Editorial
Safety net schemes
Impact assessment necessary
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the ultra-poor focusing on the upcoming budget has brought up an important agenda. Chairman of the APPG Saber Hossain Chowdhury highlighted the need for an assessment of the impact of the expenditure incurred in the safety net programmes that were taken up in the financial year which is about to end. Given that 84 such programmes were in operation with budgetary allocations amounting to Tk. 19.497 crore (being 15 percent of the national budget) the questions of monitoring how the money was spent and with what results certainly assumes critical importance.
We don't know whether concerns were formally raised as part of the quarterly and mid-term appraisal of the budget's implementation. That would have been the ideal thing to do to change gears in time, if it were needed. But we may not have missed the bus altogether, there is still some time left to carry out an impact assessment. We must go about it immediately to develop a strategy or strategies keeping in view the pitfalls of the outgoing year to avert them in the next.
The criteria for assessment should be (a) whether the target beneficiaries were selected on the basis of their need or a partisan angle was taken; (b) whether there was pilferage and corruption; (c) if so, what steps were taken to hold the responsible to account; and (d) were these programmes location-specific and time-bound? For all we know, much of it was not meant to be a dole so that it is worthwhile to probe the extent of physical targets met.
Finally, we fully endorse the idea of creating a centralised database of the ultra-poor and specific programmes so far undertaken for them to keep a tab on the goings-on and make timely intervention and correction. Also finally, it makes strategic sense to have an integrated approach under the government and NGOs to make a definite impact on poverty.
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