The World Bank (WB) has assured Bangladesh of providing some US$300 million worth of financial support to enhance human capital formation through investing in early childhood development (ECD), officials said on Thursday.
The Washington-based donor has already given green signal to Bangladesh for providing the loan shortly, they added.
The WB will provide the fund under the Beneficiary Enhancing Investment Benefit for Early Years (BEIBEY) project for human capital formation.
"We have already sat with the WB regarding the project. The donor has assured us of providing fund worth $300 million," said an Economic Relations Division (ERD) official.
The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA) will work together under it to enhance community support services as well as develop women and childcare system across the rural Bangladesh.
Under the project, the LGED will work to enhance capacity of the union parishads (UPs) and the staffs working for community support services.
The MoWCA will provide support to the early childcare and women care system. It will transfer cash to mothers for childcare and enhancement of their nutrition level, said the officials.
According to the WB, Bangladesh's child-focused programmes account for only about 2.0 per cent of the total social protection budget in fiscal year (FY) 2020-2021.
The WB said appropriate resource allocation in line with national priorities is critical to realise returns from investing in ECD, which is one of the most critical investments a country can make to break the cycle of poverty.
The early years are known as a window of opportunity for human growth and development, and these years set the stage for lifelong human capital formation.
Ensuring adequate nutrition and cognitive development during children's early years can maximize their intelligence, health, learning and productivity as well as emotional and social wellbeing, the lender noted.
Despite Bangladesh's success in improving development outcomes and reducing child mortality, health and learning outcomes for children remain a challenge. Bangladesh accounts for 4.0 per cent of the stunted children globally, which has a major impact on learning outcomes, it added.
[email protected]
