The World Bank (WB) has approved $350 million in grant financing for three projects to help Bangladesh cope with one of the world’s largest forced exodus.
These grants will help Bangladesh address the needs of the host communities and the displaced Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar district for health services, response to gender-based violence, social protection, basic services and infrastructure, said a WB press release on Wednesday.
World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Mercy Tembon said: “Bangladesh has shown great leadership by providing shelter to around 1.1 million Rohingya, which is about three times of the local population in Teknaf and Ukhia upazilas."
“Naturally, this has placed immense strain on existing infrastructure and social service delivery, and increased health and disaster risks.”
“The three grants will cater to the needs of both the host and Rohingya communities. At the same time, they will strengthen the country’s service delivery capacity and increase resilience to natural disaster and climate change,” he said
The $150 million Health and Gender Support Project for Cox’s Bazar will enable 3.6 million people including the Rohingya to have access to health, nutrition and family planning services as well as address gender-based violence through preventive and response services.
The $100 million additional financing to the Emergency Multi-Sector Rohingya Crisis Response Project will scale up access to energy, water, sanitation and disaster-resilient infrastructures for the Rohingya and the surrounding host communities.
The $100 million additional financing to the Safety Net Systems for the Poorest Project will help provide livelihoods and income support to poor and vulnerable households in the host communities using an existing national safety net program, Employment Generation Program for the Poorest; and scale-up social assistance coverage to the Rohingya under the Emergency Multi-Sector Rohingya Crisis Response Project.
The additional financing will benefit 40,000 host community households and 85,000 Rohingya households.
With these three grants, the World Bank has provided a total of $480 million in grants to enable Bangladesh to deal with the displaced population inflow.