National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) of Bangladesh 2015.

The Government of Bangladesh is strongly committed to reducing poverty, improving human development and reducing inequality. This commitment is reflected in Vision 2021, the Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021 and in the Sixth Five Year Plan FY11-FY15. The Government seeks to build on past progress with poverty reduction and further deepen this progress by addressing the root causes of poverty and by lowering the impact of risks faced by the poor and vulnerable population. The National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) builds on the past rich experience of Bangladesh and seeks to streamline and strengthen the existing safety net programmes with a view to achieving better results from money spent. The Government has put strong emphasis on ensuring food security for its citizens so that nobody dies from hunger. This has been reflected in a strong emphasis on food production as well as through the food transfer programmes under the Social Security Programmes (4.6).
The Government’s Social Security policy must be seen as a core element of the other policies and programmes that together comprise the broader Social Development Framework (SDF). The main objective of the SDF is to have a comprehensive and consistent set of policies that can help Bangladesh achieve better equity and social justice in the context of its development effort. This focus of the SDF is to be achieved through a range of policies and programmes encompassing the Government’s poverty reduction strategy, the education strategy, the health, nutrition and population strategy, the strategy for sanitation and water supply, the strategy for inclusive finance, the strategy for women and gender empowerment, the strategy for social inclusion of ethnic and religious minorities, the strategy for environmental protection and climate change management, the strategy for disaster management, the strategy for the children of special needs, elderly and widow and Social Security Strategy. These various strategies and programmes are mostly complementary in nature and tend to strengthen the impact on poverty reduction, reduce vulnerability of the poor and promote social cohesion.
The long-term vision for Social Security is to: Build an inclusive Social Security System for all deserving Bangladeshis that effectively tackles and prevents poverty and inequality and contributes to broader human development, employment and economic growth. Over the next five years, the goal for the NSSS is to reform the national Social Security System by ensuring more efficient and effective use of resources, strengthened delivery systems and progress towards a more inclusive form of Social Security that effectively tackles life cycle risks, prioritising the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. The Social Security System has challenges that will need to be addressed in this NSSS (1.6). These are: Social Security System (SSS) is an important element of the Government’s strategy to fight hunger and poverty. Evidence suggests that this has been very helpful for fighting hunger and has also helped lower poverty.
In addition, it supports the Labour Force to Reduce Poverty and Build Resilience. Social safety nets have been a key component of the above story of resilience and transformation. An extensive system of safety net programmes has virtually eliminated post-disaster secondary cycles of death and hunger. Programme growth has also run in parallel to the vulnerability discourse with a focus on identifying segments of the poor who were missing out on existing programme coverage. Indeed, a country whose abiding imagery was that of being at the mercy of disasters is nowadays held up as a role model of development on the global stage.