Benefit Level Analysis of Maternity Allowance Programme for the Poor in Bangladesh: Social Protection research brief

This research brief presents the ‘Cost of the Diet’ (CotD) analysis conducted in Sylhet and Moulvibazar to assess how much of a nutritious diet the above three ‘Maternity Allowance’ (MA) transfer values (500, 800 and 1,000 BDT) can cover, and what the affordability gap is (i.e. the difference between the cost of a nutritious diet and household income).

This is done at two levels:

1.  Individual-level: assessing dietary affordability gaps during pregnancy and lactation (i.e. during the first 1,000 days)
2. Household-level: to account for the broader household economic unit to provide a more accurate estimate of dietary affordability gaps:

• Suchana beneficiary households: using primary data to assess the needs of Suchana households
• Households at the lower and upper poverty line for Sylhet division: using secondary data from the Preliminary Report on Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016 to inform broader policy recommendations