**4.2 Priority programs for investment strategy**

Investment in social protection in Bangladesh will contribute to the wider program's focus on economic growth and poverty reduction. It will do this through the pursuit of three strategic objectives: (1) improve social protection coverage, (2) improve the quality of social protection systems, and (3) enhance partner governments' ability to make their own informed choices about social protection options. Priority areas of engagement will be in two broad areas: (1) refining and developing social protection systems, and (2) strengthening partner government and other stakeholders' knowledge on social protection.

In Bangladesh, evidence suggests that social exclusion is strongly related to poverty, where ethnic minorities, people living in disadvantaged geographical areas and women in particular face social exclusion, resulting in fewer economic prospects and higher levels of poverty [36]. Based on evidence of performance of the on-going programs, investment strategy should be prepared to give priority on



*Landscape of Enhanced Access to Social Protection, Safety Nets and Increased Resilience… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99270*


#### **Table 4.**

*Investment strategies based on major life cycle stages.*

food security and nutrition in the Second Country Investment Plan (2016–2020) of Bangladesh. For mitigating the future challenges in NSSS, different types of social protection programs are needed to expand the coverage for protecting from shocks, disabilities and vulnerabilities.

### **4.3 Government priorities based on existing policies**

The NSSS provides a sound strategy that defines the various life-cycle based risks faced by the poor and vulnerable population and seeks to mitigate those by instituting a well-designed income transfer system that reaches the poorest and most vulnerable segment of the population (infants and young children, school going children, vulnerable women, elderly and the disabled) [33]. People living in remote and disadvantaged areas also deserve to be covered by the social security system. The priority challenges in the implementation of the new SSS as identified in the 7FYP include: (i) effective shift from the current discretionary to targeted universal approach to avoid leakage and under coverage, (ii) expanding coverage of the core schemes to reach the intended groups: mother and children, youth, the elderly and people with disabilities, (iii) initiating a social insurance system that enables people to invest in their own social security, (iv) strengthening the delivery systems for priority transfers by establishing advanced MIS and trained professional staff.
