Bangladesh, Sept. 21 -- In support of the government's COVID-19 response, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun cash assistance to the urban poor hit hard by the pandemic, including those in quarantine and isolation, in northern Dhaka.

"The lessons learnt from this pilot will help improve government urban interventions for people vulnerable to shocks such as COVID-19," said Md Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru, state minister of ministry of social welfare, according a press release on Monday.

"The pilot is also serving as a model for potential replication and scale-up of such assistance programmes in the future."

During the pilot stage, 50,000 individuals (10,000 households) in Kalyanpur, and Sattala Bosti (Mohakhali) in Dhaka, ...