Bangladesh

General Country
Afghanistan
Kabul

Islamabad
Jammu
and
Kashmir
Profile
Pakistan
New Delhi Nepal Bhutan
Kathmandu Thimphu

Bangladesh
Dhaka

India

Maldives
Total population: 166.501 million.
Sri Lanka
Percentage of population under age 18: 59.3 million
(35.62% of total population).
Colombo

Male

Maldives
Percentage of population 10-19 years: 34.6 million
(20.8%3 of total population).

Annual population growth: 1.37 per cent

This map is stylized and not to scale. The information shown on this map does (SVRS 2019, BBS).
not imply official recognition or endorsement of and physical, political boundaries
or feature names by the United Nations or other collaborative organizations. UN
OCHA and affiliated organizations are not liable for damages of any kind related
to the use of this data.

Bangladesh is a Lower Middle-Income Country (LMIC).

50 million people live in urban areas, millions of them in

underserviced slums where they face multiple overlap-
ping deprivations. Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to
the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels.
This has led to an increase in the intensity and frequency
of natural disasters, as well as coastal saltwater
intrusion.

A limited amount of religiously and politically motivated

violence has changed the security landscape and operat-
ing environment in Bangladesh over the past few years.

The first COVID-19 case was reported in Bangladesh on

8 March 2020. The spread of the infection remained low
until the end of March, but has since risen steeply. As of
© UNICEF/Bengladesh/Himu/2020

21 September 2020, Bangladesh had identified over

350,000 positive cases with nearly 5,000 deaths4.

[1] Sample Vital Registration System of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics

(SVRS-BBS) 2019, published in 2020.
[2] SVRS-BBS for total population and BBS projected population by single years for
proportion of age groups.
[3] MICS 2019.
[4] https://corona.gov.bd; accessed 22 September 2020 08:55.
 Bangladesh Key Indicators on Children

Indicator Value Year Source

40 per 1,000 Multiple Indicator Cluster

Under-five mortality live births 2019 Survey (MICS)

Stunting in under-five 28% 2019 MICS

children

MICS
Primary school net attendance 2019
86%
(adjusted5)

Lower secondary school 58% 2019

MICS
attendance

Household sanitation 2019 MICS

(improved sanitation facilities 64%
which are not shared)

Birth registration
56% 2019 MICS
(under-five children)

Child marriage (females 20–24 2019 MICS

51%
years married before age 18)

2.9 million 2019 MICS and population projections from 2011

Child labour (5–17 years)
census

Percentage of children age 1-14 years

who experienced any violent discipline 88.8% 2019 MICS
method during the last one month
© UNICEF/Bangladesh/Berger/2019

[5] Ratio presented in the indicator are “adjusted” since they include not only primary school attendance, but also secondary school attendance in the numerator.
 Biggest challenges facing children and
UNICEF targets for 2017-2021t

© UNICEF/Bangladesh/Kiron/2017
• The exodus of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh since August
2017 has created a humanitarian crisis in Cox’s Bazar, already one of the poorest
performing districts in terms of child-related indicators. With the new influx, the
current total number of Rohingyas who have fled into the district, plus the
affected population in host communities, has reached 1.1 million, including
585,000 children6.

• Adolescents face multiple deprivations. Failure to invest in this large segment

of the population during this important demographic transition will depress
Bangladesh’s development trajectory.
UNICEF Country
• Child marriage remains persistently high. Little more than 51 per cent of girls
aged 20-24 are married before the age of 18 – this is one of the highest rates of Programme
child marriage in the world. Document (CPD)
2017–2021: selected
• Employment opportunities, driven by the growing ready-made-garment sector,
along with forced migration of communities affected by disasters and climate targets
change, have led to unplanned urban growth. Rapid urbanization has placed
immense pressure on cities’ limited land and over-stretched and under-resourced
services. Bangladesh’s urban slum dwellers are amongst the most severely
• Reduce the percentage of girls aged 15-19
deprived in the country.
years currently married from 34 to 20 per cent.

• Maternal and newborn mortality is stagnating, and the Universal Health

• Number and proportion of districts and
Coverage index is 50 per cent (WHO 2018): access to quality health care and high
City Corporations that have functioning
out-of-pocket expenditure (67%) are major challenges (BNHA 1997-2015).
mechanisms/ platforms to review situation
analysis and identify children-related issues
• Around 4.5 million children (28%) in Bangladesh are stunted. Nearly ten per
and priorities.
cent are wasted, and half a million need immediate nutritional care to prevent
mortality.
• Reduce the percentage of girls aged 15-19
years with low body mass index (<18.5
• The country is reaching the last mile in the fight against open defecation (only
kg/m2) from 25 to 20 per cent.
1.5 per cent in 2019) and promoting the scale-up of safely managed sanitation for
all. While the country has almost universal access (98 per cent) to improved water
• Number of social service workforce
sources, only half the population has access to safe water.
including, Union and Urban social workers
skilfully conducting early identification and
• Access and quality of education remains a major concern in some geographic
case management of vulnerable and
locations especially in the urban slums, tea gardens, coastal areas and islands and
affected children.
Chittagong Hill Tracts. It is also a concern among children with disabilities, those
affected by disasters, and the Rohingya refugees. Despite nearly 100 per cent
• Targeted parents/primary caregivers
enrolment in primary education, only 38 per cent of Grade 3 students achieved
reached by programmes addressing
competencies in maths and 47 per cent in Bangla. For Grade 5 students the rates
child-rearing practices (Child
are 24 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively, and only 44 per cent of Grade 8
Development-Child Rights Perspective).
achieved mastery of English7.
• Increase the proportion of live births
• Violence against children in all settings is high in Bangladesh. An estimated
attended by skilled health personnel9
88.5% of children between 1-14 years old experience any form of violent
(doctor, nurse, midwife, auxiliary midwife).
discipline in their homes. In the education system violence is also prevalent
despite the High Court directive on prohibition of corporal punishment in schools.
• Increase the proportion of newborns receiving
postnatal care within two days of birth.
• 7 million under-five children have not had their births registered8. Registration
of children at birth is the recognition of their existence before law and ensures
• Provide 1 million people with safely
protection from violation of rights.
managed sanitation and 1.2 million with
safely managed water.
© UNICEF/Bangladesh/Kiron/2017

[6] 2020 Global Needs Overview. Includes 810,000 Rohingya

refugees (439,020) plus affected host communities in the seven
most-affected unions in Ukhiya and Teknaf sub-district.
[7]National Students Assessment (NSA) report, DPE, MoPME
2017.
[8] SVRS 2019 and MICS 2019
[9] GAP Indicator P1.1
 Type of UNICEF programme, presence and partnerships and salient issues

• 2017-2021 Country Programme Document (CPD) for Bangladesh is in its fourth year of implementation. It has a budget envelope
of USD 400 million (USD 100 million regular resources and USD 300 million other resources).

• The 2019 Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal was USD 152.2 million. The 2020 HAC requirements are USD 135.3
million, which includes the USD 111.3 million required under the 2020 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya response, as well as
additional funds for the Humanitarian Response Plan and emergency preparedness nationwide.

• CPD outcomes have been formulated following a life-cycle approach: (a) newborns/infants and their mothers, and young children;
(b) children of primary-school age; and (c) adolescents. These programme outcomes are supported by an overarching component
(d) of social inclusion and an increasing awareness of children’s rights. Considering the evolving situation of COVID-19, UNICEF
added a dedicated outcome for COVID-19 response in 2020. The office developed a dashboard10 on Response to the COVID-19
Pandemic in Bangladesh for monitoring and analytical purposes.

• The central office is in Dhaka and it focuses on strategic engagement and programme design, management and technical oversight,
with functional accountabilities for upstream policy work, direct implementation in urban slums and peri-urban activities in Dhaka.
Seven field offices and one sub-office work on divisional planning, monitoring and implementation, and convergence at field-level.

• Generation Unlimited (GenU) Bangladesh was launched in 2019 as a Government led initiative and private sector driven
multi-stakeholder platform, formed by government, 15 industry associations, UN agencies, NGO representatives and youth groups.
GenU Bangladesh is chaired by the Principal SDG Coordinator of the Prime Minister’s Office with support from World Bank, ILO,
BRAC, a2i and UNICEF as foundational partners. To enable catalytic progress, for young people to become productive and engaged
members of society, ongoing work focuses on minimizing the negative impact of COVID-19 on the overall agenda of connecting
Secondary Education and Training to Entrepreneurship and Employment opportunities.

• Using innovative approaches, UNICEF is supporting the Government of Bangladesh to improve social service delivery through
integrated information-management systems that strengthen real-time monitoring for decision-making and transparency. It is also
developing e-learning platforms for better learning outcomes and digitally engaging youth and adolescents to create demand for
better services, skills development and employability.

• UNICEF Bangladesh has established a private sector engagement and resource mobilization team to support the integration of the
private sector into the Country Programme. The team works to scale both international and national partnerships with private sector
actors including corporates, private trusts and foundations, major donors and individuals covering the full spectrum of UNICEF
engagement with the private sector. To date, more than 100 businesses in the ready-made garment sector have begun to integrate
children’s rights into their operations, and major partnerships have been secured with national businesses which support resource
mobilization and programmatic scaling.

• UNICEF Bangladesh has partnerships with all major public donors to Bangladesh including the US government, Japan, BMZ/KfW,
EU, FCDO, GAVI, SIDA, SDC, GAC, CERF, GPE, the Netherlands and the World Bank to support the government in its efforts to
improve the lives of children and women in Bangladesh.

• There are 325 staff members (77 IP, 173 NO, 75 GS) as of 20 September 2020
© UNICEF/Bangladesh/Haque/2019

Country Team

• Tomoo Hozumi, Representative.

• Veera Mendonca, Deputy Representative.
• Alain Balandi Domsam, Deputy Representative Operations
• Shairose Mawji, Chief Field Services.
• Jenny Gamming, Chief Communication, Advocacy and Partnership (CAP)
• Ezatullah Majeed, Chief Field Office, Cox’s Bazar.
• Mia Seppo, United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident
Representative in Bangladesh.

[10] https://dashboard.unicefbangladesh.org