The volume of foreign grants received by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in Bangladesh hit a seven-year high of US$838.25 million in the last fiscal year (FY) 2025-26.

The amount was 5.46-percent higher than that of the previous fiscal, according to the NGO Affairs Bureau data.

Previously, NGOs operating in the country received $955.35 million worth of grant in FY2018-19, the highest annual disbursement in recent years, according to the data, which was sent to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) by the Bureau.

Meanwhile, the volume of fresh grant commitments through NGOs surged 44.62 per cent year-on-year to a record $1.15 billion in FY 2025-26, the highest ever annual commitment since the bureau began maintaining records.

In contrast, the availability of inward foreign grants for government-implemented development projects showed a downward trend in recent years, with both its disbursements and commitments showing lower than that of NGOs, the official data revealed.

The ERD secured foreign grant commitments amounting to $158.78 million during the first 11 months of FY 2025-26, reflecting a 58.32 per cent fall from that of $380.98 million in the matching period of the previous fiscal year.

Although the disbursements of grants for government projects rose 14.31 per cent year-on-year to $433.81 million during the July-May period, the amount was nearly half of the $838.25 million released in the entire fiscal year 2024-25.

The trend in the inward foreign grant reflected a major shift of channelising grants from government projects to NGO-run ones in the past decade.

Foreign grants received by the government-run projects were nearly double that of NGOs in consecutive three fiscal years starting from 2001, official figures showed.

The government projects maintained their dominance in the receipts of foreign grants until FY2013, while NGOs became the dominant channel from FY2014.

However, their gap started widening sharply in FY2018-19 and FY 2019-20 when NGO receipts were more than three times higher than that of government projects, according to the data.

Although the amounts of grants received by the government projects exceeded NGOs' receipts in FY2023-24 and FY 2024-25, the trend reversed in FY 2025-26, with the grants received by NGOs reaching $838.25 million during the first 11 months of the fiscal year.

The government projects received nearly $433.81 million worth of grants during the July-November period of last fiscal, according to the data.

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