The World Bank will lend about $1.1bn for three projects in Bangladesh in a bid to provide benefit for almost 36 million people in the country.
The lending aims at improving the quality of primary education, building the coastal communities’ resilience to natural disaster and increasing nutrition and cognitive development of children from the poorest households, the bank said in a statement yesterday.
The three projects are $400mn additional financing for third primary education development programme, $375mn for multipurpose disaster shelter project and $300mn for income support programme for the poorest community.
The credits are from the International Development Association (IDA), the WB’s concessional lending arm, and have 38 years to maturity with a six-year grace period and carry a service charge of 0.75%.
“These three projects weave a strong story of complementarity in the World Bank’s efforts to create opportunities for the poor by using cash transfers for mothers to promote better nutrition at home, helping children take advantage of pre-primary education under the primary education program and providing school infrastructure in vulnerable coastal zones,”said Johannes Zutt, World Bank country director for Bangladesh.
The additional financing for the ongoing $300mn third primary education development programme (PEDP3) would continue to improve the primary education sector by increasing net enrollment to 98% and the primary completion rate to 80%.
The project would also continue efforts to ensure merit-based teacher recruitment and fill in vacant school positions. It will ensure textbook delivery to 90% of the schools within the first month of the school year.
“The additional financing for the government-led programme will contribute to bring 19 million Bangladeshi primary school-aged children to school, provide them with quality learning and ensure that they complete the primary school cycle,” said Ayesha Vawda, World Bank Task team Leader for PEDP3.
In addition to bringing in more children into the primary cycle, the programme would continue the introduction of pre-primary education, especially in disadvantaged areas, and enhance quality of the school facilities and infrastructure.
The Multipurpose Disaster Shelter Project (MDSP) aims to make the coastal population less vulnerable to natural disasters. The project will construct 552 new multipurpose disaster shelters, improve 450 existing shelters and build connecting roads and communication networks for easy accessibility to nine coastal districts.
“The project will benefit 14mn people in coastal areas living in the front line of climate change,” said Anna C. O’Donnell, World Bank task team leader for MDSP.
“The project will introduce steel shelter designs for the first time in Bangladesh for improved construction quality and durability.”
Despite Bangladesh’s remarkable record in reducing poverty over the last three decades, the presence of high numbers of extremely poor people poses a daunting development challenge.
The Income Support Program for the Poorest (ISPP) project will benefit 10% of the extremely poor population, or 2.7 million people in 42 of the poorest upazilas in the country.
The project will provide income support for about 6,00,000 poorest mothers in exchange for participating in activities aimed to improve their children’s nutrition and cognitive development.
Monthly cash transfers will be electronically disbursed into these mothers’ post office accounts using smart cash cards.
“Ensuring adequate nutrition prenatally and in the first two years of life helps to maximise a child’s brain development and health. Helping a child’s growth and cognitive development in the initial five years is critical to boost the earnings capacity in the later years of life and to prevent the transmission of poverty across generations,” said Iffath Sharif, World Bank task team leader, ISPP.
