Budget: CPD urges govt to increase allocation for social protection, edn and health

The Centre for Policy Dialogue has urged the government to allocate more funds for social protection, education and health in the next budget.

They also urged allocating funds for ensuring decent employment and labour rights for all.

The think tank made the recommendations during a press briefing regarding the upcoming budget today (5 May).

The government should also increase allocation for education (to over 3% of GDP) and for health (over 2% of GDP), recommended CPD.

The recommendations also included increasing allocation for social protection programmes (to over 3% of GDP).

Take away the pension fund out of the total social security allocation and distribute it to the actual social safety items for disadvantaged communities, said the organisation. 

"Create an accurate database of disadvantaged communities for better integration and to mitigate the 'exclusion and inclusion error' regarding the social security programmes delivery and sector-specific allocation," said the CPD in its recommendations.

Concessional loans should be given to disadvantaged communities i.e., CMSMEs, farmers, women, senior citizens, PWDs, transgender, parents of child labourers, etc, CPD also said.

"We should create market hubs for farmers and entrepreneurs (particularly for women) to facilitate sales and ensure fair prices for their products," CPD recommended.

They also emphasised technical and vocational skill development as per the global standard by considering the 27.4% NEET (not in employment, education or training) youth population.

Regarding subsidies the organisation suggested enhancing subsidies to sectors such as agriculture, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and food security programmes.

CPD suggested building a child financing strategy and establish a Child Benefit Contingency Fund to provide vital support for maintaining essential child-focused projects, particularly in instances of funding shortages or emergencies.

They also recommended ensuring accessible, separate and safe healthcare facilities for hijra and transgender communities as well as establishing a women's commission to prevent violence against women

For transparent and accountable implementation of budget the think tank said to engage citizens in monitoring public service delivery at the local to reduce corruption and ensure quality, bring structural reforms, decentralise the budget and administrative power.

The also recommended formulating monitoring cells to supervise the progress of the implementation and bring transparency.