Abstract

Bangladesh is a developing and poorer country in the world. The 2010 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) indicates around 31.6 percent of its population lives under the national poverty line. This has led to the implementation of many social safety net (SSN) programs to address the issue of poverty. In the fiscal year 2009/10, the Bangladesh government allocated 15.22 percent of total budget for SSN program that accounts to 2.52 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The main objective of this paper is to assess the impact of the SSNs programs on level of poverty reduction in Bangladesh. The study employs time series analysis on the 1996 – 2010 spending on SSN and poverty rate data. Statistical analysis indicates negative relationship between SSN expenditure and poverty rates. This implies that SSNs programs have reached the struggling poor as well as have helped the deprived part of the country’s people to pick them up of poverty situation.

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