South Korea will provide US$4.6 million to support operations of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Bangladesh to help households and communities become more resilient in the face of natural disasters.
The fund will be disbursed through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Korean government’s organisation for delivering assistance to developing countries, according to a press release.
The Building Resilience to Achieve Zero Hunger (BRAZH) initiative aims to reach over 4,000 families living in the flood-prone areas of Sadar and Chilmari upazila of Kurigram district in the northwest of Bangladesh from 2018 to 2021.
WFP, with the help of Korea, will be able to 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 Bangladesh Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, the Department of Disaster Management, local government, and national and international technical institutes.
The forecast-based financing pilot project was tested last month in a dry-run supported by multiple donors, and reached 3,800 households with mobile money transfers in a test of the system’s ability to disburse cash rapidly in the event of a disaster, reports BSS.
KOICA was established as a government-funded agency dedicated to grant aid programs in April 1991. KOICA strives to combat poverty and support sustainable socio-economic growth of developing countries based on the core values of promoting peace, people and prosperity, the release added.
