After a successful four years, Start Fund Bangladesh (SFB) has received an additional £1.23 million to continue its lifesaving work across the country.
Funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Start Fund Bangladesh (SFB) programme will continue to operate under its previous grant custodian, Save the Children UK, and under a new host, Save the Children International in Bangladesh. The programme was previously hosted by Action Against Hunger, who will continue to work with SFB as a member. The grant custodian contract will initially run for 12 months, but there are plans to further extend the Start Fund Bangladesh subject to additional funding becoming available in early 2022.
Since its inception, Start Fund Bangladesh has implemented 73 projects, allocating £6.85m and reaching more than 750,000 of the most vulnerable people from affected communities. It has been held up as a strong example of locally-led humanitarian action that exemplifies some of the commitments around localisation set out in the Grand Bargain. In 2020, 80% of SFB’s funding went directly to local and national organisations, improving both effectiveness and efficiency.
Start Fund Bangladesh’s Country Manager, Sajid Raihan said: “With sincere appreciation to FCDO, we vow to continue our mission as the fastest pooled funding mechanism, to encourage the evolution of this funding mechanism with our members and partners, and to influence the localisation of aid architecture so to better address the humanitarian crises in a timely, collective and transparent manner.”
Save the Children’s Country Director in Bangladesh, Onno van Manen, said: “Save the Children is thrilled to be hosting the Start Fund Bangladesh team for the next 12 months. Through the work of many of our partners and our own, we are fully aware of the great work of the Start Fund in enabling local and grassroots agencies within Bangladesh to access emergency funding at very short notice. Save the Children continues to work closely with the Start Network in relation to this and other ventures globally and is very proud of our long-term partnership.”
Several other donors have expressed interest in supporting Start Fund Bangladesh. If you would like to learn about how to support Start Fund Bangladesh, please email fundraising@startnetwork.org