The World Bank will provide $200 million in loans to alleviate poverty for around five million people in rural Bangladesh.
The loan under the Nuton Jibon Livelihood Improvement Project will benefit people of the poorest upazilas in 21 districts and support livelihoods by increasing access to market through business partnerships and funding small rural infrastructure, the Washington-based lender said in a statement yesterday.   
The project will also help the poor and extreme poor, often left out of microcredit schemes. 
It will also work on nutrition awareness, agricultural knowledge and continue to focus on youth job opportunities.
Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty, with 16 million people coming out of poverty in the last one decade, Johannes Zutt, WB's country director, said. Yet, poverty remains a daunting development challenge, as there around 47 million poor people still, he added. 
The project will cover around 2,500 new villages in 12 districts in addition to the about 3,200 villages supported under the Social Investment Programme Project-II.
“We have seen that when the poor people, particularly women, are given the chance, they successfully prioritise their needs, manage resources and engage in livelihood activities that help them transform their lives,” said Frauke Jungbluth, World Bank's task team leader for the project. 
The project builds on the lessons of the Social Investment Programme Project that started as a pilot in two of the poorest districts of Bangladesh in 2003 and gradually expanded to 14 more districts.
The credit is from the International Development Association, the World Bank's concessional lending arm, and will mature in 38 years with a six-year grace period. It carries a service charge of 0.75 percent.