The Government of Bangladesh reprised its engagement with the Department of Social Welfare and Development with a Learning Visit last 24 February 2024. The objective of the visit was to observe and understand the best practices that have made the Department’s social security program become adaptive and shock-responsive. The 9-person visiting group was led by Md. Mahmudul Hossain Khan, Bangladesh Secretary for Coordination & Reforms, and included Secretaries of the Ministries of Women and Children Affairs and Disaster Management and Relief. Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. They were accompanied by four officers of the World Food Program (WFP) led by Simone Parchment, Deputy Country Director.
Undersecretary Vilma B. Cabrera of the National Household Targeting System and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), Undersecretary Diana Rose S. Cajipe, MD of the Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG), and Director Leo L. Quintilla, Special Assistant to the Secretary (SAS) for DRMG and Concurrent Director IV of National Resource and Logistics Management Bureau, led DSWD’s Technical Assistance Team that provided orientation on the Department’s development of Shock Responsive Social Protection.
The Policy Development & Planning Bureau provided initial orientation by presenting the evolution of the process of Shock Responsive Social Protection in the Department. This involved establishing legal bases, its operational framework, and objectives. Followed by a discussion on the formulation of the Social Protection Plan 2023-2028, which delineates three (3) Strategic Focus Areas, namely: (a) Full implementation of the Social Protection Floor through the implementation of strategic initiatives; (b) Development of Adaptive and Shock Responsive Social Protection; and, (c) Rationalization, Modernization, and Integration of the Social Protection.
The Department’s strategic initiatives being undertaken include the endorsement of the Bill on Declaration of the State of Imminent Disaster; Development of Predictive Analytics for Humanitarian Response Tool and an Enterprise Geographic Information System; Implementation of a Comprehensive Emergency Program for Children; Development of a National Resilience Index; and, Implementation of the Agricultural Credit Program Survival and Recovery Loan Program.
Ms. Rebecca B. Ballesteros of the Social Technology Bureau presented DSWD’s efforts at institutionalizing Anticipatory Action-Adoptive & Shock Responsive Social Protection (AA-ASRSP) in Disaster Risk Reduction and Management and Social Protection Program. These include enactment of Republic Act No. 10121 otherwise known as the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, and formation of the national Forecast-Based Financing Technical Working Group (TWG) in 2016, which was later renamed to Anticipatory Action (AA) TWG in 2021. In the same year, the Roadmap on Establishing an Adoptive and Shock Responsive Social Protection System in the Philippines was developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) and DSWD, in partnership with other National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) members. However, flexible programme designs, delivery systems and financing sustained by institutional capacity and combined information system are insufficient ASRSP components. She then highlighted the lessons-learned from DSWD’s current pilot program called B-SPARED (Building on Social Protection for Anticipatory Action and Response in Emergencies and Disasters). While B-SPARED incorporates ASRSP components in its design, it is hobbled by limitations due to factors that need to be addressed, which include limited fiscal space in the Philippine government; lack of financial institutions, financial service providers (FSPs) and local businesses in the high-risk areas; and, limited capacity (human resource, system, logistics) of FSPs and other local business partners.
Joint Secretary Mohammad Khaled Hasan of Bangladesh also presented his country’s efforts on ASRSP, which he states dated back to the 3rd Century. He also provided a brief summary of their Action Plan for their National Social Security Strategy (NSSS)-Phase II (2021-26), focusing on its Adaptive Management Concept and its strategies for food security and disaster response, as well as financing arrangements. He explained that their learning visit to DSWD was to seek either an affirmation or refutation based on DSWD’s actual experiences in piloting and implementing ASRSP strategies.
This is not the first time that Bangladesh sought lessons-learned from DSWD. In 2015, an eight-member delegation from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics came to learn the mechanics of implementing the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR). In 2019, sixteen senior government officials led by the daughter of the Bangladesh Prime Minister visited to learn first-hand the implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) at Field Office V. Again in 2023, a study visit by officials of its Ministry of Social Welfare and Ministry of Finance occurred for purposes of studying the implementation of the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) and the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS). Truly, DSWD is on track in its aspiration to become a leader in social protection in Asia and the Indo-Pacific Region.