Move to improve living standard of 4.0m people in Dhaka

The United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) in collaboration with the government of Bangladesh has launched a six-year project for improving the living standard of the capital's 4.0 million poverty-stricken people.

The project titled 'Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project (LIUPCP)' was launched at Dhaka South City Corporation's Mayor Mohammad Hanif Auditorium on Wednesday, reports UNB.

Speaking on the occasion, Mayor Sayeed Khokon said the income inequality is increasing on one hand and the population is growing fast on the other.

"To escape environmental crisis, many landless villagers are migrating to the city. While looking for livelihood and economic solvency, they're facing many crises. This is casting a negative impact on other city-dwellers," Khokon was quoted as saying.

He also said Dhaka South City Corporation is committed to delivering facilities to all citizens.

UNDP Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee said 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."

"The new project's (LIUPCP's) objective is to achieve long-term sustainable growth by eradicating urban poverty and achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030," he said.

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 mentioned Bangladesh cannot transition from a low-income country to a middle-income one without considering the large number of poor people living in the city.

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.

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 at the event.