The government and the World Bank yesterday launched a cash benefit programme for the poorest mothers and pregnant women.
Under the Jawtno Programme, 600,000 women will receive financial help in exchange for their participation in activities to improve their children's nutrition and cognitive development, the WB said in a statement.
At the launch at Bhurungamari in Kurigram, 51 poor mothers received help ranging from Tk 2,500 to Tk 3,000 through bio-metrically secured cash cards of the post office.
The multilateral donor is contributing $300 million or Tk 2,370 crore in the programme, which will also benefit over 10 lakh children. The beneficiary mothers and pregnant women will receive quarterly electronic cash transfers for utilising services related to the health and development of children under the age of five at the community clinics, the WB said.
“The Jawtno Programme will contribute to the empowerment of women, which will help Bangladesh achieve sustainable development goals and reduce poverty,” Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said at the launch.
“The programme will also establish safety net cells at the union parishads, which will strengthen the union parishad's capacity to implement safety net programmes. As a result, I believe, sustainable development will be ensured.”
“Despite Bangladesh's remarkable progress in immunisation coverage, and infant mortality reduction, about 36 percent of children under five are stunted,” said Qimiao Fan, World Bank country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.
“The children from poor households bear a disproportionate burden of stunted growth,” he said.
“The World Bank places a high priority on supporting Bangladesh to improve the nutrition and cognitive development of children in their early years,” Fan said.
The Jawtno Programme focuses on prenatal care, and young children's nutrition and cognitive development, and these efforts help poor children to do better in adult life.”
The Programme will select eligible beneficiaries using the National Household Database being developed by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
An automated management information system will help the programme monitor beneficiary enrollment, attendance, payments and grievances, the WB said.
The programme will be implemented in 43 upazilas with a high prevalence of poverty and malnutrition in Jamalpur, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, and Nilphamari.
The programme is built upon the success of the pilot Shombhob, which found that beneficiary households experienced an increase in consumption of nutritious foods and children's health outcomes when cash transfers were linked to the use of growth monitoring and nutritional counseling services.
The programme will also strengthen the capacity of the union parishads to administer the conditional cash transfer programme; community clinics to deliver nutrition counseling, growth monitoring and child cognitive development services; and the union post offices to use biometric technology for cash transfers.