The Bangladesh government on Thursday signed a $50 million grant financing agreement with the World Bank to improve the country's services to cater to the health, nutrition and family planning needs of the Rohingya refugee population.
The agreement was signed by Kazi Shofiqul Azam, Senior Secretary of Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division and Qimiao Fan, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, on behalf of the government and the World Bank respectively, at the Economic Relations Division here.
The additional financing to the existing Health Sector Support Project will help provide essential health and nutrition services to the Rohingya people in Cox's Bazaar, some 292 km southeast of the capital, Xinhua news agency reported.
The financing will cover maternal, neonatal, infant, child and adolescent health, nutrition and psychosocial services as well as reproductive health care, said the World Bank in a statement.
"Nearly 1 million Rohingya live in congested camps, including the Kutupalong camp, the world's largest refugee camp. They face risks of disease outbreaks and suffer from high rates of child malnutrition. Their healthcare needs are enormous," said Fan.
"This grant financing will help the government plan and manage health, nutrition and population services for the Rohingya people while the existing project will continue to provide healthcare to the local population."
This is the first in a series of projects financed by the World Bank to support Bangladesh in dealing with the Rohingya influx, said the World Bank.
--IANS
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