Governing board of NGO Foundation formed

The Foundation was set up last month to promote NGO activities in the country with a view to facilitating achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The National NGO Coordination Committee (NNCC), the predecessor of Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh (FNB), under the leadership of Fazle Hasan Abed of Brac first floated this idea and lobbied with the government, says a FNB press release.

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FNB, on behalf of its more than 900 members, congratulated the authorities for making the concept a reality and for commitment of funds for the foundation.

The government has already promised through budgetary grant to give Tk 100 crore to this foundation to create its endowment fund with which it can provide grants to small NGOs for poverty alleviation activities.

The grants will promote social and capacity development activities in the rural areas.

The foundation will also provide the much needed financial support to NGOs who face great difficulties in accessing the local and foreign funds for their poverty alleviation programmes in the fields of education, health, sanitation, nutrition and capacity building of the poor and the underprivileged.

The FNB hoped that bilateral and multilateral donors will also use this foundation for funding NGO activities in the country in implementing the poverty alleviation targets set by the MDGs and IPRSP/PRSP and the government will make further grants to the foundation's endowment fund.

It also hoped that the first governing board of the NGO foundation will put in all necessary efforts to shape the foundation into a strong but NGO-friendly organisation.