The Cabinet Division, as the coordinating authority for implementation of the National Social Security
Strategy (NSSS) of Bangladesh, organized a flagship event titled as ‘Dissemination workshop on NSSS
Action Plan, Phase – II (2021-26) Baseline Assessment and Way Forward on 06-13 October 2022 at
Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, Dhaka. With support from DFAT from the Government
of Australia, and UNDP, the Social Security Policy Support (SSPS) Programme of the Cabinet Division
and the General Economics Division (GED) of Planning Commission provided technical assistance in
organizing the Dissemination workshop on NSSS Action Plan, Phase – II (2021-26) Baseline
Assessment.

The inaugural ceremony of the Dissemination workshop on NSSS Action Plan, Phase – II (2021-26)
Baseline Assessment was graced by the presence of Mr. Khandker Anwarul Islam, Cabinet Secretary,
Government of Bangladesh as the Chief Guest. Ms. Sharifa Khan, Senior Secretary, Economic Relation
Division (ERD) and Dr. Md Kawser Ahmed, Member (Secretary) General Economics Division (GED)
adorned the occasion by their kind presence as a Special Guest while Mr. Md Shamsul Arefin, Secretary
,Coordination and Reforms, Cabinet Division made the keynote presentation to set the tone of the whole
workshop.

The workshop became even more significant with the vibrant presence of the heads/representatives of
the development partners as guests of honour including Assistant Resident Representative, United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bangladesh, Country Director, ILO, Bangladesh, First
Secretary, Development Cooperation, Australian High Commission, Bangladesh, Head of DFID
Bangladesh; and, Head of Cooperation, European Union. The workshop was participated, among
others, by representatives of social protection implementing ministries, practitioners, academics, NGOs
and private sector organizations.

The main objective of Dissemination workshop on NSSS Action Plan, Phase – II (2021-26) Baseline
Assessment and Way Forward was to disseminate the NSSS Action Plan, Phase – II (2021-26) and
discuss the scopes along with:

Evaluate/assess the baseline of the NSSS action plan implementation towards its agreed
concrete action plans implementation status to drive forward as a welfare nation.

• Accelerate capacity building of the social protection stakeholders’ particularly of the filed level
  agencies and departments in the social protection sector in Bangladesh.
• Increase awareness and understanding of the social protection stakeholders on the NSSS and
  the NSSS Action Plan Phase-II
• Continue the reform momentum for an effective social protection system that aligns with
  emerging needs.
• Set further reform agendas, which would mark a significant move towards achieving permanent
  graduation for middle-income country status, 8th Five Year Plan (July 2020 – June 2025), SDGs
  2030, and Bangladesh as a welfare state by 2041, where all citizens will be guaranteed with a
  minimum level of economic security and wellbeing.
• Harness and share experiences on implementation including innovative financing of social
  protection programmes and promoting the exchange of best practices among national and
  international partners.
• Initiate discussions around the agencies and institutions for agreed social security reforms at
  both programmatic and institution levels.

It was a wider consultative process paving the way for further reforms in social protection portfolio of
Bangladesh in line with national social development goals of the country. The conference would provide
important inputs for the upcoming 8th Five Year Plan 2021-2026.

The five-day long programme was divided into several sessions which included the inaugural ceremony,
five working sessions and a dialogue followed by a short wrap up session. The inaugural ceremony
featured a keynote presentation on ‘Implementation NSSS Action Plan, Phase – II (2021-26) ‘by Mr. Md
Shamsul Arefin, Secretary, Coordination and Reforms, Cabinet Division.

Specific thematic areas of social protection were deliberated upon during the working sessions, each
of which featuring several presentations and discussions by renowned scholars and practitioners. The
conference came up with recommendations that some of the NSSS agenda like consolidation of smaller
programmes, single registry Management Information System (MIS), Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
mechanism and Government to Person (G2P) direct payment system should be meaningfully
implemented without delay as timeline for those have already exceeded.