A total 76.6 per cent poor households did not receive any relief from government disbursed three social safety network programmes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Only 23.5 per cent households covered by at least one of the three programs which was 24.8 per cent in the first quartile. Total 75.2 per cent households were out of getting any programme in that time.
These observations were unveiled at a virtual national dialogue titled “Relief Supports to Cope with COVID-19: How Effective Were They? " on Thursday. The dialogue was organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue and Oxfam in Bangladesh in association with the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh.
The study was conducted on 2,600 households across the country.
Speakers discussed that the government of Bangladesh had taken several support measures to be delivered by the local authorities, targeted for the poor and the vulnerable sections of the population, to tackle the situation originating from the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a lack of disaggregated national-level database which is required for effective distribution of these supports.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, fellow of CPD, presented the keynote presentation at the discussion.
Enamur Rahman, state minister for disaster management and relief, attended the discussion as chief guest. He said that relief supports were being distributed and there were no complains of people suffering from hunger. He also stated that more emphasis would be given on making the relief distribution process more transparent.
Speaking as special guest, AB Tajul Islam, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, commented that both service providers and recipients should have a high moral ground so that it becomes possible to distribute the relief supports to the most deserving.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, convener of Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh chaired the session. He pointed out that there was a lack of government and private initiatives to tackle the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
To distribute the relief to the ones actually in need, mass awareness and transparency is a must said Debapriya, also team leader of the Project and a fellow of the CPD. He also said that community-based organisations, NGOs, and media should work together with the government agencies to ensure transparency, accountability and monitoring in relief distribution.
Shameem Haider Patwari MP, Anir Chowdhury, policy adviser at the Access to Information (A2I) Programme, Tanvir A Mishuk, managing director at Nagad, M Abu Eusuf, professor of development studies at Dhaka University, Fahmida Khatun, executive director of CPD, and Dipankar Datta, country director of Oxfam in Bangladesh, also delivered their speech at the program.
Among others government officials, academicians, development workers, NGO representatives, private sector representatives, representatives from civil society organisations, and media to took part at the dialogue.
