3-yr jt project launched to help Monga-hit people

FE Team | Published: August 19, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
Actionaid Bangladesh (AB) and Bangladesh Unnyan Parishad (BUP) have jointly launched a three-year project to help bring prosperity to the people of Monga-prone areas.
AB and BUP launched the joint project styled 'Hunger Free Campaign' after formally inaugurating its secretariat at the BUP conference centre in the city Saturday.
Stressing the need for comparing the Monga with an emergency situation, Farah Kabir, country director of AB, said the purpose of the joint project is to prepare an action plan to get rid of the crisis permanently after identifying the root causes.
She said a common platform with participation of all stakeholders could play a vital role to address the Monga crisis in the country during the lean agricultural seasons.
AB country director underscored the need for allocation of 'khas' land, more disbursement of pump loans and Monga preventive policy formulation by the government.
Presiding over the inaugural ceremony, BUP chairman Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad expressed the hope that the formation of such a formal body on Monga is expectedly to make a way to prepare action plan for helping the vulnerable groups.
Khandaker Ebrahim Khaled, chairman of the newly formed advisory board on Hunger Free Campaign, recommended for recruiting people of Monga-prone areas to the posts of sepoys and constables under special consideration.
Giving some service oriented training to the Monga-prone people for skill development, he said, "We can also help them to go abroad and migrate to other places of the country."
However, participants from the Monga-prone areas alleged that the leading NGOs are not active in the affected areas considering the higher risk in loan recovery.
The poor infrastructure has also been identified as one of the major hurdles as the vulnerable groups in Monga-prone areas cannot even market their agro products during rainy season due to bad transportation system.
Jadov Chandra Saha, executive director of BPU, said they will conduct a study in six Monga-prone districts under the project to identify the vulnerable groups for preparing action plans.
The Hunger Free Campaign launched their journey forming a 36-member advisory board headed by Ebrahim Khaled as chairman.
Anisur Rahman, former Dhaka University (DU) professor, AFM Shahidur Rahman, acting head of Livelihood Security and Risk Reduction Sector of AB, Syed Yusuf Hossain, former comptroller and auditor general, and KB Sajjadur Rasheed, teacher of DU, among others, were present at the inauguration ceremony.