Bangladesh
- 7th
- in ranking of countries most affected by climate-related disasters
- 51 million
- food-insecure people
- 960,000
- Rohingya refugees (mid-2023)
Bangladesh has experienced sustained economic growth in recent years – one of the fastest in Asia prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, 40 million people remain food insecure and 11 million suffer from acute hunger. The country’s low elevation and vast watercourses leave it greatly susceptible to climate shocks. Since 2017, Bangladesh has also seen a massive influx of Rohingya refugees, with almost three quarters of a million fleeing across the border from Myanmar since 2017 alone.
Since beginning its activities in Bangladesh in 1974, the World Food Programme (WFP) has touched the lives of more than 155 million people through both emergency response and longer-term resilience-building for improved food and nutrition security. While continuing to provide humanitarian assistance, WFP is shifting towards a more advisory role, assisting the Government in efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 on ending hunger.
What the World Food Programme is doing in Bangladesh
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Crisis response
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WFP provides life-saving food assistance to all refugees in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char island. Through food vouchers, refugees receive monthly food rations – including rice, lentils, oil and fresh items such as vegetables and fruits – at WFP assistance sites. WFP also runs nutrition prevention and treatment programmes, school-meal activities and disaster risk reduction programmes for both the refugees and Bangladeshi community in Cox’s Bazar. In addition, the most vulnerable Bangladeshi women in the surrounding communities receive training and support to launch income-generating activities, while refugees participate in WFP self-reliance programmes to enhance their food security and skills development.
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Nutrition and gender sensitivity
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WFP provides technical assistance and capacity strengthening to some of the country’s largest social safety net programmes. Together with partners, including private sector food producers and processors, WFP works to ensure quality, availability and affordability of safe, nutritious food, with a specific focus on fortified rice uptake both among the population enrolled in social safety nets and through commercial markets. Since 2001, WFP has been a key partner in the national school feeding programme, which has reached over 3 million children throughout the country with fortified biscuits, and in a few districts, hot meals. With WFP’s continued support, the new school feeding programme aims to reach 10 million children in the coming years.
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Resilience building
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To protect lives and livelihoods from recurrent natural disasters and build resilience, WFP is testing innovative tools, including climate risk insurance and forecast-based financing, implemented in some of the most disaster-prone and poverty-stricken areas in the country. WFP technical assistance in supply chain and information management is also strengthening the capacity of national institutions to implement effective disaster risk reduction and prepare for and respond to climate shocks.
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Humanitarian coordination and common services
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Led by WFP, the Emergency Telecommunications Sector provides security telecommunications and data connectivity to humanitarian partners in Cox’s Bazar. On Bhasan Char, the WFP-led Common Services Sector provides logistics and telecommunications services, enabling humanitarian access to the island, data connectivity, coordination, security telecommunications and warehouse management.
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Contacts
Office
IDB Bhaban 14th, 16th and 17th Floor E/8-A, Rokeya Sharani Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207
Dhaka
Bangladesh