Speakers at a knowledge exchange workshop stressed the need for taking effective steps to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of the nearly four million poor urban people living in Bangladesh.

The Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project (LIUPCP) of the Local Government Division in partnership with the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organised the day-long workshop titled “Mayors’ Knowledge Exchange Workshop on LIUPCP Good Practices” on Wednesday at a hotel in Dhaka.

The objective of the workshop was to share and discuss good practices around pro-poor and climate-resilient urban development emerging from LIUPCP interventions in 19 cities and towns.

Md Tazul Islam, minister for local government, rural development and cooperatives, was present as the chief guest while Stefan Liller, resident representative, UNDP Bangladesh, and Matt Cannell, deputy high commissioner and development director, British High Commission, were present as special guests. Muhammad Ibrahim, secretary, Local Government Division, chaired the workshop.

In her opening remarks Sonali Dayaratne, deputy resident representative, UNDP Bangladesh, said, “The government has taken full ownership of our urban resilience programme. It has showcased how community women are tailoring solutions to the community’s needs in cities and towns.”

Mayor of Dhaka North Md Atiqul Islam, while chairing the session on community empowerment and local leadership for climate-resilient infrastructure said, “Local action is the key to national success, and a bottom-up community-led development process will ensure pro-poor urban development.”

Local government affairs minister Md Tazul Islam said, “By 2041, we want to become a developed country and this development journey will leave no one behind. We have to look forward to using the learnings from this workshop in the coming days.”

Stefan Liller, while addressing the workshop said, “Our longstanding partnership with the Bangladesh government and the UK spans nearly two decades, showcasing a robust model of activities on urban poverty reduction and climate change adaptation.”

Commenting on the learnings from LIUPC, Matt Cannell said, “I am glad to see that the partnership among the Bangladesh government, the UK government and UNDP has improved the livelihoods and living conditions of 4 million poor urban people in Bangladesh.”

Muhammad Ibrahim, Secretary of the local government ministry thanked the UK Government and UNDP for supporting the LIUPC. “We look forward to fostering this partnership in the coming years.”

Among others, Mayor of Chandpur Md Jillur Rahman, Chairperson of Chandpur Town Federation Nazma Alam also spoke at the workshop.

Around 120 participants comprising Mayors from City Corporations and Municipalities, development partners, government agencies, NGOs, INGOs, and bilateral and multilateral partners attended the workshop.

The LIUPCP is working for pro-poor climate-smart urban development. Started in 2018, the project has reached around four million urban poor in its program cities and towns and has demonstrated several good practices in community empowerment, affordable housing, adaptive livelihoods, improved socioeconomic conditions, climate resilient infrastructures and pro-poor planning and municipal governance.