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Home » What We Do » Livable Cities » Promoting Environment-
Promoting Environment-
Introduction
The health of the Bangladeshi population is greatly affected by the state of its
cities. Inability to engage in physical activity contributes to already high rates
of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Pedestrians are the main victims in road
crashes. High rates of pollution particularly affect the lung health of the low-
Bangladesh cities, like many cities around the world, would benefit from inclusive urban policies that ensure the marginalized, such as women and the poor, are able to access transportation options, sanitation, and parks and public spaces. For example, transport policies give priority to cars, while failing to consider pedestrians or cyclists and aiming to ban rather than preserve cycle rickshaws. Insufficient protection is being provided to the nation’s rivers from pollution and encroachment.
Work for a Better Bangladesh (WBB) is a non-
- Children can play in the street and walk to school safely
- Everyone can walk to a local park to visit with the neighbours and enjoy nature
- Everyone can walk to stores and services
- Everyone can cross the street easily and safely
- Cycling is common for recreation and for transportation
- When people need to leave their neighbourhood, they can take public transit
- Everyone has access to clean drinking water
- Water is treated as a precious resource
- Lakes, rivers, parks and streets are free of pollution
- People hear children laughing not cars honking
- People breathe clean air
- People have access to healthy foods
Objectives
- The Goals of the Livable for 2010-
2012 are: - To increase the number of people who choose to be active and to eat healthy foods;
- To increase the number of people who live, work, and play in livable neighbourhoods;
- To increase the number of healthy public policies that support the creation of livable cities
- To establish WBB as a recognized leader in Livable Cities around the world
To achieve these goals, WBB will focus on partnership development, policy development, advocacy, communications, and organizational development.
Results
WBB recognizes that in order to achieve behaviour change (goal 1) there must be a
supportive environment. So, the focus for 2010-
Key results for 2010-
- WBB began developing their partner network and by the end of the first year had 50 organizations across the country advocating for livable cities issues. These partners organized events including programs to save parks, to save water ponds and canals, and to improve walking facilities. As a result of these efforts, a park and a canal were saved from development. In addition, the Prime Minister has stated that all new developments should include a park and a playground.
- In addition to the 50 active partner organizations, WBB has 600 other organizations that are part of their distribution network. They distributed 3 books, 4 newsletters, and 3 information alerts to these organizations, who are now better informed about Livable Cities issues.
- WBB organized 2 partner trainings: one on the importance of rail transport and one on the importance of water. These trainings resulted in 46 NGOs organizing events in their own communities regarding rail and a further information sharing with 230 additional organizations. After these events, the Prime Minister announced her support for a separate rail ministry.
- Five regional workshops were organized that brought together policy makers, government and city officials, organizations, and the media. These workshops dealt with issues related to transportation, the environment and urbanization. As a result of these workshops, the 5 cities began implementing policies that will be focused on removing illegal construction along waterways and creating walkways for pedestrians and ensuring that canals can be used as a transportation routes.
- WBB met with key policy makers, including members of parliament and Directors of
Departments, to discuss transportation issues. These policy makers indicated support
for pedestrian-
and environment- friendly policies and will be advocates for such policies. - During the 2010-
2011 year, the government in Bangladesh began implementing a law that would punish people not using foot- over bridges (pedestrian overpasses) with jail. This law was particularly problematic because foot- over bridges are not designed for people with disabilities, are inconveniently located and their sole purpose is to ensure that cars are not inconvenienced rather than supporting pedestrian safety. WBB mobilized their partner network and as a result of their efforts, the government overturned their decision. In addition, to improve pedestrian safety, Dhaka University started to create zebra crossings throughout their campus and the government created 20 zebra crossings throughout the city. - In total, WBB organized 33 demonstrations/rallies, 19 meetings with policy-
makers/decision makers, 8 workshops, and they had over 300 instances of media coverage for their events. In addition, they prepared 35 press releases/newspaper articles, with a distribution of over 135,000 people, and 8 radio programs, with an audience of over 8,000,000 people.
Lessons Learned and Recommendations
The strategy of organizing simultaneous events throughout the country proved to be effective for encouraging healthy public policy. By providing our partner organizations with materials, talking notes and letter writing support, WBB was able to shift government position on a number of important livable cities topics.
Forming a network of likeminded organizations has also been effective in increasing the reach of our message. We will be continuing to focus on network development in the coming year.
In 2011-
Project profile
Key Partners: Work for a Better Bangladesh (WBB Trust)
Location: Bangladesh
Donor: HealthBridge
Duration: 2010-
Contact person:
Kristie Daniel, Program Manager, Livable Cities
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