A Summary of Bangladesh Social Protection Public Expenditure Review

The government’s Public expenditure in terms of GDP is the lowest globally, even if Bangladesh
has maintained an excellent GDP increase throughout the Pandemic in 2021. Despite many
improvements, Bangladesh faces the challenge of growing inequality among rural and urban
people, malnutrition, low-quality education outcomes, and female dropouts from secondary
school. Also, Bangladesh is Quite unsuccessful in reaping out the benefit of Demographic
Transition for remaining out of the 40 percent working-age population from the labor force.
Faster Urbanization is also a Challenge for unplanned urban design along with growing urban
poverty. Bangladesh is well known for frequent climate shocks which impacts a lot on the poor.

History of Social safety nets in Bangladesh

Post war(1970s)- After the Liberation war,Bangladesh was in scarce of food and vulnerable for
frequent Climate shocks.The safety net programme called Food for work was introduced first
then.This was quite effective for food shortages.
1980s - This decade focused on vulnerable households and introduced a programme called
VGD(Vulnerable Group Development)
1990s- PESP(Primary education stipend program) was introduced by the government in order
to ensure quality primary education for the future of Bangladesh.This program was based on
cash transfer.
2000s- Target based Social protection program was introduced to improve the employment
situation in Bangladesh.This targeting was geographical.
2010s- Employment guarantee was the main purpose of the safety net programmes which was
based on cash transfers.

Spending on Safety nets

Bangladesh has spent around 18.2 billion US Dollar in the safety net programmes during FY
(2013-14) to FY (2019-20).The allocation reflects one tenth percent of the GDP. A significant
increase in the pension of Government officials during last few years have increased the
allocation in social safety nets.In comparison among asian countries Bangladesh spend more in
social protection than Srilanka,Bhutan,Pakistan but less than India,Vietnam,Nepal.