KOICA in collaboration with World Food Program (WFP) and the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) has launched a project to help households and communities become more resilient in the face of natural disasters.

The project called, “Building Resilience to Achieve Zero Hunger (BRAZH)” with a contribution US$4.6 million from KOICA aims to reach over 4,000 families living in flood-prone areas in Kurigram Sadar and Chilmari sub-districts of Kurigram district in the northwest of the country over a period of three years.

With the funding support from KOICA, WFP will pilot a series of innovative approaches to resilience-building, including micro-insurance products to protect smallholder farmers and day labourers, forecast-based financing models to disburse aid before a predicted weather disaster, and seasonal livelihoods planning to develop climate-resilience options for livelihoods.

These activities will be conducted in close partnership with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, Department of Disaster Management, local government, and national and international technical institutes.

Speaking on the occasion, the State Minister highlighted that the Forecast-based Financing, Climate Risk Financing and Seasonal Livelihood approaches are very innovative and new approaches in Bangladesh, but it needs to be ensured that households and communities are more resilient in the face of natural disasters and food security.

He further mentioned that KOICA’s cooperation will further strengthen the strategic relationship between Bangladesh and Korea.

Hojoun Lee, First Secretary of the Korean Embassy in Dhaka expressed that the innovative approaches are being piloted by WFP are very popular and will enable access to humanitarian funding for early action-based on in-depth forecast information and risk analysis, which will prevent the impact of natural disasters and reduce human suffering and losses.

Such approaches in time may become critical new tools for the Government of Bangladesh to use in response to natural disasters which due to climate change are unfortunately increasing in number and severity, he added.

The occasion came to an end with KOICA’s Country Director ensuring Korea’s continued cooperation with WFP in order to achieve sustainable development goal 2: end hunger and achieve food security.