How Active are the Residents of Dhaka? Perceptions and Challenges in Maintaining Physical Activity in Urban Bangladesh

By Umme Salma Anee, CHORUS Research Assistant, ARK Foundation To implement a CHORUS Innovation Fund project in Bangladesh, the team at ARK Foundation has been working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including policy makers, community leaders, teachers, Imams, youth groups, adolescents, guardians, pregnant women, elderly women, and people with physical challenges, to address barriers
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Roundtable on ‘Health Budget FY2025-26: Expectations and Realities’

PDF Version The health sector is facing major budgetary challenges due to flawed preparation processes that fail to identify priorities, leading to insufficient fund allocation and poor utilization, experts said. They also said there is a lack of managerial efficiency, as well, in implementing health budget. these insights were shared at a roundtable discussion titled
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Low budget or management flaws? Experts flag inefficiency in health spending

PDF Version Highlights: Flawed preparation blamed for failing to identify priorities Despite potential, primary healthcare underfunded Managerial inefficiency hampers fund utilisation NCDs underprioritised despite rising deaths Women, child health budget cut again Need skilled managers, better planning Private sector unregulated, inequitable care Budget usually slashed significantly in revisions The health sector is facing major budgetary
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Trapped by Tobacco: The Industry’s Grip and Our Responsibility

Fahmida Farzana PDF Version Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year. To make up these “lost consumers”, the industry goes after the youth as their next target. Today’s young people are the next generation of “lifelong customers”, and most tobacco users start smoking before they become adults. Over time, tobacco companies’ tactics to
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Fighting TB on the Frontlines: Voices from the Ground

Mr. Mahmud (pseudonym), 59, the Tuberculosis & Leprosy Controller Assistant (TLCA) at one of the TB centers on the outskirts – a 70-kilometer drive from the capital Dhaka – reflecting on his journey in combating TB, asserted that if people stopped using tobacco products, the number of TB cases in his area could have been
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Roundtable on Universal Health Coverage in Bangladesh: Challenges & Opportunities

  On the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the ARK Foundation, a roundtable discussion titled “Universal Healthcare in Bangladesh: Challenges and Opportunities” was organized by the ARK Foundation and Prothom Alo on 30 November 2024. To read the summary of the speakers’ speeches, please go to this link or find the PDF here আর্ক ফাউন্ডেশনের ১১
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Role of Youth in Fight Against Air Pollution

By Fahmida Farzana and Abdullah M. Rafi AMID the lingering haze over Bangladesh’s cities, air pollution has become an escalating public health crisis. From brick kilns to traffic congestion, harmful pollutants seep into every aspect of urban life, making this not just a climate issue but a matter of human survival. These fine particulate matters
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Latest Edition of ARK Foundation’s Newsletter

We are pleased to announce the release of the latest edition of ARK Foundation Bangladesh’s newsletter. This edition covers the key highlights and activities from the past six months, showcasing our collective achievements and the progress made across various initiatives. The newsletter includes success stories, a summary of our team’s efforts, and highlights of key
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ARK’s SIMPLE Solution to the Urban Data Dearth

  By Abdullah Muhammad Rafi On December of 2022, the Government of Bangladesh declared its next major initiative – the Smart Bangladesh Initiative – with a view to building a Smart Nation by 2041. Government’s Aspire to Innovate (a2i) program defines a ‘smart nation’ as “harnessing emerging technologies, networks, and data to create tech-enabled solutions
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Community-led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems (CHORUS)

CHORUS is a Research Programme Consortium that brings together health researchers from South Asia, West Africa, and the UK. CHORUS works with communities, health professionals and city level decision makers to strengthen the urban health system, especially for the urban poor. ARK Foundation is currently implementing three projects under CHORUS. Project 1 aims to strengthen
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