Catalog

Caring About People

Background

Social development in Bangladesh remains one of the lowest in the developing world. Lack of access to basic facilities such as education, health care, and civic amenities has resulted in a poor quality of life for the majority of the people.

ADB supports projects that directly benefit the rural and urban poor by providing better access to medical assistance, improving the quality of schools in terms of infrastructure and academic atmosphere, enabling girls and women to be educated, and providing better facilities to the urban poor such as sanitation, water supply, and waste disposal.

Greater opportunities for employment and a better status for women in society are primary priorities for ADB.

Improving the Lives of the Urban Poor

The rapid pace of unplanned urbanization has gradually deteriorated in the living conditions in cities and secondary towns (pourashavas or municipalities). Most urban areas have no underground drainage system and suffer from waterlogging. Road systems are insufficient. Public facilities—including markets, public health centers, solid waste management, and basic services for the urban poor—do not meet the demands of the communities.

ADB’s emphasis in urban development has been mainly concentrated in developing secondary towns with a focus on decentralizing and strengthening the local government; increasing financial revenue generation; supporting the involvement of the community and private sector in urban services; and improving living conditions for the urban poor and addressing urban environmental issues.

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Education is Key to Development

ADB’s Partnership Agreement on Poverty Reduction with the Government aims to halve by 2005 the proportion of children aged 6–10 years not attending school and to ensure that all children go to school by 2010.

Since 1978, ADB has been assisting primary, secondary, nonformal, and distance education, as well as skills training.

Under the first Primary Education Project (1990–1996), about 3,200 primary schools were constructed in rural areas. About 4.75 million students—47% girls—benefited from the improved physical facilities, free textbooks (12.7 million sets), and trained teachers.

• The Second Primary Education Project achieved significant accomplishments.
• About 850,000 children benefited from new, accessible, or improved facilities, and about 3 million children experienced an improved learning environment in rehabilitated and properly maintained schools.
• An estimated 250,000 very poor students, especially girls and tribal students, were able to enroll and stay in school by having access to free school supplies.
• In-service teachers’ training (especially for women teachers), textbooks, and other instructional materials helped improve the quality of primary education.
• About 6 million primary students received improved education and free educational materials. About half of them—2.8 million—were girls.

The Nonformal Education Project, under which the Government established a Directorate of Nonformal Education, supported about 2.9 million learners of whom 57% were women.

A unique contribution of ADB to the education sector of Bangladesh is the establishment of the Bangladesh Open University (BOU) in 1992 at Gazipur, about 22 km from Dhaka. Its method of instruction is distance education, which includes self-instruction by the students with study guides and selected reading materials, and audio- and videotapes. BOU’s primary beneficiaries are adults in rural areas—particularly women—who often must work to support their families while pursuing education. Nearly 140,000 students benefited from the project until ADB assistance to BOU ended in 1999.

The university continues to provide access to education and training for those people who are unable to use the formal education system. Access to secondary schools in Bangladesh remains poor with an enrollment rate of only about 34%. Secondary schools are inadequately managed and have limited facilities and a low standard of education.

ADB’s Secondary Education Sector Improvement Project provides support for

• Strengthening the capacity for curriculum development
• Privatizing textbook production
• Developing teacher education policies including recruitment qualifications and teachers’ registration system
• Reforming the examination system
• Strengthening school management and supervision

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Health Care Critical for a Strong Society

ADB’s operational strategy in the health sector has focused on four major areas: supporting the government policy on decentralization of health services, communicable disease control, and reproductive health improvement; developing public-private partnership for primary health care services; enhancing privatization of health services; and developing alternative health care financing schemes, including a social insurance system for providing affordable medical care and protection for the elderly.

ADB is concentrating on primary health care in urban areas. The ongoing Urban Primary Health Care Project covers four city corporations for providing quality primary health care services to the urban poor, particularly women and children. This is an innovative approach through a partnership between the Government and nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

The primary objective is to improve the health of the urban poor and reduce preventable mortality and morbidity, especially among women and children. The project also aims to sustain improvements in urban primary health care by building the capacity of local governments to manage, finance, plan, monitor, and evaluate health care services. The project has introduced an innovative mechanism for public-private partnership for delivering primary health care services by contracting out to NGOs and private service providers.

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Learn more about ADB's partnership with Bangladesh