Qatar pledges $1.27m to provide education access to school dropouts in Bangladesh

Qatar has pledged $1.268 million to make education accessible to 6.5 lakh children who dropped out from primary schools in Bangladesh, said a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on Wednesday.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was inked between Bangladesh and the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) under its project Education Above All (EAA) to this end.

Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen and QFFD Director General Khalifa Bin Jassim Al Kuwari signed the MoU during the sideline events of the UNLDC5 conference in Doha on Tuesday at a hall of the Qatar National Conference Centre.

"The Qatar government will channel the fund through QFFD to support the education sector in Bangladesh," said the release.

The Foreign Minister was delegated to sign the contract on behalf of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education. The project would be conducted here by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, it added.

The Education Above All (EAA) is an outreach programme conducted in some countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia under the QFFD having an annual budget of $600 million.

The signing of the MoU is considered a milestone to access finance to Qatar development fund. The government of Qatar aims to provide this assistance to the LDCs to fulfil their SDGs-2030 as part of its commitment to international cooperation under the Qatar national vision 2030.

Qatar Charity, another humanitarian organisation, conducts some humanitarian assistance and relief support to the Rohingya and marginalised people in various places in Bangladesh, said the media release.