LocationsCommunity-Led Initiative in Climate Resilience: Lessons from Bangladesh
December 17, 2024
By Edom Berehanu, Communication Analyst, UNDP-Ethiopia
Bangladesh, a prominent South Asia nation, has emerged as a global leader in the ready-made garment industry, significantly contributing to the global economy. Apart from its economic achievement, the country is also known for its modernity, warmth, and hospitality of its people, making one’s visit a truly memorable experience.
Bangladesh is facing significant climate-related challenges due to its geography and socio-economic context. The country experiences frequent natural disasters, including floods, cyclones, sea-level rise, and economic hurdles. However, Bangladesh is one of the countries that demonstrated resilience through community-led initiatives aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change and building sustainable futures.
This article explores the lessons drawn from the UNDP efforts in helping Bangladesh build climate resilience, highlighting the power of community action, and the integration of various projects and diversified approaches to tackle environmental challenges.
Learning through Collaboration and Exchange
UNDP Ethiopia staff working on climate, gender, communication paid an experience-sharing and learning exchange visit to the UNDP Bangladesh office from 29 October to 01 November 2024.
The visit was the first inter-regional knowledge exchange under the Sida Global pilot initiative implemented across nine countries, including Ethiopia.
The field visit was organised within the context of a SIDA pilot project (2021-2024) on environment and climate change. The project helped build the capacity of UNDP's country offices with a focus on integrated portfolio management, gender and women's empowerment, knowledge management and social and environmental safeguards (SES).
UNDP-Ethiopia staff sought to draw lessons from Bangladesh's innovative approaches in tackling climate and environmental challenges, particularly its integrated programming. Above all, the exchange strengthened south-south cooperation between the two UNDP country Offices, highlighting the importance of collaboration across continents in addressing global climate issues.
Coordinating to Address Climate Challenges of the Coastal Community
The coastal areas of Bangladesh are different from the rest of the country due to their unique geophysical characteristics and socio-political challenges, which limit people’s access to resources and heighten the vulnerability of the local population. These areas are frequently affected by natural disasters and climate change impacts including salinity and water logging, soil erosion, flooding, and cyclones.
In response to these challenges, the UNDP Bangladesh Office has designed and is implementing several climate adaptation initiatives to address the pressing climate and environmental concerns. Among these are the Local Government Initiative on Climate Change (LoGIC), Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation (GCA) projects, which are implemented in Khulna region, Bangladesh.
LoGIC programme supports the local government and communities in tackling Climate Change and Scarcity of Fresh Drinking water under Performance Based Climate Resilient Grant (PBCRG) and Climate Resilient Fund (CRF) scheme.
These initiatives aim to enhance community resilience to all forms of climate induced shocks by empowering communities and local governments to lead adaptation efforts, introducing innovative financing solutions to support locally driven climate actions, and integrating gender-responsive approaches to ensure equitable participation and benefits for all, particularly women and vulnerable groups.
These projects demonstrate and highlight the importance of integrated programming in addressing the spillover effects of climate challenge through coordinated use of donor resources including, the Government of Sweden, GEF, GCF, EU, and Danida.
By leveraging blended sourcing and projects, the initiatives implemented livelihood interventions and technological measures to build local communities’ resilience to climate change induced shocks.
Gender Mainstreaming in Action
What makes Bangladesh's climate change adaptation projects stand out is their unique focus on putting women at the forefront of the initiatives. These projects are designed to empower women across all dimensions: social, economic, and environmental, despite the traditional and cultural challenges that women face daily. Through the efforts, thousands of women got the opportunity to be trained in various entrepreneurship and income-generating activities and have been provided seed money to start their own businesses. This support has opened doors for women who previously lacked the financial capacity and cultural acceptance to work outside their homes and contribute to their families' livelihoods.
As a result of this integrated programming, women in coastal areas are now actively engaged in diverse activities such as poly fish culture, rice cultivation, production of watermelon and other vegetables, which enable them to demonstrate their improved resilience to climate induced disaster and sustainable livelihoods.
The team also had the opportunity to meet and engage with the Pankhali, Dolkhola, and Koilashgonji Union in Khulna District and beneficiaries. Women from the Union proudly shared their success stories and discussed the challenges they face as a group and community. For the women, this project has not only empowered them economically but also created a platform for them to reconnect with their peers and exchange ideas while focusing on the development of their businesses.
Integrating Climate Resilience Planning at All Levels
From the field visits and discussions with key stakeholders, including the Deputy Director (Local Government) of Khulna district, the Department of Women Affairs, the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), and the Department of Fisheries (DOF), and international research organizations like International Potato Centre (CIP) in Khulna, showed the alignment and the active presence of the responsible government counterparts in these initiatives.
The district government is closely working with the LoGIC project to local community mobilization and ensure effective implementation through selecting union areas for project implementation, engaging and mobilizing community elected leaders and representatives, and aligning project initiatives with ongoing national and district-level climate resilience efforts. Additionally, the engagement of the various experts from the government and private sectors underscores the commitment to leveraging institutional expertise and fostering sustainable development through multi-sectoral partnerships.
Additionally, the International Potato Centre (CIP) in Khulna is playing a great role in enhancing market linkages and value chains for local producer groups through innovative approaches. It follows a volunteer-based selection approach, enabling community members to participate in testing new products over a designated period. While still in its early stages, the initiative holds promise for creating sustainable market opportunities and strengthening local agricultural systems.
Rural Innovation and Local Solutions
The PBCRG under the LoGIC project, in Lokkhi khola village, Dacope, Khulna district, is a testament to the transformative role of technologies in addressing water scarcity in rural communities. The community-managed Water Treatment Plant, which has a filtration capacity of 1000 liters per hour, enables approximately 400 families to access fresh water directly using ATMs and smart cards. The system ensures efficiency and equitable water distribution. The plant is fully managed by the community and maintenance costs are covered through user’s fee while receiving technical assistance from the local administration.
Prior to this project, women in this village spent more than four hours daily to fetch water, which was insufficient for their basic needs. Now, the establishment of the water treatment plant in the community has reduced the burden and saved time for women and girls while enabling income-generating opportunities.
Reflections on the Path Forward
The mission members have learned several valuable lessons from Bangladesh's SIDA climate resilience initiatives, particularly in empowering women and leveraging integrated, community-driven approaches. Integrated programming efforts, supported by different donors’ resources, have shown the importance of coordinated action in tackling complex challenges, as seen in Bangladesh’s Khulna District through LoGIC and GCA projects.
UNDP-Ethiopia can replicate Bangladesh’s focus on climate-resilient technologies, such as digital solutions for safe water access.
UNDP-Bangladesh can also draw valuable insights from UNDP Ethiopia’s experience in fostering entrepreneurship development, rainwater harvesting techniques using geomembrane, and providing technical assistance to women beneficiaries. Besides, facilitating access to credit and microfinance can enable women to scale their initiatives, while promoting social enterprises offers an opportunity to address environmental and social challenges profitably. Additionally, UNDP brings lessons on involving women in early warning systems and disaster preparedness planning in Ethiopia which is critical for reducing risks and enhancing resilience in vulnerable communities like those in Khulna.
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