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USAID’s Nobo Jatra project organises national level consultative discussion

BI Report || BusinessInsider

Published: 15:05, 25 January 2022  
USAID’s Nobo Jatra project organises national level consultative discussion

USAID’s Nobo Jatra project organises national level consultative discussion. Photo: Courtesy

To address the safe water and sanitation-related issues and resource requirements of southwest coastal Bangladesh, USAID’s Nobo Jatra project, implemented by World Vision Bangladesh facilitated a discussion on Monday with the Members of Parliament (MP) of the coastal areas and constituencies for the formation of the ‘Parliamentary Caucus’.

discussion highlighted the importance of establishing a parliamentary caucus for ensuring access to safe water in the coastal districts and followed up on the declarations of the second Coastal Water Convention held in 2019 in Khulna University persuading improved water and safe sanitation facilities in coastal regions, according to a press statement.

‘Nobo Jatra – new beginning’ is a seven-year USAID-funded project implemented by World Vision Bangladesh with the goal of “Improved gender equitable food security, nutrition and resilience of vulnerable people within Khulna and Satkhira districts in Bangladesh”.

Nobo Jatra is implemented in close partnership with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief of the Government of Bangladesh and Winrock International in Koyra, Dacope, Kaliganj and Shyamnagar sub districts.

The project has reached 856,116 direct participants with integrated interventions in Maternal Child Health and Nutrition, Water Sanitation and Hygiene, agriculture and alternative livelihoods, disaster risk reduction, good governance and social accountability and gender, it reads.

During discussion, World Vision Bangladesh shared the alignment and contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly to ensure that people have access to clean water and adequate sanitation services as noted in the Goal-6.

The gap between the existing policy and implementation has created challenges to provide adequate service delivery in the hard-to-reach southwest coastal region particularly for WASH.

This discussion between the member of parliaments and civil society organizations is another step forward to influence the decision-makers for channeling more resources and technologies for safe water and hygienic latrines in the coastal area.

In her remark, chief guest, Habibun Nahar MP, deputy minister, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, emphasised, “Absence of clean water and safe sanitation facilities poses a serious threat to Bangladesh’s future especially to mothers and children of coastal districts. Constant disasters has further exacerbated poverty and food insecurity in the region. As a resident and parliamentarian of a coastal constituency, I am deeply concerned, and we need to work collaboratively to solve these problems.”

The concerning WASH conditions of the southwest Bangladesh, also referred to as “ground zero” for climate change vulnerability, USAID with longstanding partnership with World Vision Bangladesh has been addressing change through system strengthening.

Nobo Jatra has developed alliance among Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and like-minded NGOs having an active presence in the water, salinity and sanitation-related issues. A parliamentary caucus on ‘safe water and hygienic sanitation’ will continue the cooperation and collaboration with stakeholders of coastal districts and MPs for the advocacy with the decision makers of Government to increase budget allocation in the coastal region for improved water facilities and hygienic latrines.

Parliamentary Caucus will be playing a vital role in collaborating among research institutes, civil society, multi-lateral agencies and the Government for an integrated resilience approach to mitigate the impacts of climate change in southwest Bangladesh.

The Caucus will advocate on WASH issues in parliament and that the government will take initiatives to prevent water commercialisation and stop leasing of Government owned water bodies to resolve the water crisis in this region.

Special guest Dr. AFM Ruhal Huq MP, former Health Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Honorable Member of Parliament thanked USAID and World Vision saying, “The NGOs and international organizations work through MPs and people’s representatives. The coordination is very important. The parliament has taken the WASH issues into consideration with utter seriousness for possible solutions. I appreciate World Vision and USAID for the proposal and initiating the formation of parliamentary caucus.”

The discussion also highlighted the significant roles of Local Government Division (LGD) in ensuring safe drinking water supply in these remote areas.

Adequate allocation should be ensured in national budget as these areas are subject to continuous disaster strikes. Another focused area of discussion is that Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) need to increase human resource capacity and take Union and Ward level WATSAN committee and capacity building of caretakers of water sources under the direct supervision.

Initiatives and necessary measures should be scaled up to bring the vulnerable people of coastal areas under sanitation program that discourages open defecation. Allocation for sanitary latrines should be increased by Union Parishad for poor and extreme poor people including ensuring access to affordable sanitation. Moreover, a coordination team is be formed consisting State representatives, government, non-government actors to protect water and surrounding environment to develop action plan and take effective measures for its implementation.

The follow up of commitments made by senior Government leadership is critical to ensure that the momentum achieved through the dialogues translates into tangible changes in the lives of the most vulnerable. The importance of having a Caucus in parliament is an emerging need to advocate at national level to solve the crisis in the coastal districts.

Chandan Z Gomes, senior director operations & programme quality, World Vision Bangladesh initiated the consultative discussion with the welcome speech.

Alex Bekunda, chief of party, Nobo Jatra Project, World Vision Bangladesh, shared objectives of the meeting. Open discussion was moderated by S M Monjur Rashid, senior manager, Policy Advocacy & External Engagement, Nobo Jatra Project, World Vision Bangladesh.

The consultative discussion was attended and valuable comments were made by the MPs - Mir Mushtaque Ahmed Robi, Satkhira 2 and SM Shahjada, Patuakhali -3.

Nagad
Walton