Government officials, development partners, and rights activists on Monday underscored the need for a comprehensive social protection system covering all marginalised groups to build an equitable society in Bangladesh.
They made the remarks at the inaugural session of a three-day national conference titled 鈥楢 Journey Towards an Equitable Society鈥� organised by the Cabinet Division, in partnership with UNDP and Australian Aid, at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center in Dhaka.
The conference was organised to formulate the country鈥檚 next 10-year National Social Security Strategy.
The speakers stressed that every allocation under social safety schemes must reach the right person at the right time, ensuring not only to live at a subsistence level but also to have access to health, education, and dignity.
Bangladesh, now a lower-middle-income country preparing to graduate from least developed country status, cannot delay in guaranteeing minimum protection for its citizens, said planning adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud, while addressing the session as the chief guest.
Bangladesh runs numerous safety net programmes and many of them remain fragmented, narrowly targeted, and inefficiently administered, with cases of ghost beneficiaries, he said.
He identified the 鈥榤issing middle鈥�, the families that are just above the poverty line but are still highly vulnerable, as a critical gap in the current system.
Universal social protection, he said, is not a luxury but a moral and constitutional obligation.
Disaster management and relief affairs adviser Faruk E Azam warned that recurring natural disasters annually push thousands back into poverty.
He called for disaster-resilient social protection measures, emphasizing innovation and digital solutions through collective efforts.
Cabinet Division additional secretary Mohammad Khaled Hasan said that the government was currently implementing 95 social protection programmes, with an allocation of Tk 1.16 lakh crore in the 2025鈥�26 fiscal year.
UNDP Bangladesh resident representative Stefan Liller, Australian deputy high commissioner Clinton Pobke, and Cabinet Division coordination and reform secretary Zaheda Parveen also addressed the conference, chaired by cabinet secretary Sheikh Abdur Rashid.
