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Worldwide missions

Bangladesh

General data

Mission ACF France

Mission start: 2007
National staff: 219 (as of Dec 2010)
Expatriates: 11 (as of Dec 2010)

Intervention Sites

BARGUNA district
PATUAKHALI district
COX'S BAZAAR district
NORTH BENGAL - Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Gaibanda
DHAKA (training program with national scope)
HAOR area-Sunamganj, Kishoreganj and Netrokona districts
SIRAJGANJ district

Types of intervention:

Nutrition
Mental Health
Food Security
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

Key figures of the country

Number of beneficiaries (2010):

o Food security: 31,754

o Nutrition & Mental health: 23,334

o Water, Sanitation & Hygiene: 37,469

Population: 160 million inhabitants (2009)

Life expectancy: 69 years

Human Development Index: 146/182

GDP per capita: U.S. $ 641 U.S. (2010)

Sources: UN, IMF, CIA

Context

Since its independence from Pakistan in 1971, Bangladesh has faced famines, natural disasters, widespread poverty, and political turmoil. It is one of the most populous and densely-populated countries in the world, as well as one of the poorest. The major part of the population lives in rural area but urbanization has been rapid and slums have been growing for the last decades in important cities.

The prevalence of malnutrition in Bangladesh is amongst the highest in the world(1). Malnutrition contributes to about one half of all child deaths, often by weakening immunity. More than 500,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition in Bangladesh. The capacity of treatment at national level is almost inexistent and the Community-based management of malnutrition (CMAM) is not included in the current health and nutrition policy of Bangladesh.

Infant and child feeding practices are prime factors for this nutritional situation, with insufficient breastfeeding and dietary diversity. Malnutrition also results from the widespread poverty and food insecurity situation in Bangladesh with 56 millions people classified as “absolute poor” failing to meet minimum caloric requirement of 2122 kcal per person per day(2).

The water, sanitation and hygiene situation in Bangladesh remains of concern. Although water is available, arsenic contamination, poor hygiene and tube-wells design continue to pose health risks as well as unsanitary latrines and poor hygiene practices.

Bangladesh faces recurrent natural disasters and is vulnerable to drought, floods, river erosion, cyclone, tidal surges, saline intrusion and earthquakes. It is generally expected that climate change will increase the frequency and severity of natural disasters in the country which in turn would aggravate the food insecurity situation.

Besides, Cox’s Bazaar district hosts an important number of Rohingyas, a stateless Muslim minority originating from Myanmar where it is subject to discriminatory policies. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that about 28,000 Rohingya refugees live in official camps and about 200,000 of them are settled in makeshift camps or in villages in Cox’s Bazaar district.

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(1) According to the Bangladesh Household Food security and nutrition survey 2009, the global acute malnutrition rate was 13.5% and the severe acute malnutrition rate was 3.4 %.
(2) Official household income and expenditure survey 2005

ACF in Bangladesh

ACF mission in Bangladesh opened in August 2007 to respond to the floods that blocked an important part of the country for more than six weeks. Cyclone Sidr then devastated the southern part of the country in November and ACF developed emergency WaSH, food security and shelter programs to assist the population of Barguna district. Then ACF developed projects in Cox’s Bazar, in North Bengal and recently in the South West of Bangladesh which has been affected by floods in August 2011.

The strategic axis for ACF in Bangladesh are as follows:

To contribute to the reduction of acute malnutrition in Bangladesh through advocacy for the adoption of the CMAM protocol by the MOH and through programs addressing malnutrition and the causes of malnutrition.
To mitigate the impact of natural disasters on vulnerable populations, livelihoods through mainstreamed Climate Change and DRR approaches
To prepare an emergency response in case of a natural disaster to save lives and restore the livelihood of the most vulnerable population in case a natural disaster hits.
To increase the impact of its intervention through partnerships and the capacity building of local structures and local NGOs.

ACF current programs in Bangladesh

Barguna and Patuakhali Districts

Goat distribution
DRR community-led program

Cox’s Bazar District

In Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps:

Nutrition program for children under five years old: Outpatient Therapeutic Program (OTP), Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP), Stabilisation center (SC), growth monitoring
Nutrition program for pregnant and lactating mothers, and adolescent girls
Health and nutrition education and promotion
Mental health / care practices program for caretakers of malnourished children: group discussions, counselling, play sessions, promotion of good care practices
Food security program for vulnerable households: kitchen gardening
WaSH activities (Kutupalong camp only): waste management and sanitation, hygiene promotion

In Kutupalong makeshift camp

Essential activities are being maintained
Nutrition program for severely malnourished children under five years old
Essential WaSH activities: maintenance of water points and of latrines, waste management.

In the host communities

Water program: assistance to the DPHE for water supplies activities in villages
Detection and treatment of severely malnourished children living in villages near the UNHCR refugees camps
Support and capacity building of the Ukhia and Teknaf Upazila Health Centers to treat severely malnourished children with medical complication / pending authorizations
A water and sanitation & kitchen gardening project is awaiting authorizations to get started.
A CMAM project in Ukhia and Teknaf Upazilla will start in the last quarter 2011

North Bengal

A Nutrition Causes Analysis (NCA) study was implemented from mid November 2010 in partnership with Tufts University. A climate variability and change/ Nutrition security study was carried out in Lalmonirhat.
An IYCF (Infant and Young Children Feeding practices) project, in partnership with TMSS, has started in June 2011 in Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat and Kurigram districts.

Dhaka (national coverage)

Capacity building project to train master trainers in CMAM (Community Management of Acute Malnutrition) at national level.
Contingency planning

Haor area

ACF has conducted nutrition surveys in the Haor area to assess the nutrition situation there after the severe floods of 2010 (in partnership with Concern Worldwide).
A climate variability and change/ Nutrition security study was also carried out..

Sirajganj district

In July 2011 ACF has started a project to build the capacities of WFP local partner to implement a supplementary feeding program and a kitchen gardening program.

Satkhira district

In August 2011, ACF started an emergency response project to respond to the most affected flood and water-logging victims in two sub-districts, Assasuni and Debhata. Starting with two rounds of food distribution, the project has already installed emergency and communal latrines and distributed hygiene kits. Cash-for-work, cash-for-training activities, distribution of shelter repair kits, hygiene awareness trainings and nutrition surveillance will also be done in the coming months. The project is expected to be completed by March 2012.

Funding

The following donors have supported or are currently supporting ACF in Bangladesh:

ECHO
European Union
UNHCR
BPRM (US)
WFP
AECID (Spanish)
Dutch cooperation
ACF private donors

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