DHAKA: With a unique support in social resilience program, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday approved a USD 250 million policy-based loan to the government of Bangladesh to help finance reforms aimed at improving the inclusiveness and responsiveness of the country's social development and resilience program.

The Strengthening Social Resilience Program will include institutional and policy reforms to address cross-sector issues of social development in Bangladesh, said the Manila-based lender in a statement received here Friday. "Enhancing social protection support is critical to cushioning the effects of the pandemic," said ADB Senior Social Sector Specialist for South Asia Hiroko Uchimura-Shiroishi.

Other reforms include promoting the use of mobile financial services and simplifying identification and documentation requirements for opening a bank account. It also seeks to broaden the scope of social protection from mere poverty relief to life cycle social and health responses, including social insurance. 

Shiroishi said, "ADB supports the government's intention to leverage the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to strengthen its social protection programs as an essential means of building the resilience of the poor and supporting an inclusive recovery." According to the statement, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty over the past two decades. The poverty incidence declined from 48.9 percent in 2000 to 20.5 percent in 2019, it added.

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