A/HRC/15/55* activities. In the most recent draft of its Perspective Plan for the period 2010–2021, the Government of Bangladesh reaffirmed its commitment to poverty reduction and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. The Plan highlights the Government’s decision to provide effective safety nets and targeted social assistance programmes, and lists a number of initiatives to be supported and enhanced. It acknowledges that a comprehensive social security system is necessary to implement vision 2021. 80. The National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction II and the Perspective Plan demonstrate the great importance given to social protection in government planning. Indeed, the budget allocated to running them has been increasing, reaching around 2 per cent of GDP for social safety nets alone. These can be cash or food support, microcredit or other specific programmes for poverty alleviation, such as the promotion of access to basic health-care services and public schools. There are over 40 safety net programmes administered by several ministries, including those for social welfare, food and disaster management, women’s and children’s affairs, local government and rural development, and freedom fighters’ affairs. Many of the programmes are also implemented in collaboration with non-governmental organizations. 81. The independent expert welcomes the Government’s explicit recognition of the need to invest in social protection to reduce poverty, as demonstrated by the priority given to social protection in the National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction II and the Perspective Plan. Through these commitments, Bangladesh also clearly recognizes its role as a duty-bearer for the rights to social security and to an adequate standard of living. Despite these commitments, the positive effects of existing programmes do not reach their full potential owing to weaknesses in the implementation and design of the programmes. In the section below, the expert reviews different social assistance programmes and examines the enforcement of labour standards. 1. Cash-transfer programmes for education 82. Bangladesh has implemented a system of cash transfers to promote education, such as the Primary Education Stipend Programme and the Female Secondary School Assistance Project. The Primary Education Stipend Programme, launched in 2002, benefited more than 5 million children from rural areas in 2005.29 The selection process is delegated to school managing committees supervised by education officials. The Female Secondary School Assistance Project was launched nationally in 1994 to promote gender parity in secondary and higher education, and thereby delaying marriage and motherhood. Married girls are excluded from the stipend. In 2005, nearly 2.3 million girls were enrolled in the programme.30 83. The above-mentioned programmes resemble a conditional cash transfer on the basis of compliance with attendance rates and a required minimum level of performance. Either the mothers (in the Primary Education Stipend Programme) or the girls (in the Female Secondary School Assistance Project) are held responsible for complying with these conditions. The programmes have been reported as being generally successful in raising enrolment rates. Particularly commendable is the progress made in eliminating gender disparity at the primary and secondary levels. While in the past, education attainment for Bangladeshi women was among the lowest in the world, Bangladesh now reports gender equality in enrolment. 29 30 20 Baseline survey of the Second Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP-II), draft report, Dhaka, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education. Schurmann A., “Review of the Bangladesh Female Secondary School Stipend Project using a social exclusion framework”, Journal of Health Population and Nutrition, August 2009. GE.10-15451