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According to a survey, during the COVID-19-initiated lockdown period in Bangladesh last year, more than one-third of the rice allocated for the five million ultra-poor people did not receive.
Under its flagship Food Friendly Program (FFC), the government sanctioned highly-subsidized (Tk10 per kg) rice – 90 kilograms for each of the beneficiaries – over a three-month period from March to May in 2020 in a bid to protect the ultra-poor from economic hardship during the nationwide lockdown.
Now, a recent survey carried out in Bangladesh by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has found that only 64% of the respondents received the full 60kg for March-April 2020.
When the government extended the food aid benefit program for the poor for another month in May, two thirds of the beneficiaries did not actually receive the fill amount they were entitled to in the month, according to the survey.
A previous survey conducted by IFPRI on the same Food Friendly Program in 2018 had found a much better distribution scenario, with 86% of the beneficiaries receiving their full entitlement.
On average, the poor received less than 50Kg of rice each against their 60-kg entitlement for March-April 2020. In the pre-Covid-19 period – during the corresponding months of 2018 – they received on average a much higher volume 57.5 kg, though still 2.5 Kg short of their full 60kg entitlement.
As the government now plans to continue with the low-price FFC and other food aid programs for the poor during the protracted pandemic situation, Washington-based IFPRI has urged the government to set up a unit within the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) of the Ministry of Food to monitor and report on progress of food distribution among the poor and vulnerable.
“The financial and human costs of excluding poor individuals from these social safety nets are large,” notes IFPRI.
The IFPRI researchers, who conducted the phone survey late last year and are preparing its final report, also called for developing a small sample phone survey to generate real or almost real-time analysis on the FFP - as well as other programs - for policy makers.
“Particularly in times of Covid-19, technology-based solutions that enable the collection of information while adhering to norms of social distance are the need of the hour. To supplement the quick and lean phone surveys, there is also a need to carry out larger evaluations periodically, taking into consideration the limits placed by safety and resources,” they said.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare many vulnerabilities in our economic systems and shown us just how precarious the lives of the poor really are. We have a chance now to invest time and effort into designing robust, generous, and efficient safety nets to prepare ourselves for another calamity of this magnitude and ensure that we avert a crisis of hunger. Let this opportunity not go to waste.”
The IFPRI survey findings come at a time when the Food Ministry has also acknowledged at a parliamentary watchdog body meeting that one seventh of the total five million OMS (open market sale) cards, distributed during last year’s lockdown period, have been found to be fake.
According to the Food Ministry, the government distributed 2.78 million tons of food in the 2019-20 financial year under the public food distribution system (PFDS) and a third of that volume was distributed under the Food Friendly Program. The ministry’s last food situation report also says the government has plans to increase the quantity of foodgrain to be distributed under the PFDS for the upcoming months through various safety net programs, to cater to the additional demand due to Covid-19. See details...
Source: Online/SZK
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