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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) on Sunday joined hands to strengthen Bangladesh’s digital financial ecosystem through interventions in policy and regulation, innovation, infrastructure, and skills to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
a2i will play a strategic role in implementing the activities of this partnership, a joint press release said.
UNDP’s acting Resident Representative Nguyen Thi Ngoc Van and UNCDF’s Executive Secretary Preeti Sinha inked a Memorandum of Understanding in the presence of a2i’s Project Director (Joint Secretary) Dr Dewan Muhammad Humayun Kabir, a2i’s Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury, and UNCDF’s regional coordinator for Asia Maria Perdomo at the UNDP’s country office at Agrgoan, Dhaka today.
Under the agreement, the organisations will collaborate and leverage UNCDF’s financing instruments such as grants, reimbursable grants, loans, and guarantees to provide seed funding to investments for enterprises deemed too small or risky by traditional investors.
They will exchange information to identify and facilitate the development of appropriate capability enhancement tools, products, and strategies needed to enhance the digital and financial skills of the excluded.
This MoU will develop a framework for non-exclusive cooperation and will facilitate and strengthen collaboration in the areas of common interest for the last mile. As an inclusion in the digital era is not a given, the MoU will work in a broader way to establish an inclusive digital economy so that governments can harness digital tools to achieve the SDGs by making digital economies inclusive for the least developed countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh.
Speaking at the event, a2i’s Project Director (Joint Secretary) Dr Dewan Muhammad Humayun Kabir said: “We are moving to Smart Bangladesh after successfully passing the Digital Bangladesh vision.
