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The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is going to take a new step in the socio-economic development of the fishing community in Cox's Bazar district. On 9th September, 2021, Mr. Yuho Hayakawa, Chief Representative of JICA Bangladesh Office and Mr. Gareth Johnstone, Director General of WorldFish signed a contract to implement pilot projects to strengthen the resilience of host communities of Cox's Bazar through livelihood improvement, fisheries resources management and nutrition improvement.

The influx of displaced people fled from Myanmar since 2017 has changed the way of life in Cox's Bazar, especially for the fishing communities. Moreover, Covid-19 has made the life of local fishing communities in Cox's Bazar district more fragile.

Through the intervention of the pilot projects, both ecosystem and community resilience will be strengthened by improving fisheries conservation based on the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) that Department of Fisheries and WorldFish have successfully developed. Based on EAFM, technical support on utilization of sustainably harvested fish and production of value-added fishery products will be practiced with small-scale artisanal fishing households, and expected to enhance their socio-economic wellbeing. In order to assess the impacts of the projects, nutritional status of the communities will be studied, so that the good practice could be identified and utilized for future interventions.

All the pilot activities will be conducted in gender inclusive manner. The pilot project will also contribute to the achievement of SDGs Goal 1 (No Poverty), Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) and Goal 3 (Good health and well-being), and Goal 14 (Life below water).

WorldFish, is an international, non-profit research organization under "The Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres (CGIAR)".