World Bank helps Bangladesh create more jobs and faster recovery from COVID 19

“The COVID-19 pandemic has already established a disproportionate effect on the indegent and vulnerable population,” said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.
The World Bank and the government of Bangladesh today signed a $250 million financing to greatly help Bangladesh create more and better jobs; recover faster from the COVID 19 pandemic, and build resilience to future crises.

The Third Programmatic Jobs Development Policy-the last in some three credits-focuses on key reforms to create quality and inclusive jobs, while supporting the government's response to the COVID-19 crisis. It supports policies to modernize the trade and investment regime; improve social protection for workers; and help youth, women, and vulnerable persons access quality jobs.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on the indegent and vulnerable population," said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan. "This financing supports government policies to safeguard those most influenced by the pandemic and create more and better jobs as Bangladesh continues its journey towards its vision to become an upper-middle-income country."

The pace of job creation has slowed recently, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem. Losses in jobs and income put livelihoods of several million at risk in both rural and cities. Women and youth have been particularly hard hit.

The Jobs Development Policy Credit series has helped the federal government protect 5 million jobs, and enabled organizations to keep paying their workers' wages. In addition, it supported the migrant employees who have had to come back to Bangladesh as a result of pandemic. The program may also support informal micro-entrepreneurs in recovering by extending micro-finance facilities.

"The federal government has taken fast and proactive measures to safeguard the indegent and vulnerable population and to mitigate the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on formal and informal businesses," said Fatima Yasmin, Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Government of Bangladesh. "This program has had helped protect the jobs and income of an incredible number of poor and vulnerable persons while laying the groundwork for building resiliency to future shocks."

The program has recently resulted in reducing costs of starting a business; making the abilities development sector more labour-market relevant; strengthening labour regulations for improved working conditions; promoting quality daycare to permit more women to become listed on the labour force.

With this program, total World Bank financing beneath the Programmatic Jobs Development Policy Credit series stands at $750 million. The credit is from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), which gives concessional financing, has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period. Bangladesh currently gets the greatest ongoing IDA program totalling over $14 billion. The World Bank was among the first development partners to aid Bangladesh and has committed a lot more than $35 billion in grants, interest-free and concessional credits to the country since its Independence.