Japan gives US$ 9.7 million for vulnerable people

The World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a cash donation of US$ 9.7 million contribution from the government of Japan for vulnerable people.
The contribution will provide urgently needed food and nutrition assistance to the most vulnerable people including children, pregnant and lactating women in high food insecure and disaster prone areas.
WFP will use this Japanese fund to distribute some 14,000 metric tons of wheat, 3500 metric tons wheat soya bean and 200 metric tons of tuna cans to 500,000 extreme poor people in 12 districts including Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogra, Serajganj, Pabna, Jamalpur, Lalmonirhat, Bagerhat, Khulna, Shatkhira, Barguna, Bhola and Patuakhali.
Tamotsu Shintosuka, Ambassador to Bangladesh observed, "Food is the basic needs of the people. We can understand this needs and that's why we gave the food aid on a priority basis for the ultra poor of the country. We hoped that this assistance will help the poor people to have food and fulfil the basic needs even in the remote area of the country."
This Japanese assistance will help WFP to implement its Enhance Resilience (ER) programme which aims at enabling ultra poor households to enhance their life skill, income earning, capacity and resilience to natural disaster by creating human and physical assets.
"WFP is very grateful to Japan for its generous donation at this critical moment. This donation provides WFP with the opportunity to support the most vulnerable people in Bangladesh particularly those suffer the combined challenges of food insecurity, under nutrition and the impact of climate change," said John Aylieff, WFP Representative in Bangladesh.
The government of Japan will complete an exchange of letters with the United Nations World Food Programme for a donation of some US$ 54 million (approximately JPY 4.6 billion) on 25th August 2010, in Italy. Other countries which will benefit are Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen.
The government of Japan has been one of the key donors to food aid programme in Bangladesh since its independence in 1971.
Japan has given approximately US$30 million to WFP Bangladesh since 2007. So far this year, Japan's contribution to WFP has reached US$209 million (approximately JPY 18.1 billion), making it the third largest donor to WFP.
-BSS

PM requests Iran to legalize undocumented Bangladeshi workers

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today requested the Iranian government to legalize the undocumented Bangladeshi workers there.
She made the request when the newly appointed Iranian Ambassador to Bangladesh Hossein Aminian Tousi paid a courtesy call on her at the Prime Minister's Office here.
They discussed matters relating to bilateral interest, expansion of trade and business between the two countries as well as climate change issues, Prime Minister's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told newsmen after the meeting.
The Prime Minister told the Iranian Ambassador that her government pursues foreign policy `friendship to all, malice to none.' She said her government values its relation with Iran.
The Ambassador conveyed Iranian President's invitation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to visit the country at a convenient time.
Ambassador At Large M Ziauddin, Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Molla Waheeduzzaman and Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad, among others, were present.
-BSS

Jamdani fair begins in city

A 16-day International Jamdani Taant Bastra Fair began on the premises of Siddeshwari Girls School at Baily Road in the city.
The Bangladesh Weavers Product and Manufacturing Business Association (BWPMBA) organized the fair with the aim to regain its lost glory by promoting the traditional products at home and abroad.
Nilufar Faruk Khan, wife of commerce minister Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan, inaugurated the fair as the chief guest.
BWPMBA senior vice-president M Salauddin, member of the school managing committee Kutubuddin Ahmed, among others, were present on the occasion.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Nilufar Faruk underscored the need for providing the sector with special incentives for expanding its export market.
She said the sector has huge potential to grow and has already created employment opportunities for poor especially the tribal people.
M Salauddin said exporters are suffering due to the recent hike of yarn prices and the government should look into it to help maximize profit of exporters in the sector.
The main objective of the fair is to know about customers' choice and attitude so that the quality of the jamdani clothing can be improved.
A good number of traditional clothing including jamdani saree, lungee, handloom products, 3-piece, 2-pieces are being displayed in 60 stalls.
The fair will remain open for all from 10am to 8pm and continue till before the Eid day.
-BSS

US$7 million Australian grants for water and sanitation

Australia will provide about seven million US dollar to Bangladesh as a grant for ensuring access to clean water and sanitation to four lakh marginal people of country's three southwestern coastal districts.
The grant will channel through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) as an additional aid to the existing Hygiene, Sanitation and Water Supply (HYSAWA) Fund of the governments of Bangladesh and Denmark.
The Australian support will enable the HYSAWA fund to extend its coverage from 513 to 553 Union Parishads, benefiting an additional 400,000 people in the Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira districts, Australian High Commission source said here today.
Australia's new involvement in water and sanitation development of Bangladesh reflects an overall increase in the bilateral development cooperation program, it said.
Australia's assistance in Bangladesh has reached 70 million Australian dollars in 2010-11 fiscal year, which is double comparing with the 2006-07 fiscal.
Bangladesh is currently the eighth largest bilateral recipient of Australian government development assistance globally, the source added.
An arrangement detailing Australia's support for HYSAWA was exchanged between Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dr Justin Lee, Denmark's Charge d' Affaires Jan Moller Hansen and the Chair of HYSAWA's Governing Board Manzur Hossain, at a ceremony at the High Commissioner's residence on Wednesday night.
Secretary of the Economic Relations Division M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, the Managing Director of HYSAWA Dr Enamul Kabir, Denmark's Ambassador-designate Svend Olling and AusAID's Dhaka head Rachel Payne were present on the occasion.
-BSS

EC rejects 'prostitution' as vocation

The Election Commission has rejected the proposal to include prostitution in the central database of voters' roll.
Election commissioner Sohul Hossain said the vocation 'sex worker' was omitted from voter registration forms to discourage it.
He said during the formulation of the voter list in 2007, 14 vocations were included in the registration form — government employee, private sector employee, physician, engineer, teacher, lawyer, banker, trade, labour, farmer, student, housewife, daily wage workers and unemployed.
People not falling under these categories would have to resort to 'others' for indicating profession.
The Photograph with Electoral Roll Project had proposed that the Election Commission (EC) to include 30 vocations in the registration form including prostitution. EC approved 29 of them, omitting prostitution.
Sohul Hossain told bdnews24.com that it might have seemed that prostitution was encouraged if it were included in the registration form.
"The proposal was rejected to discourage the vocation," he added.
He also said that people of this occupation will have to use 'other'.
The commission's position was that it did not have the authority to recognise or acknowledge vocations. But the inclusion of 'sex worker' in the voter form could hint at the commission's acknowledgement of the vocation.
The occupation is also discouraged by the society and religions, he said.
Sohul Hossain said that district administration does not give licenses to prostitutes; many of them carry on their activity under notary.
The registration form also includes occupations like blacksmith, fisherman, carpenter, cobbler, boatman, porter, butcher, cook, vendor, rickshaw puller, barber, tailor, judge, contractor, driver, nurse, journalist, retired government employee, and gardener.
In a query on the reason behind keeping 'student', 'house wife' and 'unemployed' in the form, the election commissioner said, "These pieces of information indicate a state of voters."
He also said that the registration form can provide 28 types of information about the voters and the national ID cards do not indicate the holder's vocation.
Prof SM Lutful Kabir, director of Information and Communication Institute (IICT) in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said the more information stored in the central database, the more useful it will be.
"Use of the database will be multidimensional then," he added.
Lutful Kabir worked as a counsellor in with the project in electoral roll preparation with photographs.
He said information collected by the election commission does not mean acknowledgement of certain vocations.
"However, the database may be helpful for statistics about voters in different professions," he said.
-bdnews