50% of Bangladesh’s population will live in urban settlements by 2030
Economic and climate-induced migration is causing Bangladesh’s urban population to swell. Many people in urban areas find shelter in overcrowded, unhygienic slums, and lack of access to basic services like housing, infrastructure, safe drinking water, sanitation, health and education. People also often have limited access to skills, employment, finance and livelihood opportunities.
We work to make cities inclusive, safe and sustainable through improving wellbeing, reducing multidimensional poverty and supporting people living in urban poverty to exercise their rights. We promote community-led service integration, social enterprise approaches and public-private-community partnerships for pro-poor urban development.
IMPACT

Reduced multidimensional poverty and improved wellbeing of 800,000 people living in urban poverty

Low-cost climate-resilient housing initiatives in 15 cities improving living standards and securing the environment

Public service delivery mechanisms for implementing inclusive and resilient urban planning and governance strengthened in 20 cities
WHAT WE DO

Basic services
Safe, affordable and quality services for the urban poor, including health, education, WASH, legal aid, crisis management and financial inclusion

Economic empowerment
Livelihoods, skills and entrepreneurship opportunities, urban agriculture and market linkages

Low-cost housing and slum upgrading
Adequate, safe and affordable housing and overall slum upgrading, including drainage, footpaths, access roads, lighting, solar energy, waste management and tree plantation

Climate change, disaster risk response and environment
Promoting pro-poor urban development, and integrating climate change, disaster response and environment into city planning

Urban planning and governance
Strengthening urban planning and governance for inclusive and resilient urban development and improving public service delivery mechanisms

Policy advocacy and partnership
Strengthening the commitment of policy actors towards creating more livable cities
HOW WE DO IT

Service integration
Leveraging a strong referral system to access affordable and quality services through partnership and collaboration with different service providers including BRAC, government, NGOs and the private sector.

Public private community partnerships
Joint investment, planning and decision making for financial, social and environmental sustainability.

Social enterprise
Innovative new business models which use cost-sharing and cost recovery approach to ensure the sustainability of initiatives.
WHY IT WORKS

Financial leverage
Leveraging financial resources through public private community partnership, social enterprise and service integration

Community-led development
Communities identify and prioritise their needs to come up with their own plan of action which they then manage

Innovation
Keeping data-driven decision making, innovation, knowledge and insight generation, evidence creation and research at the core of all of our initiatives