Over the next 4-6 months, Lepra will be significantly scaling back its operations in Bangladesh. It was a difficult decision for the Lepra UK Trustees and Senior Management Team (SMT) to take, and there are various reasons behind it:
The external funding landscape continues to be very challenging. Ongoing global economic and political factors affect us all and are unlikely to improve for some time.
As a result, for Lepra, our running costs are rising faster than our income. We need to look at where we can reduce our global expenditure to ensure we can continue to deliver on our mission to the best of our ability, and within our means.
Over the past few years, we have invested significant time, effort and resources in trying to ensure that Lepra Bangladesh operates as an efficient and effective country programme. Despite our efforts, it has continued to be a challenging country programme for us to run effectively.
A number of our current projects in Bangladesh are naturally coming to a close in 2025, and going forwards, we will be focussing on our work supporting the rights and inclusion of people affected by leprosy and LF, especially through our ongoing Mind to Heart project with the 'Bogura Federation of People Affected by Leprosy'.
We aim to build on this platform in the future and expand our work supporting rights and inclusion in the months and years ahead.
As part of the scale-back, we will be closing our existing country office in Dhaka and moving to a smaller location with fewer staff, in order to continue operational and governance functions at a reduced level.
My thanks go out to all the current and past Lepra Bangladesh staff who have served our cause so well over the years, and to all partners who have supported us so much in our work. We are saddened that our Country Programme is being scaled back, but we are proud of our long history of delivery in Bangladesh, and we remain laser-focused on striving for a world free from leprosy and LF, working with and for people affected.
