The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), in support of the government of Bangladesh’s emergency response, has dispatched cash assistance to the communities at risk of monsoon flooding in the country’s northern region.
About 6,000 vulnerable households (about 30,000 people) living within the flood zone – including those headed by people with disabilities, the elderly and women – received Taka 4,500 (US$ 53) per household through the bKash mobile banking system, which helps them prepare for the looming disaster.
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the Federal Foreign Office of the Government of Germany jointly provided fund to this end, a WFP press release said. “By offering an infusion of cash prior to the floodwaters actually reaching communities, vulnerable families now have the flexibility to purchase food or other basic relief items and make plans to move themselves and their livestock out of harm’s way,” said Richard Ragan, WFP country director in Bangladesh.
During the monsoon season last year, WFP provided cash assistance through its Forecast-Based Financing programme to 4,500 households. The transfers were made to the most senior women of the household, and arrived three days ahead of the floods, enabling them to prepare, including buying food and transporting family members and livestock to safer places. Forecast-based Financing is an innovative mechanism through which early preparedness and community-level actions are pre-planned based on credible meteorological forecasts.
It is funded and implemented before the disaster strikes, helping minimise the loss and damage caused by climate-related hazards, and reducing the need for humanitarian assistance in their aftermath.
