programme
Start Fund Bangladesh
Rapid response, decided in 72 hours
A pooled fund that members draw on collectively. Local members raise the alert, local members decide, and money moves within 72 hours of activation.
ExploreLocally governed · 39 member organisations
Systems change, led from the frontlines
A shared platform for locally led humanitarian action
The Start Bangladesh Hub is a locally governed network working together to shift power closer to the frontlines — strengthening collective leadership, enabling collaboration across a diverse ecosystem, and advancing systems change through innovation, evidence and shared learning.
- Member organisations
- 39Member organisations
- People reached
- 252.66KPeople reached
- Districts covered
- 23Districts covered
Image to source
Hub-defining image: local actors coordinating during a response — members from different organisations around a shared table or at a distribution point, visibly leading. Must not centre any single organisation, donor or individual as the hero of the story. Landscape crop also needed for social.
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What we do
A platform, not an implementing agency
The Hub exists to enable agencies across the humanitarian system to act more effectively together. Programmes are the operational expression of that work.
Bangladesh has a decade of accumulated experience in pooled humanitarian financing, anticipatory action and system strengthening. The Hub brings that work under a single national governance structure, held by the organisations closest to crisis rather than on their behalf.
That means three things in practice. Money is pre-positioned, so it does not have to be raised after a crisis begins. Decisions are made collectively by local members, so the people who know a district decide what happens in it. And funding is increasingly released on forecast rather than on impact, so support can arrive before the damage does.
We credit outcomes to programmes, members and collective systems. The Hub convenes and enables; it does not claim sole ownership of what the network achieves.
Image to source
Flat illustration rather than photography: squares, circles and connecting lines in brand colours showing members, programmes and communities as parts of one system. Built from the graphic-language shapes in the brand manual.
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Programmes & platforms
How the work is organised
Three programmes and one platform — grouped by what they are, not presented as interchangeable.
programme
Disaster Risk Financing
Acting before the crisis arrives
Scientific triggers release funding ahead of a predicted hazard. Built on three pillars — the risk model, the contingency plan, and the financing behind it.
Exploreprogramme
Organisational System Strengthening
Stronger local institutions, by design
Working with members on the systems that decide whether an organisation can hold funding, manage risk and lead a response — governance, finance, safeguarding and data.
Exploreplatform
FOREWARN Bangladesh
Youth and experts, turning data into early action
A network and platform bringing youth and technical experts together to support the Hub and its programmes with knowledge, data and analysis for anticipatory action.
ExploreImpact snapshot
What the network has done
Totals across every alert on record, with reach disaggregated where the alert record carries it.
- People reached
- 252.66KAcross 9 alerts in 23 districts and 32 upazilas.
- Funds disbursed
- £2,136,000Pooled donor funding released through member-led decisions.
- Women & girls reached
- 90.34KOf 163,940 reached where the record carries disaggregation.
- Persons with disability
- 5,750Recorded separately so inclusion is measured, not assumed.
Placeholder figures. At integration these read directly from the Salesforce alert records.
Speed is the point
Crisis to community reach
The pooled model is judged on one thing above all: how long it takes for support to reach a community after a crisis begins. These are medians, not averages — a single road-blocked landslide alert should not flatter or distort the typical case.
- Crisis to community reach
- 4days (median)From the crisis occurring to aid reaching the community.
- Alert to allocation decision
- 2days (median)Members decide collectively. The commitment is 72 hours.
- Crisis to alert raised
- 0days (median)How fast local members identify and escalate a crisis.
Methodology: see “Measuring Crisis to Community Reach” in the resource library.
Live now
Active alerts
Alerts currently open, with status, location, programme and reach.
B092ActiveFloodResponse
Flash flooding across haor communities in Sunamganj
Raised 15 Sept 2026
- Reached
- 24.8K
- Disbursed
- £218,000
- Location
- Sunamganj, Habiganj
- Crisis to community reach
- 7 days
B091ActiveCycloneAnticipatory
Anticipatory action ahead of a forecast cyclone landfall
Raised 7 Sept 2026
- Reached
- 41.2K
- Disbursed
- £372,000
- Location
- Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat, Patuakhali
- Crisis to community reach
- 0 days
Recently raised
Recent alerts
B092ActiveFloodResponse
Flash flooding across haor communities in Sunamganj
Raised 15 Sept 2026
- Reached
- 24.8K
- Disbursed
- £218,000
- Location
- Sunamganj, Habiganj
- Crisis to community reach
- 7 days
B091ActiveCycloneAnticipatory
Anticipatory action ahead of a forecast cyclone landfall
Raised 7 Sept 2026
- Reached
- 41.2K
- Disbursed
- £372,000
- Location
- Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat, Patuakhali
- Crisis to community reach
- 0 days
B090PastFireResponse
Urban settlement fire response in Dhaka
Raised 2 Aug 2026
- Reached
- 6.34K
- Disbursed
- £94,000
- Location
- Dhaka
- Crisis to community reach
- 4 days
News & updates
What the network is doing
Image to source
Boat-level view of a flooded haor settlement with a member-organisation volunteer in a marked vest. Establishes urgency and the scale of water.
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NewsAlert
Alert B092 activated for flash flooding in Sunamganj
Members raised the alert the morning after water crossed danger mark; the allocation committee activated within 48 hours.
17 Sept 20263 min read
Image to source
The Board or General Assembly mid-session — a wide shot of the room with Bangladeshi members visibly leading the discussion, not a posed group photo. Reinforces local governance as practice rather than claim.
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NewsGovernance
The Hub completes its transition to an autonomous, locally governed network
After a decade as a programme-hosted platform, the Start Bangladesh Hub now holds its own governance, accountability and funding relationships.
8 Sept 20264 min read
Image to source
Pre-landfall distribution under a clear sky: sealed dry-food packs being handed over at a community point, cyclone shelter behind. The calm weather is the story.
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NewsStart Ready
Start Ready releases funds four days before forecast cyclone landfall
The impact-based forecast trigger crossed threshold while the sky was still clear, moving the full allocation ahead of the storm.
8 Sept 20264 min read
Learning & resources
Latest publications
Case Study: Early Action in the Haor Basin
2026 · 12 pp
ViewFOREWARN Risk Briefing: Monsoon 2026
2026 · 10 pp
ViewMeasuring Crisis to Community Reach
2026 · 8 pp
ViewStart Bangladesh Hub Annual Report 2025
2025 · 68 pp
ViewThe network
39 member organisations
National NGOs, local NGOs, community-based organisations and civil society organisations, governing the Hub together.
UUK
SMS
CPS
HJUS
SNKS
BDF
CUS
UJS
PJUS
NJF
BKUS
PPUK
Member logos to be supplied through each organisation’s member profile. See all 39 members.
The Hub is part of Start Network’s global network of networks. Programme work in Bangladesh is coordinated and held accountable nationally, under this Hub’s governance.