$54.8m deal signed to improve infrastructure in coastal chars

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Netherlands, the government of Bangladesh will provide USD54.8 million to Bangladesh for livelihood development of 57,000 poor small and marginal farmers under Char Development and Settlement Project-Phase IV.

An agreement was signed between Gilbert F Houngbo, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and Nahid Rashid, additional secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) today.

More than 342,000 people in southeast Bangladesh living on coastal chars created by silt deposits will be benefitted from new financing, a statement of ERD said.

The $54.8 million fund will be utilised for a three-year extension of the successful Char Development and Settlement Project – Phase IV.

Of the total fund IFAD will provide $20.6 million, the Netherlands $5.7 million, the government of Bangladesh $24.7 million, NGOs $3.7 million and the contributions of beneficiaries themselves $0.1 million.

Though Bangladesh has graduated to lower middle-income status, more than 24 per cent of the population – or some 40 million people - lives below the poverty line. With two thirds of its territory less than five metres above sea level, Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

During the financing period, more than 57,000 poor small and marginal farmer households living on the chars of the Meghna estuary in the Bhola, Chattogram and Noakhali districts will be benefited directly from the project.

Over 90 per cent of them are particularly poor and disadvantaged, including landless and marginalized farmers and women.  The aim of the project is to increase farm incomes and food production leading to higher living standards and food security.