DHAKA, June 15, 2020 (BSS) – The USA has decided to provide more than 173 million US dollars as a new funding to support Bangladesh’s ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response as well as efforts over post-COVID development and economic recovery.
“I’m pleased to announce, today, the US government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing more than $173 million in new funding to strengthen development activities in Bangladesh and complement the Bangladesh government’s ongoing efforts to respond to the spread of the COVID-19,” US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl Miller said as he joined an event virtually from the US Embassy here today.
The US envoy said the new funding includes over $17 million in health and humanitarian assistance which is in addition to the over $19 million that has already been provided by the USAID to support Bangladesh’s COVID-19 response efforts.
“Our commitment to each other (USA and Bangladesh) has never been more important. And America’s commitment to Bangladesh has never been stronger,” the ambassador observed.
The additional assistance will support a new program to provide cash-based transfers for food to 100,000 urban poor living in low-income areas of Kalyanpur and Sattala Bosti as well as reestablish linkages between markets and farmers as well as support supply chains.
“I am especially pleased that our new USAID funding will provide life-saving food assistance to thousands of urban, under-privileged people in Dhaka,” Miller said.
With this new funding, the US government, through USAID alone, has provided nearly $37 million to support COVID-19 response efforts in Bangladesh, which is part of the USA’s $ 1 billion dollar commitment declared for 120 countries to fight the pandemic.
Today’s event marked the last batch of newly recruited Bangladeshi doctors participating in a joint USAID- Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)-offered, two-day, in-person training focused on COVID-19 infection prevention and control (IPC) and case management.
At the conclusion of this week’s course, 1,000 new doctors will have participated in the two-day training.
In turn, they will train 3,000 newly recruited nurses and other health care practitioners in their respective hospitals.
“The true heroes in this battle are the frontline workers of all sectors directly confronting the pandemic – especially health workers. We must do all we can to ensure their safety as they help us stay safe,” Miller said.
He said this training is another example of how the US government is supporting the people of Bangladesh during this challenging time.
The ambassador said the USAID and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are actively engaged with Bangladesh government’s health officials, hospitals and health facilities around the country to strengthen the county’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In addition to supporting COVID-19 and humanitarian response efforts, on May 3, USAID Mission Director Derrick Brown signed a bilateral agreement with Bangladesh government to support more than $156 million in development activities in the country.
These activities will help Bangladesh address development challenges, including the impact of COVID-19, that threatens to undermine its economic potential and stability and they exemplify the strong partnership between our two countries.
Speaking at today’s event, USAID Mission Director Brown said, “I’m proud that the USAID has been a long-standing partner of Bangladesh and is committed to helping achieve Bangladesh’s goal of becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2031.”
The US government, through USAID, has provided more than $7 billion in development assistance to Bangladesh since 1971 while it provided over $200 million in 2019 to improve lives of Bangladesh people through various programs.