Remake social protection schemes suiting new normal : SANEM

Business Desk :
Bangladesh’s social-protection schemes need to be reshuffled to deal with emerging risks in the post-pandemic new normal wherein more vulnerable groups have to be served, South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) proposes.
“Given the slow progress and the need for new instruments to address new vulnerabilities emerged out of COVID-19, Bangladesh needs to revisit National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) to set new vision or approach to social protection,” says SANEM Chairman Dr Bazlul Haque Khondker.
Speaking at a webinar titled ‘Social Safety Net: Where Does Bangladesh Stand?’ on Thursday, he said the country’s private sector should be engaged in the creation of an inclusive social-protection system
“We have to introduce social-care programmes for children, elders and sick, and activate labour-market programmes by including formal and informal workers in various sectors,” he said.
He proposed reducing existing more than 150 social-security programmes to 10-12 for the convenience of monitoring.
As there are leakages and inefficiencies in the existing social-protection system, he said, the new recipe should be inclusive.