ZCZC
BSS-18
WEBINAR-SDG
Call for raising allocations in education, health sectors
DHAKA, Feb 28, 2021 (BSS) – General Economics Division (GED) member of the Planning Commission Dr Shamsul Alam today suggested raising allocations in the education and health sectors in line with the 8th Five Year Plan.
“In the 8th Five Year Plan, we’ve targeted to raise the budgetary allocation to 4 percent (of GDP) from the existing 2.6 percent. To compare with international standard, we need to raise our allocation in education to 6 percent. But, if we could raise it to 4 percent, then it would be a big jump,” he said.
The Planning Commission member was addressing as chief guest a webinar titled “Right to health and education: the impact of COVID-19 and challenges to implement SDGs”.
The webinar was jointly organized by the Action for Social Development (ASD) and the Development Journalist Forum of Bangladesh (DJFB) under the sponsorship of German-based Bread for the World.
Dr Shamsul Alam said the current allocation in the health sector is 1.6 percent and it would also be a big jump if the allocation could be raised to 2 percent in line with the 8th plan.
Suggesting the policymakers to keep eyes whether the budgetary allocations are implemented accordingly to the plans, he said, “All concerned will have to remain alert so that the budgetary allocations are properly utilized in line with the plans…….if there is no such good integration between planning and budget, then those would not yield good results.”
The GED member opined that some people are receiving allowances under various social safety net programmes although they do not need such allowances, on the other hand, some deserving people are also being left out of such programmes.
Mentioning that there is misuse and mis-targeting to some extent in the social safety net programmes, Dr Alam said that the government wants to include all poor people under the social safety net programmes by 2025. He said that there is some regional disparity in the country in the fields of health services, poverty and education as the poverty rate in Narayanganj is 3 percent, which is much higher in Rangpur. “For this, we’ve kept a set of measures in the 8th Five Year Plan,” he added.
The GED member said Bangladesh has gone up the ladder of higher economic growth, although it was deterred to some extent due to the pandemic.
He said that Bangladesh has been performing well in all fields, including social, economic and climate change, thanked to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s dynamic leadership and farsighted steps.
Alam cited that there are challenges to successfully implement the SDGs especially there is a trend of increasing the poverty rate due to the COVID-19.
“But, we’ve handled the situation nicely. Although the implementation of SDGs got a strike, but we’re hoping to get back to the old path of growth in the 3rd year (8thFYP) and thus regain momentum in SDGs implementation. We’ve framed our plans in such way,” he added.
Senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) Dr Mahfuz Kabir presented the key-note paper at the virtual event chaired by ASD executive director Zamil H Chowdhury.
Senior research fellow of CPD Dr Toufiqul Islam Khan, Dhaka University Prof Dr Tania Haque, Doctor Israt Shormi, development worker Tahmina Shilpi and Protik Jubo Sangsad executive chief Sohanur Rahman spoke, among others, at the webinar.
DJFB President Humayun Kabir gave the address of welcome while Sushanto Sinha moderated the programme.
BSS/ASG/GM/GA/1653 hrs