Social Protection During COVID Times: Research For Building Forward Better

Abstract

The various activities undertaken by the Bangladesh Government include widening coverage of the social safety nets to protect the poor and new poor due to COVID-19 pandemic. Despite such an increase in social protection coverage and spending amid COVID-19, many of the poor are still excluded due to the lack of a social registry and proper implementation and distribution strategies. This study aims to critically scrutinize the Bangladesh government’s support under the umbrella of social protection during COVID-19 in order to assess the social justice agenda based on a systematic inquiry to look at the secondary data. It also tries and identifies the drawbacks, which are rooted in the existing social protection framework, associated with the planning, designing, programming, and delivery of the various social protection programs and projects in order to ensure social justice from the rights, governance, distribution, and access perspectives. More specifically, the scoping study would help highlight the caveats of Bangladesh’s social protection during the pandemic and identify the scope of future research and policy actions to mitigate the potential impacts of future shocks on the livelihoods of the poor, marginalized, and impoverished people through constructing a comprehensive and dynamic social protection system.