Bangladesh is the ninth largest country in the world by population (164.4 million people) and is one of the most densely populated. Almost half of its 164.4 million people live on less than US$1.25 a day (World Bank, 2005) and 80% on less than US$2.00 a day (DFID, 2011).
The size and density of the population, together with regular extreme weather events, such as floods and cyclones, make the country extremely vulnerable to natural hazards becoming natural disasters.
During the last ten years, 12 major natural disasters have impacted upon millions of people in
Bangladesh, including floods in 2004, which affected 36 million people, and Cyclone Sidr in 2007, which affected over nine million people. Since 2000, US$430 million has been raised for disaster response with over half of it allocated to the humanitarian operation following Cyclone Sidr.
Aside from a history of natural disasters, an estimated 300,000 refugees of the Muslim minority
Rohinga ethnic group have fled from neighbouring Myanmar since being stripped of their citizenship in 1982, and are now resident in Bangladesh. Tens of thousands live in official and informal refugee settlements, while a far larger number live as ‘illegal economic migrants’ throughout Bangladesh.
The Rohinga refugee crisis is often considered a ‘forgotten’ crisis.
The frequency of disasters has prompted a strong domestic capacity working to prevent and respond to humanitarian emergencies. The country has a long tradition of voluntary and humanitarian response where the government, civil society, non-governmental organisations, private sector, voluntary groups and religious organisations carry out various emergency response activities to protect lives, assets and livelihoods as well as to prevent damages and losses resulting from natural and man-made disasters in Bangladesh. Nevertheless, in recent decades the frequency and intensity of natural disasters has increased and the number of affected people and vulnerable groups have multiplied. The Government of Bangladesh has developed an integrated approach to disaster risk reduction, which includes the defining of risks (hazard analysis, vulnerability assessment and risk treatment); the management of disaster risks and responding to disaster through emergency operations and social safety nets; and protection for long term risk reduction.
The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) outlines its core priorities and funding in its operational plan for Bangladesh, 2011-2015, committing an average of £250 million annually to
Bangladesh until 2015, thus doubling its annual spend in the country. DFID’s plan aims to support the country in meeting the demands of a large and increasingly urban population, while dealing with the shocks of natural disasters and climate change.
This briefing paper analyses Bangladesh as an aid recipient. It also looks at other financial flows such