Friday, March 19, 2010

UK funds climate change project in Bangladesh

Syed Nahas Pasha in bdnews24.com: A new phase of a "groundbreaking" project in Bangladesh to fight poverty and combat climate change will start in April, a British minister announced Thursday. The UK's international development secretary Douglas Alexander said Britain will provide a £70m grant over the next six years to help people lift it out of poverty.

Speaking at a Bengali community event in East London organised by local MP Jim Fitzpatrick, Alexander said the next phase of the Chars Livelihoods Programme will help more than one million of the poorest Bangladeshis to escape extreme poverty and adapt their homes for the impact of climate change. Alexander also told bdnews24.com this is an additional development fund. This money will be spent on tackling climate change, he said.

"Climate change is making the challenge of dealing with poverty even harder for communities across Bangladesh," said the international development secretary. … He said the money would help raise the homes of people which are at present threatened by rising flood water.

Alexander also spoke to bdnews24.com about the administration of a £75 million contribution to Bangladesh's Multi Donor Trust Fund. "We are in continued discussion with the Bangladesh government. We are working in close partnership with them, both on the challenge of tackling poverty and tackling climate change. Those conversations have been taking place in recent weeks and will continue for many weeks to come."….

Boats in river in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Shot by Ziaul Hoque, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

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