UNCDF and Partners Launch New Initiative to Accelerate Achievement of Poverty Reduction Goals through Local Governments in Bangladesh

Hawa Begum, an Upazilla Project Coordinator, training local development managers on how to supervise the construction of small-scale infrastructure, and to ensure that community resources are well-spent. The experiences from this UNCDF-supported Local Development Programme in Sirajganj District have now been upscaled by the World Bank and other partners to every district throughout Bangladesh.

DHAKA - 14 September 2007: UNCDF, together with the European Community, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) joined forces with the Government Bangladesh this month to launch a new "learning and innovation" initiative to improve basic service delivery capabilities at the district level, and to strengthen the capacity of local governments to plan, finance, implement and monitor local development initiatives in partnership with local communities.

The $18.1 million project was designed to complement the ongoing Local Governance Support Project (LGSP), a national project supported by the World Bank that is promoting better local governance and local service delivery throughout the country. The LGSP was built on the experience of earlier UNCDF Local Development Programmes in Bangladesh, such as the Sirajganj Local Governance Development Fund Project, which was launched in 2000 in the central region of the country. The LGSP now covers the entire country and is being financed through a loan from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank.

"It is indeed encouraging to see how the building blocks of UNCDF's hard work in the past are being put to good use in creating a nation-wide local governance system that is producing real results on the ground for the people who need it most," said UNCDF Programme Manager Durafshan Chowdhury.

The new learning and innovation initiative provides assistance and support to all the 388 Union Parishads (districts) of Narshingdhi, Feni, Hobiganj, Sathkhira, Borguna and Sirajganj, effectively covering the entire country with one district taken from each of the country's six divisions. The World Bank recently signed a $111 million agreement with the Government of Bangladesh to support the upscaling and replication of the programme results to all 4488 Bangladeshi districts. The five-year joint programme is co-funded with parallel and pool funding from UNCDF ( US$ 2.5 million); DANIDA (US$ 2.0 million) , the European Community (US$11.7 million) and UNDP (US$ 1.7m).

UNDP interim Country Director Larry Maramis signed the project document on behalf of both UNDP and UNCDF, while Mustain Billah signed on behalf of the Government of Bangladesh.

It is expected that the new programme will provide support in five critical areas of local government responsibilty: 1) district performance-linked financing arrangements; 2) local public expenditure management procedures; 3) local accountability of local institutions; 4) the building and strengthening of institutional frameworks for human resource development and training; and 5) the formulation and expansion of national policy development and coordination related to local authorities.

For more information on UNCDF's work in Bangladesh and how it is contributing to real MDG attainment on the ground, please visit the UNCDF Bangladesh website at www.uncdf.org/bangladesh.