A US$ 1.32 million environmental project was launched on Wednesday aiming to strengthen institutional capacity to enable compliance with three Rio conventions and multilateral environmental agreements signed by the government.
The Department of Environment (DoE) and the United Nations Develop-ment Program (UNDP) jointly initiated the project titled 'National Capacity Development for Imple-menting Rio Conventions through Environmental Governance (Rio Project)', which was launched at a workshop at Cirdap auditorium. Environment and Forests Minister Anwar Hossain Manju, Secretary (in charge) of the ministry Istiaque Ahmad, French Ambassador in Dhaka Sophie AUBERT and UNDP Country Director to Bangladesh Kyoko Yokos-uka, among others, spoke at the workshop held with DoE DG Raisul Alam Mondal in the chair. Speaking at the workshop, Manju said Bangladesh is maintaining a strong presence in all relevant gatherings at the UN and this initiative to improve the understanding of the government agencies is commendable. About the priority of the environment, he said the government does not take any plan without considering the country's environment. The goal of the Rio project is to strengthen Bangladesh's capacity to implement and manage Rio Convention obligations. This project will specially strengthen institutional and technical capacities and skills for improved implementation of the Rio Conventions.
The project has an initial budget of US$ 5.32 million, including the grants of US$ 660,000 by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and US$ 200,000 by the UNDP, while US$ 460,000 will come from the government. The Rio project is to be implemented by April 2019.