Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and UNICEF Bangladesh on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a joint work plan.

The MoU and the annual work plan were jointly signed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DSCC Khan Mohammad Bilal and Representative, UNICEF Bangladesh Edouard Beigbeder on behalf of their respective organisations, reports the UNB.

These are aimed at improving basic service delivery for children in urban poor communities to improve their overall wellbeing and reduce service gaps.

Under the initiative, basic services like health, nutrition, education, child protection, water, sanitation to 100,000 children between the age of 0-18 years and their families living in urban poor communities will be enhanced.

UNICEF Bangladesh Representative Edouard Beigbeder said UNICEF has already initiated support to the government of Bangladesh in advancing urban development and services to achieve sustainable changes in the lives of urban children.

He said the programmes have already been piloted in poor communities of five city corporations — Dhaka North, Gazipur, Barisal, Sylhet and Khulna — covering over 300,000 left out urban children. ‘Partnership with Dhaka South City Corporation is the sixth one.’

At the initial stage of the partnership, Zone-4 of DSCC will pilot social services package and implementation strategies for urban poor communities.

This will develop a sustainable model for city corporations towards realisation of rights of children and their families by increasing their access to basic services.

Globally, and even more in Bangladesh, the proportion of population living in urban areas is growing.

According to the World Population Prospect (2014), Dhaka will be the 6th largest megacity in the world in 2030 and urban population in Bangladesh, which is now 53 million, will grow to 112 million in 2050.

The growing number of urban poor without access to basic services provides a compelling case for UNICEF to strategically engage in urban programming, according to UNICEF.

Building on its long experience in urban development, UNICEF is effectively contributing to the development of a socially inclusive urban development strategy.

The pilot programme will be expanded to the remaining other five city corporations from a total of eleven by 2020 to benefit about one million left out children in the selected poor communities.

Service delivery models will also be available for scaling up by the government.