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The implementation of the National Social Security Strategy has made a little headway since its formulation and adoption in 2015 due to inadequate and weak institutional capacities, according to a report.
The report jointly prepared by the international Labour Organisation and the Research and Policy Integration for Development said that the implementation progress of NSSS attained so far under different programmes, including the national action plan, had been quite low due to lack of knowledge and awareness about the key concepts of social protection policies.
RAPID chairman Mohammad Abdur Razzaque on Monday presented the report at a workshop on ‘Social Protection Policies and Institutional Framework in Bangladesh’ organised by the labour ministry and the ILO with knowledge partner RAPID at the BRAC Centre INN in the capital Dhaka.
Regarding the implementation of National Action Plan Phase-1 of the NSSS, the report said that the progress in the consolidation of the workfare programme, urban poor and programme for elderly, disabled people and working age remained seriously off-tracked.
Findings from midterm progress review also showed that the activities related to selection process of beneficiaries and the single registry management information system remained off-track.
The NSSS envisioned establishing a National Social Insurance Scheme but the progress made on rolling out NSIS has been extremely limited.
The report identified lack of institutional capacities for collecting, analysing, and disseminating data, lack of digitised and employment database and in the absence of a robust monitoring mechanism to oversee the execution of the Labour Act as challenges for introducing the NSIS.
Razzaque said that implementing social protection policies was a political commitment and the issue emerged as a new priority in both the developed and developing countries, especially with the onslaught of the Covid pandemic.
He also said that adopting NSSS, 2015 was a paradigm shift for Bangladesh from ad hoc basis social safety nets to lifecycle-based social security.
Unemployment insurance could be the key in tackling labour market challenges and Bangladesh should start piloting unemployment insurance for the formal sector workers with good intention of expanding to informal sector workers within a decade or so, Razzaque said.
Tuomo Poutiainen, Bangladesh country director of the ILO, said that countries across the world were now facing the daunting task of tackling Covid impacts which was further exacerbated by the adverse socio-economic situation.
Indeed, these crises have put the efforts to achieve sustainable development goals under severe pressure and underscored the need to develop a universal and comprehensive social protection system to ensure access to all, especially to include all the vulnerable segments of society.
‘The ILO country office in Bangladesh is undertaking a series of awareness-raising and capacity-building initiatives with the support of Japan to support the government vision and to promote social protection and social insurance programmes in the country,’ Tuomo said.
One of the fundamental issues for universal social protection is to initiate a comprehensive database of the workers in order for them to take timely adequate support whenever needed, he said.
The ILO country director said that in line with Bangladesh’s eighth five-year plan and SDGs indicator, the ILO will continue to provide technical assistance for building social protection systems, which will positively contribute to human capital development in Bangladesh.
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