Nuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education, confirmed it to Bangladesh Ambassador to the Netherlands Sheikh Mohammed Belal met Victor Rutgers, Manager for Global Development of Nuffic recently, said the Embassy on Sunday.
Earlier, the Netherlands government has reassured Bangladesh of its inclusion into their priority list from among the countries earmarked for significant capacity building assistance.
The existing academic collaboration between Bangladesh and the Netherlands is set to get a boost and diversified following some changes in the Nuffic’s new program.
Nuffic is the Dutch government agency responsible for internationalization of education through scholarships, trainings in the Netherlands and capacity development projects in the recipient countries.
Victor Rutgers also confirmed that Bangladesh shall remain a priority country in their global engagements with fifty countries.
After a yearlong review of their existing programs for scholarships and capacity building assistances, the Nuffic has brought major changes in the global programs as they have unveiled the new program termed “Orange Knowledge Program” (OKP).
The OKP is the successor to the Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP) and the Netherlands Initiative for Capacity Development in Higher Education (NICHE).
At the meeting with the Nuffic’s Manager for Global Development, Ambassador Belal sought sustained Dutch knowledge and expertise-based support for Bangladesh’s institutional capacity building and human resources development for the implementation of Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100.
Victor Rutgers assured to focus on their capacity building support for the implementation of Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 alongside their regular capacity building support for food and nutrition security (including water and climate change), integrated water resources and delta management, maritime development and reproductive health sectors.
Bangladesh Ambassador sought more focused assistance in imparting capacity building for better prepare Bangladesh from challenges of climate changes as well as to bring home the importance of a basin-wide approach in dealing with climatically sensitive resources in the Himalayan basin area.
Bangladesh expressed its interests for more assistance in capacity building in sectors like water diplomacy, blue economy, agriculture including greenhouse technology, roof-top gardening, forestry, fisheries including aquaculture, circular textile, upscaling of jute and jute products, law and judiciary.
The Nuffic assured to consider it when they review their OKP program in the future as well as when opportunity arises during formulations of programs for present OKP for Bangladesh.
Last week, Nuffic floated open bid for EU 900,000.00 project for improvement of health of garments workers in Bangladesh. Similar calls for more Nuffic funded projects in Bangladesh are expected in the near future.
The Netherlands is increasingly becoming a destination for higher studies for students from Bangladesh.
The system of education in the Netherlands is unique for its pragmatic approach of famous Triple Helix model of deeper engagements among academics, businesses and the governments.
Bangladesh Embassy in the Netherlands is working towards furthering more academic collaborations between universities of Bangladesh and the Netherlands.