A $250 million loan agreement was signed today by the government of Bangladesh and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to bolster the country’s social protection infrastructure.
At a ceremony held today at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) in the capital, Md. Shahriar Kader Siddiky, Secretary, ERD, and Edimon Ginting, Country Director, ADB, signed the loan agreement on behalf of Bangladesh and ADB, respectively.
“The Second Strengthening Social Resilience Program aims to accelerate reforms in increasing the coverage and efficiency of the protection, improving the financial inclusion of disadvantaged people, and strengthening the response to diversified protection needs,” said Country Director Edimon Ginting.
“Building on the first Strengthening Social Resilience Program completed in June 2022, the second program helps improve the policy, regulatory, and institutional environment for social protection in Bangladesh,” Ginting added.
According to a news release, the government’s Action Plan Phase II of the National Social Security Strategy, 2021–2026, which aims to increase the social protection system’s capability for prevention and protection in Bangladesh, is supported by this new ADB program.
By implementing contributory protection schemes, the program will increase protection for the most vulnerable, expand the scope of social protection, and help manage social protection programs more effectively. This will lessen people’s susceptibility to additional poverty, their sense of exclusion, and their fragility.
In order to minimize leakages, the program establishes a system for verifying beneficiaries’ survival for cash-based social security initiatives. To increase efficacy and efficiency, it also combines two cash-based protection programs for individuals with impairments.
In order to increase resilience against climate vulnerability, it will incorporate climate-adaptive measures into social protection. This will involve identifying the people most at risk from disasters brought on by climate change and allocating the necessary assistance.
ADB’s support strengthens the protection for vulnerable women and transgender people by increasing the number of beneficiaries under the widow allowance program and expanding the coverage of the livelihood support program for transgender people.
In addition, Bangladesh Bank is doubling its funding for the Small Enterprise Refinancing Scheme for Women Entrepreneurs to expand access of women small business operators to financial services.
Enhancing the employment injury scheme pilot’s governance system with an emphasis on the ready-made clothing industry is one of the program’s other goals.
In order to advance the nation’s social insurance programs, it also advocates for the creation of a tripartite committee on worker social protection under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, which would include representatives from the government, employers’ associations, and workers’ associations.
ADB will provide a $1 million grant from its Technical Assistance Special Fund (TASF 7) and another $1 million grant from the ADB-administered Community Resilience Partnership Program Trust Fund under the Community Resilience Financing Partnership Facility to support program implementation, technical and policy analyses, and capacity building of relevant government agencies.
