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UNDP rolls out $1.5m food support for urban poor


Published : 07 Apr 2020 09:27 PM | Updated : 05 Sep 2020 12:54 AM

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is rolling out $1.5m emergency food support for 50,000 extremely urban poor families in Bangladesh to cushion their impacts due to coronavirus lockdown.

It said the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the government of Bangladesh are helping them in this effort.

This emergency COVID-19 response initiative has been implemented under UNDP’s Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project (LIUPCP) – a joint project being implemented by the Local Government Division of Bangladesh, DFID and UNDP with an aim to reduce urban poverty.

“Reaching the urban poor and vulnerable very quickly and rapidly is always challenging in a global crisis like COVID-19. I am very pleased that DFID, in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh and UNDP, was able to respond so quickly,” said Judith Herbertson, DFID Bangladesh Country Representative.

COVID-19 has put Bangladesh into an unforeseen challenging situation that led the government of Bangladesh to ask for shutdown of all economic activities except for emergency services and urge people to restrict mobility and stay at home.
The government as of Tuesday confirmed 164 cases. Of them 17 died.

“What we are trying to do under this initiative, is to make things easier for the people to follow the public order – which is to stay home and prevent the virus from spreading and therefore this partnership will deliver food at the doorsteps of the poor households,” said Sudipto Mukerjee, Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh.

“We are targeting 2.16 million urban poor people to keep them safe from Coronavirus. I thank DFID for their timely support.”

The urban low-income communities in Bangladesh are exposed to high risk of infections for overcrowded living conditions with inadequate sanitation and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) facilities.

The DFID has provided £3 million to UNDP to reach at least 2.16 million people in urban slums across 20 City Corporations/Municipalities with awareness raising information and handwashing facilities.

Around 1200+ community workers, with full personal protection, are working on the ground to promote coronavirus prevention awareness including individual handwashing behavior and distribution of hygiene package that includes soap, hand sanitizer, etc. among the urban poor households.

The project has also started installation of 2500 handwashing facilities at the poor settlements and is working to sensitize and build capacities of health officials and volunteers in 20 cities.