WB gives $200m to improve livelihoods of rural poor

The government yesterday signed a $200 million financing agreement with the International Development Association (IDA) for the Nuton Jibon Livelihood Improvement Project.

IDA is the World Bank's concessional arm that helps the world's poorest countries. The project aims to benefit around five million poor people in rural areas, the World Bank said in a statement. 

It will provide livelihood support and enable access to market through business partnerships to empower the rural communities, according to the statement.

"The project will mobilise the poor and extreme poor people, who often remain left out from micro credit schemes, by building and strengthening community institutions, including Nuton Jibon Community Societies."

In addition, the project will raise nutrition awareness, share agricultural knowledge and focus on enhancing youth skills so that they can take advantage of employment opportunities, the World Bank said. It will also fund small scale rural infrastructure.

"While Bangladesh has made tremendous progress in reducing poverty over the past four decades, poverty remains more pervasive in rural areas than in urban areas in Bangladesh," said Christine Kimes, acting country head for World Bank Bangladesh.

"The project will scale up the activities of predecessor programmes to improve economic wellbeing and empower the poorest households, especially poor women."

The Nuton Jibon project builds on earlier projects - Social Investment Programme Project (I & II) - which started as a pilot in Jamalpur and Gaibandha and has now expanded to 16 of the poorest districts in Bangladesh. 

The monitoring and evaluation data showed significant improvement in the incomes and living standards of project beneficiaries. The project will cover around 2,500 new villages in 12 districts in addition to the around 3,200 villages supported under the earlier projects.

"The project is a testament to the government's continued commitment for accelerating pro-poor growth," said Kazi Shofiqul Azam, additional secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD).

"Following a community driven approach, the project will increase income and create employment opportunities for the poor and extreme poor population in the rural areas."

Azam and Kimes signed the agreement at the ERD. The credit from IDA has a 38-year term, including a six-year grace period and a service charge of 0.75 percent.