Bangladesh’s largest development organization hopes to work with KSrelief on refugee crisis

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s largest development organization is hoping for greater collaboration with Saudi Arabia’s aid agency KSrelief to help refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Afghanistan and South Sudan, its executive director told Arab News on Tuesday.

Founded in Bangladesh in 1972, the Building Resources Across Communities organization works with marginalized communities in remote areas and post-disaster settings across Asia and Africa, with a focus on creating opportunities for the group.

The Rohingya refugee crisis and similar issues in Afghanistan and South Sudan were discussed during a meeting between BRAC’s Executive Director Asif Saleh and KSrelief’s Supervisor-General Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah last week, on the sidelines of the Human Capability Initiative Conference in Riyadh.

“It was my first meeting with Dr. Al-Rabeeah. Our discussions revolved around the refugee crisis and its management process,” Saleh told Arab News.

The BRAC organization is one of the largest responders to the Rohingya refugee crisis and has worked with communities in the Cox’s Bazar region for nearly four decades.

“BRAC works in the humanitarian sector with a mission to realize the life potential of the refugees. We have been working for the well-being of the refugees for many years. That work in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and South Sudan can be strengthened with the partnership of KSrelief.”

Saleh cited KSrelief’s ongoing work in those countries, which shows “much potential” for the two organizations to work together.

Saleh also discussed BRAC’s latest projects with Al-Rabeeah, including the organization’s ongoing work on a new refugee management model combining various services such as education, health and skills-building under one specific organization for a particular location.

As refugee management is currently the responsibility of several agencies covering different sectors, Saleh said the new model can increase effectiveness and reduce operational costs.

“We are at the design phase now and hope to complete the process by a couple of weeks. After evaluating the success of this new model, it can be gradually expanded in other camps. We will also share the updates of this new refugee management model with KSrelief, according to our discussions,” he added.

“Long-term refugee crises should be addressed in a different way. Coming out from life-saving initiatives, there should be approaches to making the refugees more self-sufficient.”