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12 October 2023 - Story

Save the Children in Bangladesh's Proyash II Project Bridges Communities in Savar Municipality

Savar Municipality is quite close to Dhaka and quickly becomes a commercial zone, particularly for the garment industry. Many garment workers live there, and the town's population grows daily. The commercial sector operates in residential areas, and its workers live in the surrounding community, creating additional duties for the Savar municipality to provide quality services to the people. It pressures the waste management system, transportation, the urban environment, etc. To continue to improve local transportation for the community at large as well as for over 10,000 garment workers, Save the Children's Proyash II project and its implementing partner SEEP recently facilitated collaboration between the local community, Savar Municipality, and the garments factories to build a new bridge in Karnapara Canal in Ward-6.

In the past, this bridge was highly vulnerable to walking, which resulted in casualties, major injuries, delays for garment workers entering their offices, and significant issues with moving patients to the hospital. This is an excellent example of engaging the private sector in urban development while ensuring quality services for marginalized urban communities. Since the local community identified it as one of the most significant risks to the community in the risk assessment plan, they took the lead in the process, engaging in negotiations with the municipality and garment owners and mobilizing resources. This indicates that if the local community is given leadership, they can bring about positive change through collaboration and trigger locally-led solutions.