Bangladesh has been ahead of the curve in responding to the challenges of risk, vulnerability and social protection. Having laid a robust foundation of safety net programmes, the quest is now for a national social protection strategy that aims for a sum that is greater than its part. This presentation summarises a book, Social Protection in Bangladesh, which is an important milestone in this journey. By David Hulme, Brooks World Poverty Institute.

1. Social Protection in Bangladesh:
Book Overview
David Hulme
Brooks World Poverty Institute
University of Manchester

2. The Book and the Team
• The Book
Social Protection in Bangladesh: Building Effective
Social Safety Nets and Ladders Out of Poverty
• The Team
- Power and Participation Research Centre-PPRC
- University of Manchester – Brooks Institute
- Contributors – 21 from 14 countries
- UNDP and partners…and UPL

3. Bangladesh has been doing well
• Bangladesh is no ‘basket case’ story…stupid!
- Extreme poverty down from 41% (1991) to
17% (2010)
- Economic growth up at 6% pa for almost 15
years
- A Low Income Country (LIC) that is an
MDGs success
- Expecting to become a MIC in 2020s

4. But it faces big challenges
• More than 50 million people still in poverty
• Some 28 million in extreme poverty
• Gender inequality - female-headed
households twice as likely to be extreme poor
• More than 40% of children are poorly
nourished
• 60 to 80% of population vulnerable to shocks
that would make them poor

5. How to tackle these challenges
• To tackle these problems it needs
1. Sustained and inclusive economic growth
2. Effective social development
3. Social and political cohesion
• All of these need an effective social protection
system – programmes to reduce socially
unacceptable levels of poverty and vulnerability
• National Social Protection Strategy – a priority

6. Building on historical roots
• Bangladesh has 80 to 95 social protection
programmes operated by 20 ministries
• They absorb 2.2% of GDP…actually,
1.6% excluding civil service pensions
• These schemes have been successful in
disaster management, food relief and income
poverty reduction
• But, they are now not meeting contemporary
needs and are not effective and efficient

7. What the Book Seeks to do
• To provide guidance and stimulate debate – government, civil
society, academia
• To draw lessons from national and international experiences
1. Need for an overarching strategy – to mobilise resources,
contribute to a national consensus
2. Plan of action - strategy has to be implemented
3. New challenges - youth bulge, climate change,
graduation/exit, urbanisation, ageing
4. Learning - M&E, innovation, listening to people
5. Leadership – civil, administ’n, political…Levy & Lula

8. Some Highlights
• Role of social protection/SSNs in emerging
economies – a model (Samson)
• Household behaviour (Ragno)
• Graduation and ‘exit’ (Hashemi/Montesquieu)
• Financing (Barrientos and Khondker/Datta)
• Child protection (Mishra, Papavero, Sjoblom)
• International comp’ns (Valle/Colin & Liejun)

9. Some Highlights
• Technology (Maitrot/Foster)
• Adavasis & exclusion(Hossain & Kappestein)
• Urban poverty (Walsham)
• Econometric analyses (M M Rahman)
• Overarching lessons (H Z Rahman, Hulme,
Maitrot, Ragno)

10. The Fork in the Road
• Bangladesh has done well…can do better
• Now at a crossroads – which path to take?
• Focus on aggregate growth –high growth with mass
poverty…the Indian model
• Or, focus on inclusive and sustainable growth –
social protection as a major component of its growth
strategy – invest in human and physical
infrastructure
• It is your choice, prosperity for all or wealth for
some…?