UNOPS Bangladesh
UNOPS has
been present in Bangladesh since 2003, initially providing operational support
programme focusing on police reforms and disaster management. The presence has
significantly grown since then with UNOPS being appointed as Local Fund Agent
for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Bangladesh.
In 2014,
UNOPS established formal representation in Bangladesh as a response to a
request from the Executive Board of UNOPS to provide more substantial support
to the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) across various areas, including
organisational capacity development and integrating resilient infrastructure
approaches. The office currently provides capacity development support to
several GOB infrastructure related agencies and some key national NGOs with a
focus at improving operational capacities within the sectors of procurement,
human resources management, finance and internal control, and project
management.
Moving
forward, UNOPS, in line with its global priorities is expanding its portfolio
within Bangladesh to provide more significant support in the sectors of resilient
infrastructure, fund management and operational efficiency with an emphasis on
building national capacities, improving resilience of communities and
supporting in the implementation of SDGs.
Within this focus,
UNOPS is currently in the process of formulating the next Bangladeshi National
Resilient Programme due to commence in early 2017 with UNDP and UN-Women in
keeping with priorities of GOB and international agreements such as the Sendai
Framework. Building on its extensive global expertise in Fund Management, UNOPS
is also working with key development partners in the country in setting up a
development fund that will support humanitarian, disaster management and early
recovery sectors.
Strengthening
Humanitarian Preparedness and Response Programme (SHPR)
DFID–Bangladesh (DfID-B) Strengthening
Humanitarian Preparedness and Response (SHPR) programme aims to provide more
effective, timely and predictable humanitarian support to refugees in
Bangladesh and to vulnerable communities following disasters. It also aims to
strengthen the ability of the Government of Bangladesh to effectively meet the
needs of these groups, and to reduce the scale of impact of disasters when they
occur.
The principle objectives of the SHPR
are articulated around three Pillars.
Pillar 1: Augment disaster
preparedness and disaster risk reduction including for large‐scale catastrophic
emergencies and recurrent, predictable events;
Pillar 2: Respond to the impact of
disaster events through the provision of predictable, timely and high quality
humanitarian support;
Pillar 3: Deliver urgent
humanitarian support to Rohingya refugees and needy host communities as well as
creating an enabling environment for Rohingya related relief agencies through
support to coordination fora.
The SHPR will be initially established
as a facility to support DFID funding only. Depending on its successful implementation,
and possible appetite from other donors to coordinate their humanitarian
funding through a joint platform, the Programme may be upgraded to a multi
donor programme at a later stage.
DFID has requested UNOPS to provide
fund management services to programmes under Pillar 1 and 3, whilst DFID will
manage Pillar 2. Programmes under Pillars 1 and 3 include a Joint Needs
Assessment programme by CARE, a joint-UN disaster preparedness programme via
UNICEF, support to Mission Aviation Fellowship, IOM’s support to the Government
of Bangladesh’ Rohingya Strategy and a Coordinated iNGO programme via ACF.
As the Fund Manager,
UNOPS will be responsible for multiple functions vis-à-vis the SHPR Programme
including, design of an early recovery/emergency response facility, fiduciary
management, legal and technical oversight, monitoring
and evaluation, reporting, quality assurance and communication. UNOPS will
also be required to support DFID in its humanitarian agenda from the onset of
this project.