Impact of aid cuts in Bangladesh

However, aid budget cuts mean that we have to scale back and cancel some vital programmes.

In the Haor areas, we have witnessed the devastation caused by severe floods, especially in recent years. Millions of people are at risk of losing their homes each year.

Vulnerable to destruction

Concern has been helping the communities to protect themselves against flooding. Now, as a direct result of recent budget cuts, we have had to scale back a number of projects in this area, leaving at least 2,500 people vulnerable to flooding and the destruction.

Malnutrition in the cities

In cities such as Dhaka and Chittagong, malnutrition amongst children is a significant problem. We had planned to work in urban slums to combat this problem. This work would have helped 35,000 children under two years old and 25,000 pregnant women and mothers.

No more support

However, this work has now been cancelled. In addition, our support to Khulna Children’s Hospital and Chittagong Medical College had to be discontinued. As a result, around 300 severely malnourished children will not receive life-saving support.

“We are people too”

Our Amrao Manush project (it means “we are people too”) works with extremely poor people living on the pavements of Dhaka city. The project helps them to cope with the risks of living on the street. As a result of the cuts, however, we have had to reduce this.

Vulnerable region

One of the most vulnerable areas of Bangladesh is the Char region. In 2008, we supported families and worked to increase private investment and government resources in the area. 

500 families

This work has had success in numerous areas including health, family planning, livestock and agriculture. Again, due to the aid cuts, we are now being forced to drop 500 families from this programme.

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