Economic Desk :
The government of Bangladesh on Tuesday signed an agreement with the World Bank under which the lending agency will provide $245 million additional financing to improve equity, efficiency and transparency of the country’s major safety net programs.
The $245 million additional financing to the Safety Net Systems for the Poorest Project will help improving beneficiary targeting, information management and benefit payment of the country’s five large safety net programs.
These are: the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest, Work for Money, Test Relief, Vulnerable Group Feeding, and Gratuitous Relief. Implemented by the Department of Disaster Management, these programs collectively reach over 9 million poor and vulnerable households.
Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam and World Bank Country Director Qimiao Fan signed the agreement on behalf of the government of Bangladesh and the World Bank, respectively, at the ERD in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.
With this additional financing, the World Bank support to the project now stands at $745 million. The credit is from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessional lending arm. The credits are interest-free and repayable in 38 years, including a 6-year grace period, and carry a service charge of 0.75 percent.
In FY 2017, Bangladesh spent around $3.5 billion on social protection, which was about 1.4 percent of its Gross Domestic Product. To ensure effective use of public resources, the World Bank is supporting the country to build a common digital platform for better administered safety net programs.
