CDSP-III is a multi-sectoral and multi-agency project in the char areas of Noakhali and Lakshmipur District in the South Eastern Bangladesh. The project aims at poverty alleviation among the char settlers essentially by increasing their access to and improving the management of natural resources.  This phase of the CDSP project started on 1 October 2005 and will run to 1 July 2009. As per recommendation of the Mid-term evaluation mission, CDSP-III has got an extension of one and half years from July 2009 to December 2010. It is funded by the Government of Bangladesh and The Netherlands.  The first phase started in 1994, the second in 2000.

The long-term development objective of CDSP is: ‘To bring about an improvement in the economic situation and in the living conditions of the coastal chars’. This objective will be realised by aiming at three project purposes:

• Promotion of an institutional environment that sustains CDSP type interventions.

• Accumulation and dissemination of data and knowledge on the coastal areas.

• Direct improvement of the economic and social situation of people in a number of   coastal  chars areas in a sustainable way.