Social protection: Initiating work on SDGs

Apart from the life cycle-based programmes, the schemes to support the freedom fighters and their families will continue under the consolidated Freedom Fighters' Benefit Programme. The transfer of food during and after disaster will continue as a disaster management response under the management of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief. Open Market Sales (OMS) managed by the Ministry of Food will be expanded as necessary to tackle hunger and food affordability issues as appropriate. The government has already adopted a long-term comprehensive health financing reform strategy, which will be fully implemented along with the NSSS implementation. Small schemes will be scaled up and consolidated. Under the leadership of the General Economics Division (GED), each sponsoring ministry/division of these small schemes will be responsible for determining the value of these schemes and will present a business case if they believe that the programme should continue. The GED will, on the basis of the business cases, make proposals to the cabinet on which schemes should continue. The government's programmes to address climate change and disaster prevention will be further strengthened as a part of its broader development effort. Longer-term programmes such as the planned Delta Region Development can be of further benefit in this regard. A range of socially excluded population that faces various social discriminations based on religion, age, ethnicity, gender, profession and illness will have similar access as the rest of the population to all social security programmes and to all publicly provided basic services.   
A total of 35.7 million poor and vulnerable people will benefit from various life cycle-based programmes in FY17-18 when the NSSS will be fully implemented. The suggested NSSS is fully consistent with the changing demographics of an ageing population and a declining young age cohort. During the initial years of the NSSS implementation, emphasis will be given to the extreme poor and the most vulnerable sections of the population.
THEMATIC CLUSTERS: The government will initially introduce five thematic clusters for coordination and cooperation of ministries/divisions engaged in programme implementation, viz: (a) social allowances (b) food security and disaster assistance (c) social insurance (d) labour/livelihood intervention and (e) human development and social empowerment. During this initial consolidation and coordination phase (2015-2025), implementing ministries will be responsible for programme design, ensuring correct targeting and zero tolerance to pilferage. The Central Monitoring Committee on Social Safety Net Programmes under the Cabinet Division will ensure inter-ministerial coordination of social security programmes. In Phase 2 from 2026 onwards, a strengthened and reformed Department of Social Services under the Ministry of Social Welfare will be responsible for implementation of all life cycle-based social security programmes.
Implementing ministries/divisions will work closely with the Local Government Institutes (LGIs) and NGOs in the delivery programmes. The government will continue, and where necessary, deepen the partnership with NGOs in the area of delivering social security services based on the NSSS. The government will establish a national single registry that uses the database from the national identity system and is based on building scheme-specific MISs that communicate with each other and deliver comprehensive information across government. A further key reform that will be introduced is an initiative to transform the government-to-person (G2P) payment systems so that they promote financial inclusivity and prevent leakages. It is imperative to ensure that transfers go to the right people. Recently the Statistics and Informatics Division (SID) has taken an endeavour to establish a Bangladesh Household Database using the PMT scorecard approach which will be completed by 2017. The Ministry of Social Welfare, in close consultation with the SID, will develop a nationwide complaint and grievance redress mechanism. To move further towards a result-based monitoring and evaluation system, once the NSSS is  designed and implemented, an ongoing process of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) will be needed.
CHALLENGES IN SOCIAL PROTECTION: Promoting human resources, reducing poverty and inequality would be prime thrusts of the proposed streamlined social security system. The main challenges for social security would be:  
* Full implementation of the newly-adopted National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) of Bangladesh following the life cycle approach integrating with the development planning,
* Preparing a detailed implementation plan of the NSSS delineating each one's responsibility (role of Central Monitoring Committee (CMC) is pivotal),   
* Allocating 2.3 per cent of GDP for the social security programmes of the government,
* To address the inclusion and exclusion errors, preparation of Bangladesh Household Database within the stipulated time,   
* Preparation of a complete monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the NSSS,
* Capacity development of the government officials who will be involved in the implementation of the NSSS,
* Preparation of programme-specific MIS and inter-programme operability of them,
* Development of a nationwide complaint and grievance redress mechanism, and  
* Presently, the IMED is only involved with the M&E of the ADP-funded projects. Hence development of a mechanism to monitor the projects/programmes that is not funded by the ADP of the government would be necessary.   
DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS' SUPPORT: Development partners are engaged in social security in a number of ways. Over the past decade, some significant investments in social security have been made by bilateral development partners, mainly through non-government channels. The DFID continues as a significant funding source for the BRAC and the Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP) - with the Australian government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) support - while the European Union has funded programmes such as the Food and Livelihood Security Programme (FLSP) and Food and Security for the Ultra-Poor Programme (FSUP). The UNDP has supported the projects Rural Employment Opportunities for Public Assets (REOPA) and Strengthening Women's Ability for Productive New Opportunities (SWAPNO). These schemes are essentially income-generating or asset transfer type programmes, which have demonstrably supported a large number of the extreme poorest to move out of extreme poverty. The World Bank is another development partner with a significant interest in social security. Its main interests are in strengthening employment opportunities for the poor, improving targeting through the introduction of a national single targeting mechanism that uses the PMT methodology, and the introduction of a new conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme. The World Bank is engaged in the Safety Nets System for the Poorest Project, working actively with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief on workfare programme based on the EGPP, with the SID on targeting, and with the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives on CCTs.
In the past three years, the development partners engaged in a policy dialogue with the government on the need for a comprehensive social security system. This has resulted in support to an influential conference on social security and technical assistance to facilitate the development of the NSSS formulation. The formulation of the NSSS provides a framework for broader engagement between the government and development partners in the area of social security. The government welcomes this interest of the development partners to engage on social security and will use the NSSS to ensure that their support to individual programmes is consistent with this. The government will explore possible technical assistance to help the implementation of the NSSS and the implementation of the M&E framework for assessing the NSSS. It is expected that the development partners which have supported the NSSS formulation process would continue to support the process of introducing a results-based M&E system for the NSSS and increase support in programme development under the NSSS.
POLITICAL-ECONOMIC COMMITMENT: The preparation of the NSSS of Bangladesh was not easy, but considering the political-economic commitment and responsibility to the nation and abide by the national Constitution, the government of Bangladesh, in particular the Cabinet Division and the General Economics Division of the Planning Commission, had been instrumental for driving forward the development of the NSSS over the past four years. By adopting the NSSS, Bangladesh has already initiated one of the targets of 'Sustainable Development Goals' as of 10.4 which says: "Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality."
Leaving no one behind is the overarching core theme of the SDGs that all nations at the UN General Assembly adopted on September 25, 2015. It calls on all nations to ensure basic opportunities for all, with the aim of eradicating extreme poverty in a generation. Leaving no one behind is thus central to the global goals. The success to achieve this set goal largely depends on well-targeted, and well-managed social security programmes for helping vulnerable, poor and marginalised populations in the finest sense of 'leaving no one behind'. Bangladesh is committed to implement and achieve the global set targets and goals. The NSSS is succinct, well documented, global experience based, and focused on life cycle approach, in compliance with the aim to reduce inequality and poverty which will contribute to establishing a more peaceful and inclusive society.
Prof. Shamsul Alam is Member (Senior Secretary), General Economics Division, Bangladesh Planning Commission. The article is adapted from a paper he presented in the Working Session of the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) meeting held on  
November 16, 2015, at BICC, Dhaka, Bangladesh.     
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