A four-day-long training programme on ‘Urban Health in Bangladesh’ was inaugurated on 7 November at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of Dhaka University (DU). DU Population Sciences Department and UNFPA jointly organised the training programme.

State Minister for Ministry of Planning Prof. Dr. Shamsul Alam  was present as the chief guest at the event.  

Chaired by the Chairman of the Department of Population Sciences of DU Prof. Dr. Md Rabiul Haque the programme was addressed by DU Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) Prof. Dr. A.S.M. Maksud Kamal and Chief of Health, UNFPA Bangladesh Dr. Vibhavendra Singh Raghuvanshi as the special guests. Prof. Dr. Mohammad Mainul Islam, Convener of the Urban Health Training Implementation Committee of Department of Population Sciences presented an overview of the training programme.

State Minister Prof. Dr. Shamsul Alam said, ‘Nowadays management of urban health system becomes more challenging due to rapid growth of population and urbanisation. Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh Government has taken several initiatives to cope with the challenges of health security.’ The training programme would help to ensure the health security and fundamental rights of general people of the country, he hoped.

Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) Prof. Dr. A.S.M. Maksud Kamal said, Bangladesh is going through significant social and demographic changes, including rapid urbanisation, expanding industrialisation, rising incomes, and increasing non-communicable diseases. At present, about 40 per cent of the people of Bangladesh live in urban areas. Population growth in urban areas is 2.5% whereas the national population growth rate is less than 1.4 per cent. The biggest city, Dhaka alone accounts for 40 per cent of the urban population. The other five divisional cities account for 29 per cent, while 309 municipality towns have 31 per cent urban population.

He hoped that this training program would contribute to both the urban health enactment and the implementation levels. He thanked the Department of Population Sciences and UNFPA for arranging this training programme.