More aid, strict health rules can save lives, livelihoods: Experts

The social safety net has to be broadened to effectively enforce lockdown while the transmission of the virus has to be controlled through strict health safety guidelines, experts have suggested.

At a discussion organised by Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies on Sunday, they said both lives and livelihoods should be prioritised equally, and the authority should devise mechanisms to open different sectors of the economy, provided that they would follow health guidelines strictly.

Instead of focusing on economic growth, the government has to ensure social safety, the speakers said at the virtual programme titled "Covid-19: Linking Economic and Health Concerns", with Planning Minister MA Mannan as the chief guest.

Former adviser to the caretaker government Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud said compliance with lockdown measures and restrictions depended upon economic power.

Social safety net has to be broadened to effectively enforce lockdown, he said.

Considering economic realities, protocols have to be adopted not as severe as restrictions of lockdown or not as lenient as the primary health guidelines, Wahiduddin said, adding that economic fallout should be equalised across the population.

He insisted on masking in public places, social distancing, maintaining queues at kitchen markets, keeping alternate seats vacant in public transports, permitting shops of different areas to open by rotation and restricting entry of customers in shops at a time.

Wahiduddin also suggested bringing the newly poor people within the purview of the social safety net and opening up sectors that employ poor people.

"The toughest challenge will be to generate employment through economic revival by keeping the coronavirus transmission within control," he said. Also, attaining sustainable development goals and resumption of poverty alleviation will be difficult.

Economic adviser to the prime minister Dr Mashiur Rahman also emphasised the importance of social safety, social welfare and health guidelines.

He said tax waiver, tax rebate and tax rate should be carefully determined in the upcoming budget. If the revenue does not increase, it becomes difficult for the government to provide services, Mashiur said.

Measures taken by Bangladesh Bank to increase cash flow have led to excess liquidity, he said, adding that the situation of the financial sector was still opaque because unpaid loans were not yet considered defaults.

Though the government is sincere about raising the number of beneficiaries of the social safety net, it has not been possible due to complications in listing people to get benefits. Mashiur said.

"It is quite challenging in rural areas to determine who should benefit."

Planning Minister MA Mannan said isolation is the most effective way to prevent spread of Covid infections but impossible to implement when economic aspects come into play.

The government is striving to minimize the loss of lives and livelihoods, he said. A lack of money forced it to allocate less than required to some sectors but increasing allocations is not always the solution.

His ministry had approved health projects quickly and the Planning Commission, finance ministry or the government did not have a lack of sincerity in this regard.

But he acknowledged that the health ministry had failed to implement a budget in dealing with Covid-19 and that its spending capacity needed a boost.

BIDS Director General Binayak Sen pointed out that the revised target of 6.1 % GDP growth was not realistic. "Even 5% growth will be a great achievement."

The health ministry's inability to spend the excess allocations to tackle the pandemic has become a grave concern, he said.

Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor of the a2i Programme of the ICT Division, said the app launched to trace contacts of Covid patients did not work well.

A risk management data system has been put in place from national to district level, which should be extended to upazila level. 

Educational institutions have remained shut for 14 months, he said, adding that the education ministry has to make plans to overcome the crisis.

All the think tanks should be brought together to generate information about the impacts of Covid-19, said renowned economist Rehman Sobhan, chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

The government could not implement lockdown as it should be and the failure was compounded by a dearth of data that could help it provide support to those who needed it, he added.

Dr. Meerjady Sabrina Flora, ADG of the Directorate General of Health Services, said the lack of information was the main hindrance to controlling the pandemic. "The knowledge [about data] was already limited. Now the information we get is not a hundred percent accurate."

Claiming that the decision to bring in the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine from India was correct, she said the storage of the Pfizer vaccine is expensive. Now Chinese Sinopharm vaccine will be imported, which is cost effective and easily stored, Sabrina added.

Referring to surveys by Brac and two other organisations, Asif Ashraf, director of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said 87% workers had informed that their workplaces had safety measures, 94% were aware of health guidelines and 91% received personal protective equipment from garment owners.