The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved two projects totaling $700 million on Wednesday to provide essential services and enhance disaster and social resilience for both the host communities and displaced Rohingya population in Bangladesh.
Since 2017, nearly one million Rohingyas have fled violence in Myanmar to Bangladesh, marking one of the largest forced displacement crises globally, the World Bank stated in a media release.
World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, Abdoulaye Seck, expressed appreciation for the Government of Bangladesh’s support for the Rohingya population. He emphasized the need for long-term planning and sustainable solutions while addressing immediate needs, reaffirming the World Bank’s commitment to assisting both the Rohingya and host communities.
The $350 million Inclusive Services and Opportunities for Host Community and Displaced Rohingya Population Project (ISO) and the $350 million Host and Rohingya Enhancement of Lives Project (HELP) aim to support the Bangladeshi host communities and Rohingya refugees. The interventions will be financed as grants under the IDA20 Window for Host Communities and Refugees.
The ISO Project will build on existing investments in livelihoods, health, nutrition, family planning, and gender-based violence response and prevention services, targeting at least 980,000 people in both communities. It will focus on human capital development, including the education of 300,000 Rohingya children under 12.
World Bank Task Team Leader for the ISO Project, S. Amer Ahmed, highlighted the project’s goal to support vulnerable households in both communities through temporary work, training, education, child protection, primary healthcare, nutrition, and family planning services.
The HELP Project will improve access to basic services and enhance the resilience of at least 645,000 people in the affected communities. Activities will include investments in water, sanitation, hygiene, climate-resilient roads, renewable energy, and multi-purpose disaster shelters. The project also aims to build skills for infrastructure sustainability and long-term development.
World Bank Task Team Leader for HELP, Swarna Kazi, stressed the importance of disaster and climate resilience, noting the severe impact on both Rohingyas and host communities. The project will focus on strengthening critical infrastructure and ensuring its sustainability.
The projects will address the crisis’s differentiated impact on women, children, and other vulnerable groups through targeted activities such as gender-based violence prevention, gender-sensitive sanitation facilities, solar streetlights for safety, and disaster risk management training for women.
These initiatives follow the World Bank’s previous support of a $590 million grant since the crisis’s onset and are informed by lessons learned from earlier interventions and global displacement crises. The World Bank’s efforts have included disaster preparedness, basic infrastructure, social protection, collaborative forest management, and income generation for host communities.
