The World Bank yesterday approved $515 million for three projects in Bangladesh, part of which will help host communities in Cox's Bazar who have been affected by the Rohingya influx.

A World Bank (WB) statement said this will help alleviate poverty and create new livelihood opportunities, including for the local communities, in the Cox's Bazar district hosting Rohingyas who fled violence in Myanmar.

The projects will improve coastal and marine fisheries, forest management and rural roads, the WB said.

“These three projects will create opportunities for the rural population and especially help lift vulnerable people out of poverty,” said Qimiao Fan, World Bank country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.

According to the WB statement, the $175 million Sustainable Forests and Livelihoods Project will help improve forest cover through a collaborative management approach involving the local communities.

“The project will support enhancing income through alternative activities for about 40,000 households in the coastal, hill and central districts of the country,” said Madhavi Pillai, World Bank senior natural resources management specialist and task team leader for the project.

This will include Cox's Bazar where nearly one million Rohingyas have taken shelter. The project will particularly help the host communities through its income generation activities -- improving the availability of wood for fuel in a sustainable way and reducing human-wild elephant conflict which has affected parts of the district, the WB said.

The $240 million Sustainable Coastal and Marine Fisheries Project will help improve fisheries management, expand mariculture and strengthen aquaculture biosecurity and productivity.

In 10 coastal districts, the project will set up community co-management associations with the fishing communities -- enabling them to adopt supplementary and alternative livelihoods. It will also empower female workers through alternative livelihoods support, skills development, and nutrition awareness.

“Fisheries are vital to the country's food security and the sector employs more than 18 million people,” said Milen Dyoulgerov, World Bank senior environment specialist and task team leader for the project. “The project will help improve fisheries management systems, infrastructure, and other value chain investments. This will result in better productivity and availability of fish.” 

The project will also help expand the current fisher ID card system, which will be linked with the geographic information system platform. It will also improve vessel registration and licensing for fishing.

The $100 million additional financing to the Second Rural Transport Improvement Project will help rehabilitate rural roads in 26 districts that were damaged from last year's heavy rainfall and floods. The ongoing project has improved and repaired more than 5,000km rural roads that helped millions of people access markets, hospitals, and schools. The financing will factor in climate-resilience in planning, technical design, implementation and maintenance of the roads.

The World Bank has already signed an agreement with Bangladesh to provide $75 million grant for Rohingya people. This is part of $480 million grant announced in June.