Fiscal support is the key to pro-poor macroeconomic policy planning, analysts said Sunday. They pointed out that many projects under such planning failed for lack of funds.
They said there were many such projects taken up earlier that did not yield any result for lack of budgetary supports from the government.
Their views came at a workshop on the support to sustainable and inclusive planning project (SSIP).
Dr. Selim Raihan, professor at the Department of Economics at Dhaka University, economic adviser of the central bank Dr Akterzzuman and additional secretary of the finance division Moynul Islam made such observations at the meet.
The workshop was organised by the General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission at the National Economic Council in the city.
With GED member Prof Shamsul Alam in the chair, the function was attended by planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal as chief guest. Planning Secretary Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam was special guest.
Project manager Fakhrul Ahsan presented the keynote paper.
Speaking at the programme, Prof Shamsul Alam said it is often embarrassing for the government that different ministries and agencies are coming up with different data and statistics on the same issue, such as GDP growth.
"If there is better coordination among them, it would not happen," he said.
After implementation of the SSIP project, he said it will strengthen government institutions involved with planning and budgetary process.
Making a presentation on the SSIP, project manager Fakrul Ahsan said the main objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of government agencies to institutionalise the pro-poor policy.
The monitoring on the progress in the millennium development goals (MDG) is also part of the objective, he said.
He said the project will create a permanent mechanism for the GED's in-house capacity for macroeconomic analysis, sustainable planning frameworks and evaluation of development-policy issues, including millennium development goals.
After implementation of the project, macroeconomic policies will be better aligned with the promotion of pro-poor economic growth, he observed.
A UNB report adds: planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal urged the donor agencies, particularly the UNDP, to make more efforts to help reduce child mortality and child marriage.
"This is the area where UNDP should give more emphasis," he said, inaugurating the workshop.
The UNDP has been assisting the SSIP project with a view to creating coordination among the government ministries and agencies in preparing national budget in a sustainable and inclusive manner.
Referring to a UNDP report, the planning minister said 80 per cent of women in Asia get married underage while 40 per cent in South Asia do the same. In Bangladesh, he said one out of three gets married underage.
He said there is a law in the country to restrict the child marriage, but the reality is different. The country's Gaibandha, Kurigram, Bagerhat and Barisal are the areas where more attention should be paid to contain child marriage and child mortality.
Mustafa Kamal said the government has launched a project to ensure mandatory birth registration. When this project started in 2001, the rate of birth registration was 1.8 per cent, which now reached 37 per cent. It will take more time to ensure hundred per cent registration of birth in the country.
He said the people are not used to registering births for which many people have more than one official and unofficial date of birth. Even former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has got a number of dates of birth.
"I don't blame her for this different birth day."
