Govt and UNDP to improve livelihoods for 4m urban poor

Dhaka, 03 July, 2019: City’s poverty is on a rise due to the increasing urbanisation. For the development of the standard of living of the city’s poverty-stricken populace of 4 million, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with support from United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) has launched a six-year long project titled ‘Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project (LIUPCP)’ along with the Bangladesh Government’s Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Local Government Division (LGD).

The inception meeting of the project was held on 03 July in Dhaka South City Corporation’s Mayor Mohammad Hanif Auditorium. During his speech as chief guest, the mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon said, “On one hand the income inequality has been increasing and on the other hand the population is also increasing rapidly. To escape the environmental crisis, many landless villagers have been migrating to the city. While trying to search for livelihood and economic solvency to alleviate their poverty, they are facing many crises. This is making a negative impact on the other city-dwellers.”

He also added that Dhaka South City Corporation was committed to delivering facilities to all citizens.

As the special guest, United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee said in his speech, “UNDP has been working for more than a decade to eradicate urban poverty in Bangladesh. And for this we’ve always had United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) by our side. For our new project titled ‘Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project’, which has been launched after the success of the previous project (2008-2015) ‘Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction’ (UPPR), we’ve also had DFID for financial assistance. The new project’s objective is to achieve long-term sustainable growth by eradicating urban poverty and to achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.”

With the help of this new project he is hopeful that the urban poor will be empowered and as a result they would be able to make their own decisions in poverty reduction policies and activities. He added that Bangladesh cannot transition from a low-income country to a middle-income country without considering the large number of poor people residing in the city.

Earlier, Ashekur Rahman, Head of Poverty and Urbanization, UNDP Bangladesh, made a presentation on the project interventions.

Initiated in 2018, LIUPC Project works in five major areas and the major activities in each area include: Climate resilient housing for low-income urban poor; Strengthen community organizations in informal settlements; Skills and employment generation for women and girls; Improve resilient infrastructure, and Strengthen pro-poor urban management, policy and planning.

The project is designed to reach initially the unserved and underserved urban population in Bangladesh. It aims to promote livelihoods and living conditions of four million poor people living in urban areas in up to 36 City Corporations and Paurashavas (12 City Corporations and 24 Class A Paurashavas) in phases. In project interventions, women and peoples with disabilities will get priority.

Mostafizur Rahman, Additional Secretary & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), DSCC, chaired the meeting and Abdul Mannan, Joint Secretary and National Project Director, LIUPC Project, Local Government Division, also spoke.

LIUPCP National Project Manager Sarder M. Asaduzzaman, Ward Councilors of different wards, officials of the DSCC, community-based federation representative, community development committee members and representatives from different NGOs were present, among others.