Background 

Cox’s Bazar is one of the most disaster-prone districts in Bangladesh and is highly exposed to natural hazards and extreme weather impacts including cyclones, torrential rains, landslides, flash floods, storm surges, and extreme temperatures. The district is particularly exposed to frequent landslides and cyclones in recent years. The impacts of the disaster events are further compounded by low socio-economic indicators and the coping capacity of local communities. Cox’s Bazar district is one of the poorest in Bangladesh with 33 percent of the population living below the poverty line. In addition, Cox’s Bazar is now home to around 1 million Rohingya refugees since 2017. The Rohingya crisis has increased the size of the population at risk and is driving the creation of new risks due to deforestation, hill-cutting, and infrastructure pressure. Due to congestion, site typography, and temporary shelter structures, Rohingya households are highly impacted by severe weather events - windstorms, heavy rains, slope failure, landslides, and flooding. Even in the absence of a major disaster, this climatic context has a considerable impact on the refugee response operations in Cox’s Bazar. The absence of cyclone shelters in the Rohingya camps is further impeding disaster preparedness. In support of Government and humanitarian actors’ efforts to manage the natural hazards and extreme weather events, UNDP has been implementing a multi-year, multi-donor funded programme since October 2022 for strengthening disaster risk management and community resilience in Cox’s Bazar.