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ADB offers a $250 million loan to improve social security.
To improve Bangladesh's social protection system even more, the government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today inked a $250 million loan agreement.
"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 Edimon Ginting, the ADB Country Director.
"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."
This new ADB programme supports the government's Action Plan Phase II of the National Social Security Strategy, 2021–2026, to strengthen protective and preventive capacity of the social protection system in Bangladesh, the Manila-based global donor said in a statement.
According to the program, contributory protection schemes will be introduced, strengthening protection for the most disadvantaged and expanding the scope of social protection. It will also help improve the efficiency with which the social protection program is managed. According to the statement, this will lessen vulnerability, marginalization, and the chance that people would experience more poverty. In order to minimize leakages, the program establishes a system for verifying beneficiaries' survival for cash-based social security initiatives.
To increase efficiency and efficacy, it also combines two cash-based protection programs for individuals with impairments. In order to increase resilience against climate vulnerability, the program will also incorporate climate adaptive measures into social protection. This will involve identifying the persons most at risk from disasters brought on by climate change and allocating the necessary assistance. At a ceremony held today at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) in Dhaka, Md. Shahriar Kader Siddiky, secretary of the ERD, and the ADB country director signed the loan agreement.
By boosting the number of beneficiaries under the widow allowance program and broadening the scope of the livelihood support program for transgender people, ADB's support improves the protection for vulnerable women and transgender individuals. Additionally, in an effort to increase the number of women who own small businesses and have access to financial services, Bangladesh Bank is tripling its funding for the Small Enterprise Refinancing Scheme for Women Entrepreneurs. 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 further the nation's social insurance programs, it also advocates for the creation of a tripartite committee on social protection for workers under the labor ministry, which would include the government, employers' association, and workers' association.
A grant of $1 million will be given by ADB from its Special Fund for Technical Assistance. Under the Community Resilience Financing Partnership Facility, a further $1 million grant will be made available from the ADB-managed Community Resilience Partnership Program Trust Fund to assist with program implementation, technical and policy analyses, and the development of relevant government agencies' capacity.
