‘Public services struggling to cope with rapid urbanisation’

Public services are struggling to cope with rapid urbanisation and population growth, especially in traditionally under resourced areas such as mental health services, said a press statement by British Asian Trust.

The press communiqueéstated that Bangladesh has made rapid progress on a range of indicators, for instances, millions lifted out of extreme poverty, greater life expectancy, increased school enrolment and literacy rates.

“But, huge challenges remain as millions of young people are entering the jobs market every year without the necessary skills to find decent work, grow the economy, and earn enough for their families,” it added.

“I believe we can make a unique contribution to ensure even more people can benefit from Bangladesh’s ongoing development. We were established with a mandate to do development differently, so that is what we are doing across South Asia,” said British Asian Trust’s chief executive Richard Hawkes.

“We are now bringing social finance to Bangladesh, and I am excited to launch similar programmes here in the near future to address some of the challenges highlighted above,” he added.

However, British Asian Trust, which was established in 2007 by the Prince of Wales and a group of successful business leaders of the British Asian diaspora communities, was launched in Bangladesh in October.