A recent study has found that 90.5% of the Social Safety Net Programs (SSNPs) beneficiaries in the north-west region of Bangladesh do not know about the Grievance Redress System (GRS).
GRS is a web-based system for lodging complaints to the government anonymously.
The study was conducted by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in partnership with Oxfam in Bangladesh and in association with Citizen’s Platform for SDG, Bangladesh.
A virtual dialogue on the efficiency of delivering social protection programs in the north-west region of Bangladesh was organized on Wednesday to reveal the study findings.
The field study found allegations of corruption from the beneficiaries of the safety net programs in a significant number of unions regarding the maternity allowance and old age allowance as well as biased selection of the beneficiaries by the authorities.
The study found that maternity allowance and old age allowance cards were often given away on political consideration.
Muntaseer Kamal, senior research associate of CPD told Dhaka Tribune that a lot of these issues would be resolved if the beneficiaries could report the anomalies through grievance redress system or GRS.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, fellow of CPD, and convenor of Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, said the local government should come forward to disseminate information about SSNP.
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“The information gap is indeed a major challenge for SSNP beneficiaries. The local government needs to come forward to make sure the people in their locality have access to all the information,” said Debapriya.
He also said the shortage of funds for SSNP is another challenge for the government, however, it could be resolved to some extent by training up the people working in the field.
“Fund, skilled people, and duration of the projects should be the major priorities to provide better service to the SSNP beneficiaries,” he added.
Dr Debapriya also said better and unbiased service cannot be provided without considering the opinions coming from the grassroots level while making policies.
The study also found that 97.1% of the total beneficiaries benefitted from the support which they received through the SSNPs.
The study revealed 33.9% of the participants claimed that their food and nutrition situation improved while 22.5% stated that their economic situation improved.
Additionally, 20.6% reported that they can now spend more on healthcare while 19.1% informed that SSNPs have contributed to their children’s education in terms of continuation or entrance.
Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Bangladesh, Rensje Teerink, said the social safety network should be inclusive.
She said that this service has to be taken to the marginalized people like indigenous people and LBGT communities to make sure nobody is left out.
While presenting the keynote paper, Prof Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow of CPD recommended that local people should remain engaged in disseminating information and be part of the selection process.
He also recommended that the NGO representatives in various committees must coordinate with other civil society organization representatives to disseminate information.
The study was conducted on 1500 households and 34 government officials and local representatives. A total of 24 focal group discussions were also part of the study.
