A 4-day long training program on ‘Urban Health in Bangladesh’ was inaugurated today 07
November, 2021 at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of Dhaka University (DU). DU
Population Sciences Department and UNFPA jointly organized this training program. State Minister,Ministry of Planning Prof. Dr. Shamsul Alam was present as the chief guest at the inaugural function.Chaired by the Chairman of the Department of Population Sciences of DU Prof. Dr. Md RabiulHaque the inaugural function was addressed by DU Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) Prof. Dr. A.S.M.
Maksud Kamal and Chief of Health, UNFPA Bangladesh Dr. Vibhavendra Singh Raghuvanshi as the special guests. Prof. Dr. Mohammad Mainul Islam, Convener of the Urban Health Training
Implementation Committee of Department of Population Sciences presented an overview of the training
program. State Minister Prof. Dr. Shamsul Alam said, now a days management of urban health system
faces many challenges due to rapid growth of population and urbanization. Under the dynamic
leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Bangladesh Government has taken several initiatives to cope with the challenges of health security. This training program would help ensure the health security and fundamental rights of general people of the country, he hoped.

Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) Prof. Dr. A.S.M. Maksud Kamal Said, Bangladesh is going through significant social and demographic changes, including rapid urbanization, expanding
industrialization, rising incomes and increasing non-communicable diseases. At present about 40% of the people of Bangladesh live in urban areas. Population growth in urban areas is 2.5% whereas the
national population growth rate is less than 1.4%. The biggest city, Dhaka alone accounts for 40% of
the urban population. The other five divisional cities account for 29% while 309 municipality towns have 31% urban population.

He hoped that this training program would contribute to both the urban health enactment and the
implementation levels. He thanked the Department of Population Sciences and UNFPA for arranging
this training program.