Bangladesh: Improving Coherence Across Social Protection Programs

1. Bangladesh: Improving Coherence Across Social Protection Programs Iffath Sharif Senior Economist The World Bank October 21, 2013

2. Poverty has declined remarkably in Bangladesh but still affects a significant share of the population … • Poverty reduced by 1/3 over a 10 year span • From 2000 to 2010, steady decline in poverty ( > 1.7 percentage points per year). • Shocks of 2007-08 did not reverse the gains • 47 million people still remain in poverty and 26 million in extreme poverty Source: HIES 2000, 2005 & 2010.

3. Steady GDP growth over the last decade allowed increased expenditures towards social protection Social Protection expenditure as a percentage of GDP, 1998-2013 Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance

4. Doubling of household coverage of safety nets reflects increased expenditure from 1.6 % to over 2% of GDP (about $3 billion in FY13) Incremental shift from food-based aid to cash transfers - proportion of beneficiaries who received cash increased from 15% to 60% Nevertheless food security is a key pillar of social protection policy Social protection coverage of householdsdoubled within a five year span

5. Social protection expenditures are quite comprehensive • Over 22 Ministries implement 95 safety net programs • Expenditures allocated broadly towards 6 categories: • food security and seasonal workfare • pension • education stipends and health services • cash allowances for vulnerable and special groups • agriculture support programs • labor programs • Expenditures are skewed towards ten key programs (including pensions) which constitutes over 70% of total Social Protection budget

6. There is scope however to increase the effectiveness of programs Ineffective targeting mechanisms result in a third of the poor being covered Weak administrative capacity and systems introduce inefficiencies and scope for fraud Considerable fragmentation among similar programs lead to overlap in the delivery of scarce resources Bulk of the resources are still aimed to fight famines and natural disasters (e.g food based programs) Yet new challenges include improving nutrition outcomes and providing productive employment to poor youth Access to SSN by Expenditure Quintile Source: HIES 2005 and 2010.

7. Improving the quality of social protection expenditures is a priority for Bangladesh • Historically Bangladesh has a culture of experimentation and innovation which has resulted in the rich set of programs • Expenditures however would be more efficient is programs were consolidated and rationalized to address new challenges • There is willingness to evaluate program effectiveness, confront shortcomings and cancel or modify programs to improve performance

8. Reform of the Female Secondary School Stipend Program from food to cash based • Pioneered conditional transfers for education stipends to girls in early 1990s • Led to four-fold increase in female schooling between 1991-2005, reversing gender gap • Increased female labor force participation, a critical ingredient for poverty reduction • Systematic improvements in implementation, including the introduction of cash transfers; better targeting; stipends to boys

9. Reform of the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest to focus on effective targeting and improved administration • A cash based public works program, established in 2008 in response to the 2007-08 global food price crisis • Adopts a dynamic design and implementation approach, based on field level innovations and learning • Program managed to increase food consumption and reduce seasonal hunger among poorest • Received the highest increase in budgetary allocations in two consecutive years, FY 13 and FY14

10. Looking ahead: towards a more coherentsocial protection system for Bangladesh • There is increasing recognition of the need to connect the “islands of success” to develop a comprehensive and integrated social protection system • Recent steps taken by Government include: • A national social protection strategy • A unified targeting system to improve program level coordination • Consolidatingthe implementation of three of the largest public workfare programs • Initiating labor market programs to promote overseas migration • Scaling up a conditional cash transfer pilot focused on child nutrition and development using common administrative platforms (beneficiary selection, payments, grievance redress mechanisms, etc.)

11. World Bank Portfolio • Safety Net Systems for the Poorest Project (SNSP) - $500 million (2014-2017) to support the implementation of major safety net programs (EGPP, FFW, VGF, TR and GR) and the development of Poverty Database for improved targeting • Employment Generation Program for the Poorest Project (EGPP) - $150 million (2011-2014) to provide short term employment during lean seasons to vulnerable groups and strengthen program implementation • Disability and Children at Risk Project (DCAR) - $35 million (2009 - 2014) to expand coverage and quality of social care services for the disabled and children at risk • Safe Migration for Bangladeshi Workers with support from Japan – $ 2.7 million (2014-2016) grant to provide information and training to potential migrants via community-based organizations to reduce dependence on middlemen • Shombhob CCT Project – est. $200 million nutrition-sensitive CCT project under preparation following the completion of $2.8 million grant-financed pilot CCT • Technical Assistance with partial support from DFID/AusAid(2013-2015) – analytical activity to support dialogue on (i) on consolidation of SSNs based on expenditure analysis ; (ii) reform of the Public Food Distribution System, and (iii) labor market interventions needed to respond to the demographic transition and youth employment (e.g. skills for informal sector, overseas migration)

12. World Bank’s Strategic Priorities Improving the quality of social protection expenditures • Targeting, enrollment, payment, and grievance systems • Institutional development for improved governance and accountability • Better coordination/consolidation among services/programs Fostering the use of IT for transparent delivery of services • Automated Management Information Systems for efficient administration • Formal payment systems, e.g. Post Office cash cards and mobile phones to reduce transaction costs and scope for leakage Promoting Evidence Based Policy Making • Analytical studies to inform operations and policy dialogue • Program level impact evaluations to improve safety net design (e.g. EGPP household surveys; CCT household surveys; DCAR beneficiary surveys) • Analytical studies to understand “graduation mechanisms”: e.g. linking safety net beneficiaries to more productive employment