Vienna, Virginia, USA, 27 May, 2016 – In May 2016, the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank selected the consortium of Synergy International Systems, Inc. and Synesis IT , a local IT company, to develop Management Information Systems for the Bangladesh Safety Net Systems for the Poorest Project (SNSP).
As part of the project, two separate but fully integrated government information systems will be developed: a Social Safety Net System for the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR), and a National Household Database (NHD) for the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The Social Safety Net System will cover the country’s five main social assistance programs run by MoDMR’s Department of Disaster Management (DDM), the body responsible for implementing and overseeing the largest safety net programs and humanitarian assistance programs in Bangladesh.
The National Household Database (NHD) of the Bureau of Statistics will be used to better target the poor in the five safety net programs. The system will calculate the poverty score of all households in the country based on predefined eligibility criteria to identify the target groups for safety net programs. The Database will cover 37 million households and include around 160 million personal profiles. It will also be synchronized with the Electoral Commission’s database.
“The implementation of these MIS systems will improve the selection of vulnerable populations, allowing the Government of Bangladesh to efficiently administer social safety net programs, make cash transfers transparently, and take well-informed decisions,” said Synergy’s Project Manager Diana Gurzadyan, who was recently in Dhaka, the capital city, to launch the project and carry out a needs assessment. “It will improve the equity, efficiency and transparency of major safety net programs, and it will ultimately ensure the proper delivery of social services to targeted groups”.
Synergy was awarded the project through a World Bank competitive international bidding. The company recently developed similar social assistance MIS for the Governments of Timor-Leste, Maldives and Bahamas.
