Support to national response

UNDP Bangladesh

Support to the National Response to contain the impact of COVID-19

 

Situational Analysis

Bangladesh is the second most densely populated country, with 60 million urban slum dwellers, about 70 million people exposed to multiple vulnerabilities, and disproportionate dependence on informal sector (87% of total employment).

The COVID19 pandemic has impacted the economy’s long-standing macroeconomic stability. Private investment, which accounts 80% of total investment, registered a negative growth by 15% in March 2020. Sluggish import (fall by 20% in March) and FDI also dampened aggregate demand. As for external sector, readymade garments, which accounts 87% of total export, will decline because of internal and global lockdown. As of 7 April 2020, 1,116 factories have been reported closed, US$3.04 billion export orders have been cancelled and 2.19 million workers lost their jobs. Likewise, remittances fell by 11.6% in March 2020 than a year earlier. The crisis may reverse the positive gains in poverty reduction, Bangladesh achieved over last two decades and push a large population group below poverty line. Women, children and disadvantaged groups are disproportionately vulnerable to the potential poverty shock. The pandemic has overstressed the country’s fragile heath system, education, human development, basic public services delivery and social upliftment. Short term growth outlook remains tepid and uncertain. If the pandemic crisis become protracted, it may transform into an entrenched human crisis, derailing the county’s development transformation. The pandemic has constrained the country’s development aspirations, including LDC graduation and SDGs.

Due to COVID-19 a large band of ‘new poor’ has emerged as their professionals have been completely ground to a standstill. The humanitarian impact is likely to affect among already at-risk ethnic community groups, low-income families, people with disabilities, informal and low wage earners such as women headed households, aged populations, transgender, commercial sex workers and tea plantation workers. Furthermore, many among the new poor are until recently working as migrant labour have returned and are unlikely to be able to return to resume their jobs anytime soon. Similarly, many who were on the verge of departing for new assignments and already burdened with heavy debts are no longer able to leave Bangladesh making them doubly poor with no incomes and large outstanding loans with no means to service them. Due to the loss of daily work and loss of income, migrant workers will likely return to their communities, which will have several broader social and economic implications such as food security, WASH, protection, health, education, and social cohesion.

A UN proposed multisectoral approach consists of a coordination platform linking key stakeholders including government agencies, development partners, UN agencies, CSOs, and the private sector with the overall goal to contribute to the National Preparedness Response Plan (NPRP) to contain COVID-19 and minimize collateral impacts. The coordination platform stands on six pillars, reflecting key segments of the NPRP.  UNDP actively participates in all Pillars and is the designated lead UN agency for Pillar 6 (Social Stability and Peace Preservation). Started in April 2020, UNDP Bangladesh COVID-19 Response targets evolving needs, adds value to other response and recovery efforts and leverages UNDP’s comparative advantage, specific mandate, available expertise and delivery capacity on the ground and lays the foundation for longer term development. All proposed interventions are implemented in coordination with the Government of Bangladesh, CSOs and other relevant development partners.

Areas of intervention

As of May 8, 2020, UNDP Bangladesh has provided support to approximately 6.4 million people affected by COVID-19. Our beneficiaries are rural and urban poor including indigenous people. For a full breath of our response, please click here. There are also many beautiful human stories of people who have benefited from our support, whether it is about legal aid made easy during lockdown through 16430 hotline or through 333 helpline people getting medical advice from the safety of home; emergency food assistance for the underprivileged.

Socio-economic impact and needs assessment

UNDP is doing three different sets of assessments concurrently. The first one, a light-touch telephonic survey Kemon Achen (How are you?), is an attempt to understand UNDP beneficiaries’ ongoing challenges and to express our solidarity to the people we work with in normal time and that we are with them in this difficult period.

The second one is a rapid assessment based on real-time data, collected from a living survey exercise. The rapid assessment aims to assess the livelihood impacts of COVID 19 pandemic on poor and marginalized people in the selected lagging regions and hotspots; to assess and analyse how the households are coping the crisis; identify and analyse the challenges facing the impacted households; to identify priority areas where the poor and disadvantaged households require support to withstand the crisis; and to provide inputs to immediate recovery interventions by the UN, Government and the development partners.

The third one is a Joint UN Study on socio-economic impact assessment of COVID 19 in Bangladesh. Being the technical lead of the UN framework for the socio-economic response to COVID-19, UNDP is leading a study that will analyse and quantify the macroeconomic, microeconomic, sectoral, social and governance impacts of COVID19; analyze and estimate the pandemic’s impact on employment both at aggregate and disaggregate levels; quantify and analyze the effects of poverty shock caused by the pandemic; analyze and estimate the impacts on Bangladesh’s sustainable LDC graduation; analyze and estimate the impacts on attaining SDGs. The study will recommend optimal short-term policies towards sustainable recovery and medium-term strategies for enabling attaining sustainable LDC graduation and SDGs, particularly through the 8th Five Year Plan.

Inclusive and integrated Crisis Management and Response

UNDP along with UN and other partners is supporting the government to ensure an effective crisis response, and in preserving stability and addressing social concerns as the pandemic unfolds. UNDP’s support focuses on safeguarding human rights and protecting vulnerable groups and rule of law in the face of the pandemic crisis. This is done through community outreach and social media engagement using innovative means to spread prevention messaging; enabling access of poor households and vulnerable groups (orphans, street children, commercial sex workers etc.). Prevention measures supported include improved access to hygiene & sanitation packs and basic food package that support 6.4 million people, among which 2.16 million people are urban poor during their ‘stay at home’ along with the installation of basic handwashing facilities in key public areas.  

Together with our partners UNDP monitors (social) media and analyses the effects of the COVID crisis and response on stability and social cohesion, engages 1.9M young Bangladeshis to combat disinformation and hate speech, has responded to discrimination and stigmatization and advocates for inclusivity and respect for diversity. Approximately 300,000 learners enrolled in the Online Courses on COVID-19 through E-Learning Platform Muktapaath. UNDP is looking for alternative means to provide immediate redress to the detainees seeking bail address through virtual courts at the magistracy level. It is expected that a law promulgated by the President of Bangladesh authorizing the operations of virtual courts is expected to be enacted by 10th May 2020.

 

Health System's and Procurement Support

As part of the overall UNDP Bangladesh response, a2i has taken some major significant initiatives at the request of and in collaboration with Directorate General of Health Services  (DGHS) and Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) to: (i) contain the spread of the virus; (ii) harness technology in a manner that is customized to the Bangladeshi (iii) ensure the safety of healthcare providers and maximize their productivity; and (iv) enable data-driven policy making and response. This a2i led support includes the launching and administration of the corona.gov.bd web platform that has so far 5.5 million users; More than 1.3 million calls related to COVID-19 were made through the 333 Call Centre response; establishing flow of crisis communication actions at District, Divisional and National; Provision of timely health advice and guidance from a virtual network of doctors; Development of a Health Data Intelligence Platform; and Telemedicine Network Development, among others. Around 4,000 volunteer doctors were mobilized in the Doctor’s Pool mobile app and 2,500 doctors are responding to calls from citizen on COVID-19 daily.  

Resource Situation

UNDP Bangladesh together with development partners are re-prioritizing and re-programming its regular resources for its COVID-19 response work. As of May 6, 2020, a total of USD 9 million are mobilized to fund COVID response activities. This amount includes new funding, repurposed funding and UNDP core resources.

Areas of Intervention

Budget

Allocated

Resources to be mobilized

Socio-economic Impact and Needs Assessment

 $60,000

$60,000

$25,000

Crisis Management and Response

$43,252,353

$8,487,924

$37,112,691

Health System Support

$450,000

$450,000

0

Total

$43,827,353

$8,947,924

$37,137,691