The northern reverine char lands in Bangladesh are of the most vulnerable areas in the country. Large population of the poor faces an uphill struggle to sustain livelihoods. Concern Worldwide Bangladesh, in partners with seven local organizations, has initiated the Island Chars Resource Mobilization, or the Nodi o Jibon (Bengali for River and Life) project. The project is the result of a long project design process undertaken by Concern Bangladesh in collaboration with its partners.
Community needs assessments conducted as part of the design process for the Nodi o Jibon Project have highlighted the glaring paucity of resource or service investments in the island chars relative to the mainland. Very few NGOs are providing services in the char lands given the relatively high risk to micro-credit, upon which most NGOs are dependent. While the major national NGOs, including BRAC, Grameen and Proshika, are beginning to give the chars some attention, their presence is still much, much less than anywhere on the mainland. Government basic services, especially for health and education, are also virtually invisible on the chars, and the private sector has still not seen much comparative advantage in the chars to encourage investment.
In light of this, Nodi o Jibon proposes to take on the challenge of advocating for greater services and resources being allocated to the island chars should be of comparable quality to those provided on the mainland and proportional to the levels of poverty that exist relative to the mainland.
