The Impact of Social Safety Net Programmes on Poverty Reduction in Bangladesh: An Evidence from Old Age Allowance

Abstract

Poverty among the rural poor elderly people is a crucial issue for Bangladesh since most of the people live in a rural area and rural people are more poor and vulnerable compared to the urban population. The Old Age Allowance Program (OAAP), under Social Safety Net Programmes (SSNPs), is one of the initiatives and interventions of government to solve this problem. This study tried to explore the effectiveness of OAAP for reducing poverty among its beneficiaries, rural poor elderly people, through qualitative methodology by applying semi-structure interview and secondary sources. The findings of the present research showed that OAAP has a positive impact on reducing poverty among the rural poor elderly people. Especially OAAP ensures the access of its beneficiaries to improve food and calorie, including increasing their status within their families as well as in society. However, outcomes also suggested ensuring more transparency during the enlisting stage of beneficiaries along with increasing allowance money and coverage, involving local civil society during the primary stage of enlisting beneficiaries,  more publicity program for raising awareness among the targeted people, reducing complexity during withdrawal of allowance etc. Therefore, allocation of this benefit can be distributed based on the area, and the demographic structure of a particular district and Upazila and age can also be reduced for the rural poor women.