By Göran Jonsson
Senior Programme Adviser
UNDP Bangladesh

Op-Eds

Can Bangladesh become a welfare state?
March 12, 2017

“The National Social Security Strategy approved by the Cabinet in 2015 points to a strong political commitment of Bangladesh to become a welfare state. The welfare state has potential to provide economic security, advance opportunities and ensure wellbeing for all and should, therefore, be of shared interest to citizens of different walks of life.
Welfare states come in different shapes, determined foremost by whether universal or selective policies are chosen. However, common to all is that the state as a provider of social security assumes responsibility for guaranteeing a minimum level of welfare to its citizens. This happens to be the majority view in Bangladesh and it is also a mandate of the state as laid down in the country’s Constitution. Poverty reduction has become a unifying moral issue in political discourse and culture. These are good starting points.”

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