Social Safety Net Programs: Contribution to Socio-Economic Resilience of Vulnerable Group

Abstract

Bangladesh is a disaster affected country due to its geographical location and anthropogenic causes. Every year thousands of people are impacted by different kinds of climate induced environmental stressed. Social Safety Nets (SSNs) are non-contributory programmes that helps the poor and vulnerable community and also to reduce poverty and inequality to cope with disasters. Bangladesh government has taken initiative to alleviate poverty including the most vulnerable segment and poor people under different Safety Net Programmes. This study has been undertaken to assess the impacts of these allowance programs for increasing social and economic resiliency in household level. Both primary and secondary data were used to conduct this study. Primary data were collected through questionnaire survey, focus group discussions, and case study. Secondary data were collected from different sources including books, journals and websites related to the study. This study has also investigated how the allowance allocated to extreme poor widows, elders and disabled people can facilitate their disaster resiliency. It compares the situation of allowance receivers to the situation when they were not getting the allowance. The study found that the program has a positive impact on the basic needs like food, cloth, medicine accessibility of the beneficiaries which make them economically resilient. It also founds that although the allowance amount is relatively small and insufficient to significantly contribute to household’s graduation, it often enables recipients to stabilize their earnings. The study has suggested the need to develop a number of strategies especially for the local government to facilitate successful SSN program including increasing the amount of allowance, distributing money through mobile banking system, proper monitoring in selection process are most urgent in the study area.