WB to provide $300 million to Bangladesh

The World Bank (WB) will provide USD 300 million to the Bangladesh government as loan to implement a five-year project to improve livelihood, which is scheduled to begin from July.

The government will chip in USD 40 million for the "Resilience, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood Improvement (RELI) Project", raising its total cost to USD 340 million.

Signing ceremony of the financing agreement between the Economic Relations Division of Ministry of Finance, and WB; and the project agreement between WB and Social Development Foundation (SDF), the implementing agency, was held on Sunday.

Built on the success of the first and second Social Investment Programme Projects and the Nuton Jibon Livelihood Improvement Project, the RELI project will mobilise, develop and strengthen community organisations, and finance their community plans to provide cash transfers and loans for income-generating activities.

The project will provide training to almost 4,90,000 people on climate risk, adaptation, and resilience building. It will also build 5,120 climate-resilient small-scale infrastructures.

It will support rural entrepreneurs and producer groups with market linkages including e-commerce platforms, partnerships with local governments, and promotional activities, said a WB press release.

The project will also provide skills development training to the unemployed or under-employed youth and returnee migrants to increase their employability.

Fatima Yasmin, secretary of Economic Relations Division, and Mercy Miyang Tembon, WB's country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, signed the financing agreement on behalf of their respective sides.

Tembon also inked the project agreement on behalf of WB, while AZM Sakhawat Hossain, managing director of SDF, signed for the implementing agency. SDF Chairperson Md Abdus Samad was also present at the signing ceremony, according to a SDF media release.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the poor in rural areas, particularly women, by limiting their income and economic opportunities," said Tembon.

"This project will help boost the rural economy, and 90 percent of the beneficiaries will be women. The project will also help with health and nutritional awareness. When a woman earns more, her family and the community are better off," she said.

Yasmin said, "Through community mobilisation and climate-smart agriculture practices, the project will help rural women withstand any future shocks like the pandemic without falling back to poverty."