Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-The World Bank is assisting a project in Bangladesh to improve the livelihood of rural extreme poor and quality of their life.

The project titled “Nuton Jibon” covers 3,262 villages in 16 districts of Bangladesh.

The project is a part of Bangladesh government vision of pro-poor growth and human development, said a statement of the World Bank.

It especially targets extreme hard core poor and vulnerable people that are often left out from development interventions.

The project helps the poor providing Shabolombi Fund loans for productive and meaningful income generating activities.

So far, some 386,000members of these groups have accessed Shabolombi Fund loans.

More than 2.5 million people in the poorest and disaster prone districts of Bangladesh have embarked on a new life and benefitted from community infrastructure and productive investments, the statement added.

Over 550,000 hard core poor and poor households have been mobilised into over 45,000 Nuton Jibon groups as of March 2014.

The Impact Assessment study which was conducted in September last year shows that about 35 percent of the project households have been able to increase their income by 40 to 50 percent.

About 78 percent of households in project villages are directly benefiting from community infrastructures sub-projects which have increased their access to social services.

Through the project, about 36,950 youth have benefited from skills development training, of which the majority has found employment.

More than 35,000 most vulnerable have received a one-time grant and 95 percent of them are participating in internal lending or Shabolombi Fund loans.

The project benefits from the solid momentum on governance and accountability tools already built-in its design.

This includes Community Assessment Process, Social Audit, Village Matrix, Village Score Card, Third Party Process Monitoring, community complaint redress mechanism and web based MIS system.

This has resulted in strong participation, transparency, accountability and equity throughout the project implementation.

Finally, as the livelihood activities become more meaningful with the emerging community federations, the project will ensure that close linkages are developed for improved access to the financial sector and markets.

BBN/ANS-14July14-2:40pm (BST)