The Project for Developing Inclusive Risk Mitigation Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction (IRMP) funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was launched in October 2019, with an aim to determining sustainable financial and non-financial services and identify the implementation strategy to mitigate the risks caused by climate change and other disasters to the poor people.

The first Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting of the project was held under the chairmanship of the Managing Director of PKSF where high officials from JICA head office, JICA Dhaka office and members of the IRMP team were present. In the meeting, was decided to start field level activities such as ‘Cyclone Guard Services’ and training of the staff and members on disaster risk management and implementing strategy of’ Cyclone Guard Services’ through 7 POs in the coastal region of Bangladesh. Also, Randomized Control Trial (RCT)-based field research will be conducted to determine the impact and future usefulness of the financial and non-financial service of the disaster affected people.

A training on ‘Disaster Risk, Risk Mitigation and Cyclone Surokkha’ was organized at PKSF, where 28 representative of implementing POs were participated. Mr. Kazi Md. Mortuza Ali, DG, BIPD and Dr. Shameem Hassan Bhuiyan, Meteorologist and Head of Agromet Division, BMD, Dhaka attended as resource persons in the training. IRMP also started members training on `Cyclone Surokkha’ at branch level of POs.