being delivered by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and some of the SSNPs that involve food transfers are usually led by the Ministry of Food. For governance and coordination, the GOB under its National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) has introduced a cluster approach across the implementing ministries. The five thematic clusters are - social allowance, food security and disaster assistance, social insurance, labor/livelihood interventions, and human development and social empowerment. The Cabinet Secretary headed Central Management Committee, an inter-ministerial body responsible for overseeing functions of these clusters who are supposed to meet quarterly. Besides the ministry initiatives, the PM's cash support scheme during COVID pandemic was conceptualized and implemented by the PM's office with extended support from the MODMR, the ICT Division, and the Finance Division. While the PM's initiative was aimed at addressing the emergency issues of the households affected by COVID pandemic due to loss of job or livelihoods, the modified guidelines limited its scope by stating that those families already receiving any of the existing SSNP benefits i.e. OMS, FFP, VGD, and/or VGF (for fishermen) would not be eligible for the COVID 19 humanitarian support program. With all attempts on part of the government a CPD study in 2020 revealed that around 65.6 per cent of the country's households that receive financial assistance under the government's SSNPs were ineligible for the scheme as they belong to the non-poor category. The same study and some other studies also identified inefficiency in beneficiary selection due to political consideration and nepotism. The rate of inefficiency was hire where the benefits were for longer period of time as mentioned in those studies. GOB has initiated some of the good initiatives to harmonize SSNPs beneficiary listing and overcoming the inherent weakness in the process by taking advantage of the National Household Database (NHD) of the Bureau of Statistics, digitalized Beneficiary registries by ministries concerned, SPBMU MIS by the Finance Division and National ID Database maintained by the Election Commission of Bangladesh. The benefits of these initiatives are yet to be materialized due primarily delay of the functionality of those in the ground. The paper was an attempt to identity the gaps and lapses in beneficiary selection and how better governance of SSNPs would ensure the best possible outcomes for vulnerable and deserving people in realizing the intent of such programs.