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Projects and Programmes
The European Union is among the three biggest donors of grants to Bangladesh. It ranks fifth for overall development assistance.
The EC-Bangladesh Country Strategy for 2007-13 is funded with an indicative total amount of €410 million under the EC's Development Cooperation Instrument country allocation. The present strategy focuses mainly on three areas where the EC's comparative advantages are best able to contribute to delivering Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets.
1. Human and social development especially in education and health to further help achieving the sectors’ MDGs.
2. Good governance and human rights strengthening governance institutions and Bangladesh’s democracy, improving the delivery of public services, strengthening public financial management, and promoting the protection of human rights, including minority rights. Substantial support to the Chittagong Hill Tracts development process and to Rohingya refugees fall also under this area.
3. Economic and trade development – With the EU being Bangladesh’s no. 1 trade partner, the EU has a comparative advantage in enhancing competitiveness and investment climate in Bangladesh by supporting measures to improve trade and private sector development into an overall pro-poor growth approach.Also:
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Environment, disaster risk reduction and climate change receive in total 12% of the country allocation. Mitigating the effects of climate change is a major ‘horizontal’ issue addressed in an integrated way in many activities.
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The EC’s food security programme is providing social protection, employment generation schemes, reconstitution of assets and training activities to hundreds of thousands of ultra-poor people all over Bangladesh. The EC has for a very long time been one of the the country’s main partners in the area of food security, an activity often as well integrated into other programmes.
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The issue of gender equality is integrated wherever possible into activities under all of the above areas. Thus, food and livelihood security activities usually target ultra-poor women with children, whereas education activities pay special attention to gender equality in primary education.
In order to remain responsive to the country’s needs in view of existing and sometimes new priorities and challenges, the strategy and its implementation are being monitored for performance and relevance.
In addition to development assistance covered by the Country Strategy, the EU provides humanitarian aid in response to emergencies.
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