The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has received World Bank’s grant to work in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar with the support of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
It said they received a contribution of $35 million from the World Bank which is part of a larger grant of $165 million from the Washington-based lender to the Bangladesh government. The WFP is the implementing part of the overall project.
The $35 million grant will go toward providing work opportunities and community services to Rohingya.
This includes food assistance support to 700,000 people as part of the COVID-19 humanitarian response in the camps.
Post COVID-19 restrictions, the project will scale up self-reliance opportunities for extremely vulnerable families in the camps and target young people with volunteering opportunities to promote social cohesion.
The self-reliance programmes aim to improve the economic and social resilience of 60,000 forcibly displaced Rohingya households.
The project will provide work opportunities for around 40,000 Rohingya households which is equivalent to reaching more than 20 percent of the camp population, to help improve camp conditions through public works such as site, accessibility, and drainage improvement as well as reforestation.
“I hope the implementation of this agreement is conducive to improving access to the rights and privileges of the Rohingya people,” said Shah Kamal, Secretary for Disaster Management.
“These are important programmes for both the Rohingya and host communities,” said Richard Ragan, WFP Representative to Bangladesh.
“To improve medium to long-term resilience and social cohesion, people need to have the skills, market linkages, and resources to improve their long-term food security.”
WFP provides food assistance to 860,000 Rohingya people each month and is supporting around 600,000 people in the host community in Cox’s Bazar.
