Calls to activate disaster management fund for anticipatory action in Bangladesh

To transform the country’s disaster management strategy from reactive relief to proactive resilience, a high-level National Consultation was held at the Sheraton Hotel, Banani in Dhaka on Tuesday, said a press release.

The event, titled "National Consultation on Institutionalizing the Disaster Management Fund (DMF) for Anticipatory Action in Bangladesh," was organiaed by Save the Children in collaboration with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR), with funding from European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).

This strategic dialogue focused heavily on unlocking existing domestic fiscal instruments to protect vulnerable communities before disasters strike.

Speaking as the Chief Guest, Abu Daud Md Gulam Mostafa, Joint Secretary of MoDMR, stressed the critical urgency of mobilizing dormant national resources, stating that the sleeping fund needs to be awake to tackle disasters through Anticipatory Action.

Highlighting the long-term economic efficiency of early intervention, he noted that while evidence proves investing 1 dollar saves 7 dollars in eventual disaster response, achieving these returns is impossible without fully activating the DMF.

He acknowledged that the government must address key structural challenges, including institutional trust issues and stark historical allocation disparities where some disaster funds at the district level range restrictively from Tk 10,000 to a maximum of Tk 1 million.

This discussion builds on a growing consensus in national disaster management policy, which has increasingly highlighted the strategic failure of leaving vital national funds underutilised while relying on external financing.

Currently, Bangladesh has made commendable strides in pilot Anticipatory Action programs, reaching nearly 430,000 people ahead of major hazards in 2024.

However, these initiatives remain unsustainably dependent on volatile external funding, leaving over 54 per cent of vulnerable households unsupported and facing a US$42 million funding shortfall for 2025. This reality underscores the strategic necessity of a permanent shift from a reactive post-disaster model to a domestic, forecast-triggered financing system.

The key presentation by Fatema Meherunnessa, Manager of Anticipatory Action, provided localized financial evidence from recent operations in the hilly, hazard-prone terrains of Chattogram and Bandarban. Her findings revealed a powerful business case for proactive financing, demonstrating that investing just Tk 1 in early action before a landslide hazard strikes saves Tk 15 in avoided asset losses and community damage.

Despite this clear socio-economic return, the current DMF framework remains bound to rigid post-disaster response rules. A major systemic bottleneck identified during the consultation is the administrative guideline requiring unused annual funds to return to the government treasury by 30 June, which inherently disrupts continuous, cross-season risk preparedness.

To dissolve these traditional bureaucratic silos, the consultation established crucial cross-sectoral commitments between fiscal planning and technical forecasting agencies.

Muhummad Wasiqul Islam, Senior Assistant Secretary of the Finance Division, affirmed that the Finance Ministry is actively looking to enable the DMF for disaster-prone areas and is fully committed to working collaboratively to address the treasury return regulation.

Additionally, Momenul Islam, Director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), urged that future DMF allocations must be tied to clear scientific thresholds, particularly supporting impact-based forecasting and early warning dissemination in high-risk, remote communities. Chairing the session, Netai Chandra Sarkar, Director of the Department of Disaster Management (DDM), noted that while the current DMF lacks explicit text on Anticipatory Action, immediate operational windows exist within the current legal architecture to embed forecast-based triggers.

The consultation concluded with a unified agreement that activating the DMF is a development priority that is non-negotiable for Bangladesh’s long-term climate survival.

Moving forward, the participants adopted an institutional roadmap focused on creating a separate, dedicated budget code for the Disaster Management Fund across every ministry and Deputy Commissioner (DC) office.

This strategy aims to ensure stronger inter-governmental coordination, empower localized decision-making, and formally anchor the DMF into a national early action protocol that links meteorological data directly to proactive financial disbursement.