In-Person Meeting of Bangladesh Urban Health Network: BUHN Selected its President, Vice-President and Member Secretary

The Bangladesh Urban Health Network (BUHN) successfully organized an in-person meeting on March 03, 2025, at the UNICEF office in Agargaon, Dhaka, from 12:00 PM to 02:00 PM (GMT+6). The meeting brought together key stakeholders, including health experts, policymakers, and development partners, to discuss critical issues related to urban health in Bangladesh. The agenda focused on revitalizing BUHN’s leadership, updating ongoing activities, and generating actionable recommendations for the upcoming Health Sector Reform Commission report. The discussions emphasized the need for sustainable, inclusive, and evidence-based urban health reforms to address the growing healthcare needs of urban populations, particularly in underserved areas.

The meeting began with a welcome speech by Dr. Margub Aref Jahangir, Health Specialist (Urban) at UNICEF Bangladesh, who emphasized the importance of urban health, the need for collaborative efforts to address urban population challenges, and aligned the discussions with the meeting’s objectives.

Maliha Khan Majlish, Senior Technical & Development Officer at Eminence Associates for Social Development, provided an update on BUHN’s ongoing activities, outlining its membership structure, website, and initiatives such as e-newsletters, motion infographics, newspaper articles, knowledge-sharing virtual seminars, participation in the International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH) 2024, and contributions to journals like Nature and Cities & Health.

The revitalization of BUHN’s leadership was a key agenda item. Dr. Khairul Islam, Regional Director of WaterAid, South Asia, was appointed as the President of BUHN, while Zahidul Quayyum, PhD, Professor at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, was appointed as Vice-President. Dr. Md. Shamim Hayder Talukder, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eminence Associates for Social Development, was appointed as Member Secretary. The selection of other BUHN members will be finalized through further discussions among the newly appointed leadership.

A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to discussing the upcoming Health Sector Reform Commission report. Dr. Khairul Islam, Regional Director of WaterAid, South Asia, emphasized the need for rationalizing urban health models, fostering stakeholder collaboration, and ensuring financial sustainability. Dr. Mohammad Zahirul Islam, Senior Programme Officer/Health Advisor at the Embassy of Sweden, advocated for evidence-based, phased reforms that can be effectively implemented and sustained. Zahidul Quayyum, PhD, Professor at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, proposed exploring a contract-based model similar to the UK’s system, integrating private General Practitioners (GPs) while providing free essential medicines. Dr. Margub Aref Jahangir, Health Specialist (Urban) at UNICEF Bangladesh, stressed the importance of clear definitions, stakeholder engagement, and data-driven decision-making to evaluate and retain effective models. Dr. Monira Parveen, Nutrition Officer at UNICEF Bangladesh, highlighted the importance of deploying Community Health and Nutrition Workers (CHNWs) to deliver comprehensive services at the community level, as demonstrated by the Aalo Clinic model. Mohammad Sohel Shomik, Deputy Project Coordinator at icddr,b, called for a flexible yet standardized urban healthcare model, integrating successful approaches like Chittagong’s while ensuring scalability beyond Dhaka. Md. Azmal Hossain, Program Analyst - Urban Health at UNFPA, urged immediate implementation of urban health interventions in Dhaka, regardless of the model adopted. Mohammed Nabinur Rahman, Advocacy Advisor at Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh, emphasized the need for inter-ministerial collaboration and a structured implementation strategy to ensure sustainability and accessibility for 80% of the urban population. Dr. Md. Shamim Hayder Talukder, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eminence Associates for Social Development, prioritized digitalization, timely recommendations, and strong network support to advance shared goals.

Dr. Md. Shamim Hayder Talukder, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eminence Associates for Social Development, also proposed organizing three roundtables, seminars, and policy papers by September 2025, focusing on private sector engagement in urban health, environment/climate change, and access to medicines while advocating for local government participation in global health events like the World Health Assembly and UN High-Level Meeting, emphasizing collaboration with civil society, the private sector, and government leadership.

Chandrasegarar Soloman, Health Manager at UNICEF Bangladesh, delivered a speech as the meeting chair, emphasizing the urgent need for a concise, cost-effective urban health package, highlighting the importance of learning from past failures, engaging stakeholders, and ensuring robust governance frameworks to achieve impactful and sustainable urban health reforms.

Khondoker Md Nazmul Huda Shamim, Project Director of UPHCSDP-II, delivered the chief guest’s speech, highlighted the project’s success in delivering affordable healthcare to urban poor populations, particularly during COVID-19, while identifying challenges such as coverage gaps, doctor shortages, and funding uncertainties as the project nears its end in June 2025, and recommended securing budget allocations, expanding services, hiring permanent staff, and developing sustainable models with ADB support to ensure continuity and improve urban healthcare access.

Dr. Md. Shamim Hayder Talukder, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eminence Associates for Social Development, concluded the meeting by thanking participants for their valuable insights, announcing that BUHN would submit a formal letter with structured recommendations to the Health Sector Reform Committee within the next week, and expressing gratitude for their support while emphasizing the importance of continued collaboration to advance urban health in Bangladesh.

The meeting generated actionable recommendations for the Health Sector Reform Report, including establishing Urban GP Centers in high-need areas, implementing a digital referral system, training General Practitioners, ensuring free essential medicines, strengthening supply chain monitoring, expanding government-run community pharmacies, establishing independent civil society monitoring bodies, implementing social accountability tools, developing public dashboards, conducting area-wise assessments, scaling up successful models through public-private partnerships (PPPs), linking models via digital health integration, developing PPP frameworks, introducing a standardized accreditation system for private PHC clinics, investing in WASH infrastructure, implementing infection control protocols, and deploying Community Health and Nutrition Workers (CHNWs) for comprehensive community-level service delivery with facility referrals.

The meeting underscored the urgent need for sustainable, inclusive, and evidence-based urban health reforms in Bangladesh, aiming to address coverage gaps, strengthen service delivery, and foster stakeholder collaboration to create a resilient and equitable healthcare system, with BUHN’s commitment to advocacy, policy development, and stakeholder engagement playing a pivotal role in driving these reforms and ensuring better health outcomes for urban populations.