Question Period Note: Canada's development assistance program in Bangladesh

How Canada's development assistance program is supporting Bangladesh to sustain and advance its development achievements

• Canada's development assistance program in Bangladesh is guided by our Feminist International Assistance Policy and helps improve human dignity with a focus on health and education, including skills for employment and women's empowerment.

• Canada's long-term support to health and education programs has contributed to Bangladesh's exceptional success in reducing maternal mortality by 40% and infant mortality by 51% and in achieving gender parity in primary school enrollment.

• Responding to the Rohingya crisis, Canada's development program extends support mainly to the affected host communities. Efforts focus on meeting the needs of women and girls, including reducing sexual and gender-based violence.

Since 1972, Canada has provided over $4 billion in international assistance to Bangladesh through our various funding channels.

Canada's development assistance in Bangladesh aims to improve human development through investments in health, education and skills, with a focus on the poorest, specifically women and children. The on-going program is helping to strengthen the capacity of national and local governments to plan, manage, and monitor health and education delivery systems. It is also helping to strengthen the quality of market-responsive technical and vocational education and inclusive training programs and improve working conditions in the ready-made garment sector that employs approximately 3 million women.

Canada's development assistance has always had a strong focus on gender equality and has contributed to Bangladesh's notable gains in women's health and education. However, significant social, political, legal and economic barriers to women's equality and empowerment remain. New programming will further enhance Canada's focus on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in alignment with the Feminist International Assistance Policy.

Canada's comprehensive response to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh includes $300 million of international assistance to address humanitarian, development, and peace and stabilization needs in a coordinated and timely way for three years (2018 to 2021). The response was informed by the recommendations of the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to Myanmar, Bob Rae, and the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, established by the Government of Myanmar in August 2016 and chaired by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

As part of the response, Canada's development assistance program in Bangladesh includes $82 million in programming with a focus on helping to mitigate the impact of the crisis on the Bangladeshi host communities in Cox's Bazar and to support basic education and health for the Rohingya refugees.

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