Despite nearing lower-middle-income status, due to the climate crisis Bangladesh is now the 4th most food-insecure country in absolute numbers. Each year, 500,000-750,000 people migrate to Dhaka, the equivalent of adding Florence, Leeds, or San Francisco annually. Yet those most affected continue to drive the most hopeful and impactful solutions.
The myth: gap is purely financial capital.
The reality: it’s as much connecting to the right human capital.
Money without capable people is inert. Capability without access to finance breeds frustration, particularly when it is at ground 0.
At BRAC, we invest in both human and financial capital, through markets, public systems, and community solidarity… whatever works for the poor.
In Cox’s Bazar, our pooled fund for localisation (thanks to the Australian and Canadian governments amongst others) proved that when risk is shared, trust and results grow faster, cheaper, and stronger.
The challenge now not just finding new money, but trusting new models that let those closest to crisis lead. This is the learning we apply across our 13 countries of programming.
Thanks to Carlo Batori, Benoit De Gryse, Andrew Stein, and Elise B. Baudot for the inspiring exchange.
#RomeHumanitarian Congress #Localization
#HumanCapital #BRAC #HumanitarianAid
#Development #Climate
On Friday at the Rome Humanitarian Congress “Humanitarianism Under Attack: The Future of Principled Aid Beyond the Backlash” I joined the panel “Flip the Coin: Myths and Realities on Addressing the Ever-Increasing Funding Gap.”
BRAC was born from crisis in 197
Fifty years on, we remain true to that origin, investing in people’s agency, using whatever works, and staying sector-agnosti
- Today the line between humanitarian and development work isn’t a “nexus”, it’s an accordion reality, or in South Asian terms more aptly, a “Harmonium” reality, where we constantly move between both. The climate crisis now blurs every boundryc.2. #INTERSOS
