DFID aid to rise
The Department for International Development (DFID) will spend £1 billion for Bangladesh until 2015 to encourage private investment, help the government deliver, finance social services and provide better schooling to more children.
The UK-based development organisation will raise its spending to £250 million from £150 million a year for the next four years in different areas that include family planning and reduction of maternal deaths in Bangladesh.
It was disclosed at the launch of DFID's operational plan for 2011-2015 at the Lakeshore Hotel in the capital yesterday.
Chris Austin, country representative of DFID Bangladesh, said, "The UK wants to change lives and deliver results in Bangladesh."
He said the DFID can claim some credit for Bangladesh's progress in reducing maternal deaths, increased enrolment of both boys and girls in primary schools, creation of jobs and many other areas.
"We have helped in these areas with the government's own objectives. Over the next four years, we want to work on all those areas and more on a bigger scale so that the majority of Bangladeshis, who are fairly on low level of income have best opportunities to improve their own lives," said Austin.
For Bangladesh, UK's bilateral aid programme areas include education, health, poverty, hunger and vulnerability, climate change, governance and security, wealth creation, and water and sanitation.
"Our central focus is on results, accountability and transparency. We will work coherently with Bangladesh's sixth Five Year Plan," said Diana Dalton, deputy country representative of DFID Bangladesh, in her presentation.
"We will continue to seek a range of modalities, to spread fiduciary risk and allow for innovation. We will work in partnership with government, civil society, the private sector and other donors. We will prioritise maximising the coherence and effectiveness of all external aid to Bangladesh.”
Dalton said DFID's priorities will include strengthening the state's capability and resilience to help Bangladesh do better in meeting the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable.
"The DFID will support inclusive political settlements and democratic processes, strengthen core functions of government, strengthen the public's ability to hold government and local officials to account and provide more support for basic social services through an increased investment in government-led approaches and continued support for non-state provision for the poorest or most marginalised," Dalton said.
The DFID will focus on the poorest 10 percent of the population in both urban and rural areas as part of its efforts to improve people's ability to get out of poverty, she said.
"The DFID will expand programmes to strengthen the business climate in order to increase foreign and domestic investment; at the household level, expand initiatives to increase access to credit and to markets; and strengthen the labour market through skill development, linked to market demand and private sector provision."
Dalton urged the country's civil society to play a transformative role to help the government eradicate poverty, and function as a watchdog to improve governance, transparency and accountability.
Academics, civil society members, and representatives from non-governmental organisations and international donor agencies were present there.
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