Govt to host LCG meet in March to raise post-Sidr rehab fund

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FHM Humayan Kabir
The government is likely to organise a donors' forum meet early next month in Dhaka aiming to obtain fund commitments for financing post-cyclone rehabilitation work and a sustainable disaster management programme, official sources said.
"A meeting of the local consultative group (LCG) will be organised in early March. The government might seek necessary funds from the donors for infrastructure development and rehabilitation work for the cyclone Sidr-affected areas in the southwestern coastal belt and for a long-term disaster risk management," a senior Economic Relations Division (ERD) official said Friday.
He said the World Bank sent the final copy of the Sidr damage, loss and need assessment report to the ERD last week and has requested for organising the LCG meeting in the first week of March.
"Our Country Director Xian Zhu will return to Dhaka on February 29 after completion of his leave. Then he will sit with the government and other members of the LCG to fix a date. The meeting is expected to be held in early March," a spokesman of the World Bank, Dhaka office told the FE Friday.
The World Bank Country Director is the Chairman of the LCG, a forum of the donors.
The World Bank with the help of the government and other leading donors finalised the Sidr damage assessment report last week saying Bangladesh needs $5.4 billion to recover from losses caused by the devastating cyclone and for a long-term disaster risk management.
Out of the fund, $1.4 billion will be required for immediate and medium-to-long term recovery and reconstruction in the cyclone affected coastal areas and another $4.0 billion for the long-term disaster risk management programme.
The joint assessment was made after the government in the LCG meeting on December 12 last year appealed for a long term assistance of $2.21 billion to withstand natural disasters in future. The development partners, in the meeting, assured that they would provide funds after completion of the damage assessment report.
The cyclone Sidr packed with a wind speed of 220-kilometre per hour hit the country's southern coastal districts on November 15, leaving at least 3,406 people dead and 1,001 missing and affecting the livelihood of 8.7 million people.
Housing sector was the worst hit, with damage sustained worth Tk 57.9 billion, productive sectors including agriculture and fisheries Tk 33.8 billion or 30 per cent and public sector infrastructure Tk 17.5 billion or 16 per cent of the total loss and damage, the joint report said.
The report said: "A total of $300 million is required for the immediate recovery stages and the remaining $1.075 billion for medium-to-long term stages. Besides, a long-term plan of action would be required to achieve disaster risk reduction and management where an investment of $4.0 billion is needed."
The report proposed to implement the disaster risk management strategy in 15 years up to 2022.
Another ERD official said as the government and other donors prepared the damage, loss and need assessment report, the government might seek commitment of funds form the donors in the upcoming LCG meeting based on the latest report.
"We expect that the donors will extend their support to recoup the loss and damage caused by the cyclone in the coastal belt," he said.