Salutations

Hon. Speaker of Parliament, Hon Minister of Social Welfare, Cabinet Secretary, Prof Alam and other senior civil servants, champions of civil society, media/fourth estate and development partner colleagues and friends.

At the outset, I want to join previous speakers and commend the efforts of the Government of Bangladesh to reform the country’s social security system. I feel privileged to have witnessed the progress on rolling out the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) including the launch of its Action Plan last year.   I also echo Judith to thank Prof Alam for an excellent and very comprehensive presentation.

To me, the NSSS, its Action Plan and the government’s ongoing push for reforms point to Bangladesh’s strong political commitment to become a welfare state.

In other words, the state as a provider of social security is assuming responsibility for guaranteeing a minimum level of welfare to its citizens. This is also in line with the state’s mandate as laid down in the Bangladesh’s Constitution.

Both the Strategy and Action Plan are key to embedding a rights-based comprehensive social security system for people and moving towards a welfare state.

On NSSS implementation mid-term review:

We’ve already gained insights from the keynote that the hon’ble GED member, Dr. Shamsul Alam presented on the implementation status of the NSSS. I will therefore for the sake of brevity not dwell on those findings.

I will instead outline some additional pointers that will continue to need our attention.

As Bangladesh moves forward with its agenda, existing challenges such as the majority of the poorest members of society being excluded from social security means that we are still far from achieving our goals. At the same time, Bangladesh needs to make greater efforts to deliver an effective system that offers income to security over the lifecycle, from the cradle to the grave. Lastly, it needs to account for Bangladesh’s changing population dynamics and what it will mean for the social protection system.

Here, UNDP Bangladesh is pleased to have supported the Government in undertaking research in some of these areas. We hope these will be useful in informing Bangladesh’s 8th Five-Year Plan which will soon be drafted.

Going forward, we need to recognize that with time (sooner than later) the demographic changes that will take place in Bangladesh.  From being a large society of young persons, it will increasingly be home for older persons and this expectedly will also demand changes in the competencies required to survive, thrive and contribute to society.

We will not only have to cater for an increasing ageing population but also with the growing challenge of reduced access to decent jobs as a consequence of 4IR. With every passing year, there will be a larger proportion of the population, which will find it difficult to manage its survival not to say of contributing to nation-building.

I will therefore take this opportunity to ask Bangladesh to consider adopting a universal approach to establish a progressive and inclusive national security system in line with the NSSS long-term objectives.

Bangladesh is already laying the groundwork in areas such as social pension, disability benefits and widows’ allowance. These can be good starting points on which to build towards a universal system. But, coverage across these schemes is very low and Bangladesh pays some of the lowest transfers in the world. As a result, the impacts from our current social security system are minimal.

Let me just deliver one piece of evidence: in Nepal – a much poorer country than Bangladesh – everyone now receives an old age pension at the age of 65 years, paid at the equivalent value of over 3,000 Taka per month, compared to the 500 Taka that a small number of our older people receive. Let us reflect on that.

There is enough international evidence that indicate that universal social security is much more effective than poverty targeted schemes in tackling poverty and inequality. It will also help generate greater economic growth while strengthening the social contract. We need to learn these lessons.

As with previous speakers, I want to underscore the importance of having an effective social protection system for helping achieve the SDGs cannot be overemphasized. It is imperative that all progress on the SDGs must be in line with the SDGs’ core principle of “leaving no one behind”. For Bangladesh, adopting a universal approach can be the answer to truly delivering on the SDGs and fulfilling its pledge ensure that everyone is included.

Going forward, UNDP will continue to provide support to roll out NSSS and work towards the goals of building an inclusive Social Security System for all Bangladeshis that contributes to broader human development and economic growth

I thank the Cabinet Division and General Economics Division (GED) at the Planning Commission for taking the lead on NSSS and for organizing this event. And I thank the present distinguished guests including development partners (DFAT and DFID) for supporting the initiative.