Safety nets must shift from charity to empowerment: Social welfare adviser | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
June 12, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2025
Safety nets must shift from charity to empowerment: Social welfare adviser

Bangladesh

TBS Report
04 February, 2025, 01:15 pm
Last modified: 04 February, 2025, 01:17 pm

Related News

  • No alternative to standing beside women to prevent repression: Adviser Sharmeen
  • Global Labor Day Summit by SOLE-USA highlights worker empowerment
  • Tk800 monthly allowance for poor pregnant women not acceptable: Social welfare adviser
  • UN Human Rights Council office to be established in Dhaka soon: Adviser Sharmeen
  • Community visioning summit: Hearing from the people of Dhaka South

Safety nets must shift from charity to empowerment: Social welfare adviser

TBS Report
04 February, 2025, 01:15 pm
Last modified: 04 February, 2025, 01:17 pm
Sharmeen Murshid, adviser to the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, speaking at a workshop on 4 February. Photo: TBS
Sharmeen Murshid, adviser to the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, speaking at a workshop on 4 February. Photo: TBS

The government's safety net programmes must transform itself from a charity-based model to an empowerment-focused approach, said Sharmeen Murshid, adviser to the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, at a workshop today (4 February).

"These policies need a fundamental rethink. Safety net programmes target individual families, yet we have not identified every extreme poor family in need. Errors persist in our approach," she said.

At the workshop organised by the World Bank, she added that the Ministry of Social Welfare is developing an efficient management information (MI) system to eliminate, not just reduce, errors in targeting.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Organised by the World Bank, the workshop highlighted how several such productive inclusion efforts are being made by government and development partners, with the need to expand coverage of these efforts through the use of digitised tools to ensure effective targeting and delivery.

The workshop was part of a series of knowledge exchange consultations planned on the "Future of Social Protection in Bangladesh".

Government officials, development partners, practitioners and academia joined the workshop, which was the second event in a series of thematic consultative workshops that aimed to support social protection policies and reforms.
Speakers at the programme said Bangladesh has made key strides in expanding and strengthening social protection programmes to reduce vulnerability of poor people.

They also said by scaling up cash-based programmes with complementary "cash plus" services the country can have a stronger impact on poverty reduction.

According to a press release, the cash plus services are a bundle of coordinated livelihoods and human capital augmenting interventions including skills training, counselling, productive grants, social care services, nutrition support or climate resilient cornmunity infrastructure.

"Cash-plus social protection programmes are a vital step towards empowering vulnerable communities. By combining direct financial assistance with crucial support services such as livelihood training, behavioral change, and nutrition intake – cash plus programmes help build human capital, break the cycle of poverty, and make communities resilient to economic and climate-related shocks," said Gayle Martin, World Bank Interim Country Director.

The workshop featured insights and experiences from development partners, key government counterparts, including the Finance Division, Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation, Department of Disaster Management, Department of Social Services, and the Department of Women Affairs.
 

Top News

Empowerment / Social Welfare Adviser Sharmeen S Murshid

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Govt to set up Debt Office as loan burden to hit Tk29 lakh cr by FY28
    Govt to set up Debt Office as loan burden to hit Tk29 lakh cr by FY28
  • Keir Starmer declines to meet CA Yunus: FT report
    Keir Starmer declines to meet CA Yunus: FT report
  • Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    UK crime agency now freezes assets of ex-land minister Saifuzzaman: AJ

MOST VIEWED

  • File photo of ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Photo: Collected
    Joy spends Eid with Hasina in India: Indian media
  • Infofgraphics: TBS
    DGHS issues 11-point directive to prevent spread of Covid-19 in Bangladesh
  • Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    UK crime agency now freezes assets of ex-land minister Saifuzzaman: AJ
  • File photo of BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    Khasru flies to London ahead of Yunus-Tarique meeting
  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus speaks at the Chatham House in London on 11 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    No desire to be part of next elected govt: CA Yunus
  • Illustration: Khandaker Abidur Rahman/TBS
    Three hospitals ‘held hostage’ as discharged July uprising injured keep occupying beds

Related News

  • No alternative to standing beside women to prevent repression: Adviser Sharmeen
  • Global Labor Day Summit by SOLE-USA highlights worker empowerment
  • Tk800 monthly allowance for poor pregnant women not acceptable: Social welfare adviser
  • UN Human Rights Council office to be established in Dhaka soon: Adviser Sharmeen
  • Community visioning summit: Hearing from the people of Dhaka South

Features

Among pet birds in the country, lovebirds are the most common, and they are also the most numerous in the haat. Photo: Junayet Rashel

Where feathers meet fortune: How a small pigeon stall became Dhaka’s premiere bird market

15h | Panorama
Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

1d | Features
File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

2d | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

4d | Bangladesh

More Videos from TBS

Why is Omicron XBB more contagious?

Why is Omicron XBB more contagious?

11h | TBS Stories
What did Dr. Yunus say at the Chatham House Dialogue in London?

What did Dr. Yunus say at the Chatham House Dialogue in London?

12h | TBS Today
News of The Day, 11 JUNE 2025

News of The Day, 11 JUNE 2025

13h | TBS News of the day
WB predicts worst decade for global growth since 60s

WB predicts worst decade for global growth since 60s

15h | TBS Stories
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net