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$250m from ADB to boost social resilience


Published : 22 Jun 2021 09:45 PM | Updated : 23 Jun 2021 01:30 AM

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided $250 million to Bangladesh for improving the inclusiveness and responsiveness of the country's social development and resilience programme.

The ADB and Bangladesh government on Tuesday signed a $250 million loan agreement to finance reforms.

A press release of the Economic Relations Division said on Tuesday, Fatima Yasmin, Secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) and Manmohan Parkash, Country Director of ADB virtually signed the loan agreement on behalf of Bangladesh and ADB, respectively.

The Finance Division has formulated the Strengthening Social Resilience Programme as part of policy reform to absorb economic shock caused by the Covid 19 pandemic worldwide. 

The programme will be implemented by the Cabinet Division, Bangladesh Bank, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Social Welfare. 

The proposed programme has the following policy reform areas including improved Coverage and efficiency of social protection, improved Financial Inclusion of disadvantaged people and strengthened response to life-cycle social and health needs.

The program will support the implementation of the stimulus packages declared by the Prime Minister to mitigate the adverse social and economic impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The programme is expected to be implemented within 30 June 2021. In the next financial year, the succeeding component under this programme, Sub programme 2 worth $250 million is expected to be signed. It is noteworthy, in May last year, ADB financed $500 million for "Covid 19 Active response and expenditure support programme" which is being used as budget support to foster the economic recovery from Covid 19 pandemic.

Manmohan Parkash has recently said, “A strong social protection programme, backed by the Government's stimulus and incentive packages, largely contributed to the commendable 5.2 percent estimated GDP growth in fiscal year 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Complimenting the government for its focus on social inclusion, the Country Director said: “ADB is pleased to support Bangladesh through this innovative program, in further widening, deepening, and harmonizing its social protection actions for increasing the resilience of the poor and promoting an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Building on our cross-sectoral experiences in inclusive and sustainable development, we will support Bangladesh in improving the efficiency, financial inclusion, consolidation, standardization, integration, streamlining and continuous evaluation of the social protection system,” Parkash added. 

However, the Strengthening Social Resilience Program will include institutional and policy reforms to address cross-sector issues of social development in Bangladesh. These include improving the coverage and efficiency of the social protection system through improving the administrative efficiency of social protection management. The programme will expand its outreach to vulnerable women by increasing the coverage of both the old age allowance for women over 62 and the allowance for widowed, deserted, and destitute women in 150 sub-district units or upazilas.

Other reforms include promoting the use of mobile financial services and simplifying identification and documentation requirements for opening a bank account and broadening the scope of social protection from mere poverty relief to life cycle social and health responses, including social insurance system. 

ADB will also provide a technical assistance grant to support program implementation, policy analyses, and capacity development for social development-related ministries. The technical assistance is estimated to cost $1.2 million which will be financed on a grant basis by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.