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Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh
Established on 6 February 2005, CIPRB conducts research and delivers national-scale programmes in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh, United Nations agencies and academic institutions worldwide.
Executive Director Dr Aminur Rahman has been awarded the King Edward VII Cup 2026 by the Royal Life Saving Society Commonwealth, the first recipient from Bangladesh and one of fifteen worldwide in more than four decades, following the Society's HRH Prince Michael of Kent Certificate of Merit 2024.
Read more →People reached
Districts covered
Children trained in survival swimming
Years of operation
CIPRB research
Until CIPRB ran the Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey, the country had no current national measure of how its people are hurt and killed. CIPRB has now run it three times. These are its figures, and they sit under national injury policy.
of all deaths
die a year
injured a year
disabled a year
What CIPRB reads from this
Where CIPRB works
Areas of work
CIPRB was established after the first Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey, the largest community-based injury survey conducted in any low or middle income country. The method has not changed since: establish the burden through research, test an intervention, then hand government the evidence to adopt it nationally.
SwimSafe, Anchal and SeaSafe, run through the International Drowning Research Centre Bangladesh.
Obstetric fistula elimination, maternal and perinatal death surveillance, and safe motherhood.
Speed management guidance and two chapters of the Comprehensive Road Safety Law, drafted for government.
Community surveillance and first response for one of the most under-recorded injuries in rural Bangladesh.
Maternal and child nutrition research, carried on the same community platforms as the injury work.
Prevention and management research for the conditions now carrying the largest share of the disease burden.
Suicide and self-harm prevention, and the mental health consequences of injury and disaster.
Rehabilitation and inclusive programme design, because survival is not the end point of an injury.
Field research on vector-borne and neglected tropical diseases, which track poverty and climate exposure.
Flagship programmes
In May 2022 the World Health Organization recognised Anchal, SwimSafe and CIPRB's first responder training as best practice for drowning prevention in low and middle income countries.
Supervised daycare for children aged one to five during the daytime hours in which most drowning occurs. Under the Nirapode Bhasa Project, 150 Anchal centres serve approximately 3,700 children in Taltoli, Barguna and Bakerganj, Barishal.
against drowning, as established by research and reported in the Annual Report 2023
Children graduate once they can swim 25 metres, float or tread water for 30 seconds and perform a land-based reach and throw rescue. In 2026, with the support of UNICEF, CIPRB is training 16,400 children across eight districts including the Dhaka city corporations.
against drowning for children aged 6 to 10, with 700,000+ trained to date
The only professional beach lifeguard service in Bangladesh, in operation for twelve years at the country's principal tourist destination. CIPRB is working with the Bangladesh Tourism Board on extension to further beaches.
across three sea beaches at Cox's Bazar
National adoption
In 2024 the Bangladesh Shishu Academy, under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, formally took over CIPRB's 2,299 functional CreCHeS childcare centres and the 57,475 children attending them.
In April 2024 the Academy launched the Integrated Community-Based Center for Child Care, Protection and Swim-Safe Facilities Project, operating 8,000 childcare centres nationwide. CIPRB continues to provide technical leadership for survival swimming and first response training, and implements directly in Barishal. The CreCHeS Project was delivered with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, across seven upazilas in Sirajganj, Sherpur, Narsingdi, Chandpur and Cumilla.
Project Bhasa, delivered with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and technical support from the RNLI and the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, phased out in the same year, with its 516 Anchal centres and SwimSafe activities absorbed into the government programme.
2024 in numbers
Source: CIPRB Annual Report 2024. Road safety monitoring was conducted in Dhaka North and Chattogram City Corporations with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety, using observation protocols from the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit.
Obstetric fistula is treatable and largely preventable, yet it persists where poverty, early marriage and distance from care coincide. The Directorate General of Health Services runs the End Obstetric Fistula Programme with UNFPA funding and technical support from CIPRB. Each mark is coloured by the furthest point that woman reached.
Tea gardens screened and declared fistula-free
Households screened across those estates
Functional fistula corners at district hospitals
No photograph sits behind this section. CIPRB's safeguarding policy requires that images of people are respectful and never present them as victims, and using a photograph of identifiable women as decoration behind their own case data would not meet that standard.
Where we work
The Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey 2023 was conducted across all 64 districts and more than 420,000 people, in partnership with the Directorate General of Health Services and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Programme coverage can be filtered by programme, by partner and by year.
All programmes
0 districts
Research in focus
CIPRB asked that question across all 64 districts. The answer reshapes who needs training, who needs antidotes on the shelf, and where a national poisoning response has to begin.
Agricultural poisons account for three in every five cases, which places the problem as much in farming practice and storage as in clinical care.
CIPRB also ran the first national snakebite survey in years, for the same reason: the national picture did not exist.
News and events
CIPRB convened officials of the Directorate General of Health Services and the Bangladesh Road Safety Project, with financial support from the Global Road Safety Partnership. Programme Manager Kazi Burhan Uddin presented research findings on speeding, helmet use, seatbelts and child restraints, and identified gaps between existing national law and the Safe System Approach. Deputy Executive Director Dr Salim Mahmud Chowdhury called for comprehensive, evidence-based legislation aligned to international standards.
The Royal Life Saving Society Commonwealth, a United Kingdom charity governed by Royal Charter, has conferred its highest service award on Dr Aminur Rahman for his contribution to drowning prevention internationally. He is the first recipient from Bangladesh and one of fifteen worldwide in more than four decades.
An advocacy meeting at the Civil Surgeon's Office, funded by UNFPA with technical assistance from CIPRB, brought together thirty participants from the district hospital, the Family Planning Department and the Department of Women Affairs to strengthen identification, referral and treatment.
At a workshop convened by the Bangladesh Tourism Board and the district administration in Cox's Bazar, CIPRB presented twelve years of lifeguard service and requested extension of the service to further beaches.
CIPRB is delivering survival swimming training to 16,400 children across eight districts in 2026. In Dhaka, 388 of a planned 1,000 children had completed training at the time of reporting. Covered by Ekattor Television.
Marking the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, CIPRB set out how the Nirapode Bhasa Project combines Anchal daycare and SwimSafe training with work to make both interventions more climate-resilient.
A rip current at Shugondha Beach, Cox's Bazar put forty young tourists at risk. The SeaSafe lifeguard team responded with jet-ski support and all forty were brought in. Across 2024 the service rescued 143 people and recorded no drowning deaths inside its patrolled areas.
Who we are
CIPRB began in 2005 with a vision to eliminate injuries from Bangladesh. Its work now spans health, safety and community development, has been replicated across several Asian countries, and is directed by a team with doctoral training at Karolinska Institutet and Hamamatsu University School of Medicine.
years
staff
paid volunteers
audited income, BDT
Case story
Women living with obstetric fistula are frequently separated from work, from family and from community life. Surgical repair addresses the condition; it does not on its own restore livelihood or social standing.
Of the 448 women identified through the Sylhet Division programme, 179 have received need-based rehabilitation support, coordinated with the Departments of Social Welfare and Women's Affairs. In the tea garden communities, where early marriage and distance from care place women at highest risk, 26 estates have been screened and declared fistula-free, supported by awareness materials developed with the Civil Surgeon of Moulvibazar and UNFPA.
Read more case storiesPartners and collaborators
Contributions are directed to programmes with published evidence of effect. You may make a single contribution or support a child through a full season of survival swimming training.
Ask CIPRB
Answers drawn from published research
Suggested questions
Prototype. In production this is grounded on CIPRB's publications and FAQ content.
