This study measures the impact of a dashboard depicting the data of needs and allocations of social welfare programs at the Upazila level, created under the joint initiative of BIGD and IGC. To measure the impact, BIGD will conduct a Randomized Control Trial evaluation, which will be carried out on the sub-district level.
Researchers: Munshi Sulaiman; Sheikh Touhidul Hoque; Md. Anik Islam; Saadman Faisal
Partner: International Growth Centre (IGC)
Timeline: 2025-2027
Status: Ongoing
Contact: Saadman Faisal; saadman.faisal@bracu.ac.bd
Context
The Bangladesh government has allocated over BDT 1,262 billion (2.5 percent of the GDP) as the Social Welfare Budget in the fiscal year of 2023-24. Field administrators, typically the Union Nirbahi Officer (UNO), covering the 495 Upazilas or sub-districts of the country, are primarily responsible for overseeing their implementations. However, the allocation decisions are blighted by nepotism and electoral politics, resulting in misallocation, where some Upazila get more money than needed, and some get less. Inadequate data management systems and practices of the government and its agencies, specifically within the UNO office, remain a core reason behind the inefficiencies. Policymakers and experts agree that using a reliable national database could improve targeting.
A dashboard depicting the data of needs and allocations of social welfare programs at the Upazila-level, created under the joint initiative of BIGD and IGC, has the potential to address the misallocation by promoting data-driven decision-making. The local officials and communities identified social protection as a priority topic for the dashboard, as identified in the scoping report for the IGC-Datahub project. Utilising the dashboard is expected to improve equity in allocating social welfare funds based on the eligible population.
Objective
The objective of this RCT is to test whether providing local government officials with access to improved data tools (via the Datahub dashboard) can reduce errors in social safety net allocation. Specifically, the study aims to measure impacts on officials’ reliance on data, accuracy in targeting, and reduction of inclusion/exclusion errors in fund distribution.
Methodology
To measure the impact of the dashboard, BIGD will conduct a Randomized Control Trial evaluation. The evaluation will be carried out at the sub-district level, where 100 sub-districts will be randomly chosen to utilise the dashboard to make decisions regarding their social welfare program, while 150 sub-districts will be part of the control group. The research will monitor the increase or decrease of the social welfare funds and other essential variables a year later. The study will also compare the overall requisite distribution of the social welfare fund, given the poverty level, to each sub-district distribution to better compare various sub-districts.
Findings and Recommendations
Forthcoming.
