LocationsStacking Benefits by Considering Development in the Round
Bringing It All Together: From Projects to Portfolio in Bangladesh
September 30, 2024
Sida, UNDP and UNCDF team in Khulna, Bangladesh with UNDP project partners.
UNDP Bangladesh
The Climate and Nature crises are systemic – multifaceted, complex and interconnected - yet in the past the solutions we bring have too often been discrete projects which address only part of the problem without affecting the whole system. In Bangladesh UNDP and Sida, the Swedish international development cooperation agency, have turned this around by taking a portfolio approach, bringing all activities together into a “big picture” response which is already paying dividends.
“You have the conceptual side of development work but you also need to work directly with the people on the ground – securing their homes and livelihoods and giving access to clean water, for example, and helping create the conditions for all these efforts to be sustained” says Nayoka Martinez-Backstrom, First Secretary for Environment and Climate Change at the Swedish Embassy in Dhaka.
Discussion with a women's group (through the Local Government Initiative on Climate Change) regarding livelihoods improvement in Khulna, Bangladesh.
Photo: UNDP Bangladesh
The key programme focus was exploring Nature-based solutions in sustainable coastal mud crab hatching, which offers the potential to scale to a significant business sector for Bangladesh. In particular, the hatchery programme offers a sustainable alternative to the previous practice of sourcing mud crabs from the wild. South-western Bangladesh hosts the world’s largest area of mangrove forest and the UNDP Sundarbans Area-Based Programme (SABP) works to bring Nature-based solutions to the region using the integrated approach pioneered by the Sida-UNDP programme.
In establishing low carbon, Nature-based and gender-responsive business cases for climate-resilient aquaculture for these most climate-vulnerable communities, UNDP and Sida have focused their efforts on water security and the problem of rising salinity, alongside transitioning coastal micro and cottage enterprises to resilience and sustainability.
“To move to a portfolio approach we developed a portfolio-level Theory of Change with UNDP’s Strategic Innovation Unit” explains Farzana Rahman, Programme Officer from UNDP Bangladesh. “This meant identifying portfolio-level shifts we wanted to achieve; prioritizing our focus within the portfolio; then unfolding the overlapping and missing links amongst the social, environmental and climatic drivers; and finally joining the dots to look at their combined effects in the future portfolio. This is the first time in the world that UNDP has worked with a development partner on a portfolio like this.”
Maria Stridsman, Head of Development Co-Operation at the Swedish Embassy, widens the portfolio boundary beyond UNDP and Sida:
“We must consider the development landscape in Bangladesh which is beyond the Sweden-UNDP partnership to identify avenues of collaboration and to design at scale with key stakeholders, especially with a strongly engaged private sector. We must also plan for shorter six month project turnarounds, and the need to establish temporary teams to achieve this.”
Crab nursery established in Khulna.
Photo: UNDP Bangladesh
Looking at the opportunities through a holistic lens led to a significant multiplier effect as multiple Sida–funded projects contributed financial and technical support via the UNDP Bangladesh Country Office.
“If we want more integration, we have to stop thinking about ‘my’ project, ‘my’ interventions, ‘my’ this, ‘my’ that, it should be more of ‘our’ project, ‘our’ interventions, what we can achieve together for the vulnerable groups we work for" said Farzana Rahman.
The Sida-funded projects included the Climate Finance Network, the Local Government Initiative on Climate Change (LoGIC), Governance of Climate Change Finance and Gender (GCCF-G) and the GCF-funded project on Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation.
“When we work in a more all-encompassing way it is easier to get the work done more efficiently and we’ve been able to do more with the same amount of funding. With the portfolio approach there’s now more integration between projects and between the different geographical layers, more horizontal and vertical integration” said Maliha Muzammil, Climate Change Programme Specialist at UNDP Bangladesh.
Hatchery.
Photo: UNDP Bangladesh
Working with the LoGIC project, UNDP Bangladesh set up a Climate Adaptation and Innovation Park, and the Bangladesh Department of Fisheries in Bagerhat, Khulna, are so impressed with the success of the sustainable mud crab hatching project that they have committed to take over and scale up the initiative, linking farmers with low-interest lending programmes and private sector partners to support integrated pro-poor climate-resilient livelihood improvements.
“Women are key to the success of the sustainable mud crab hatchery” commented UNDP Bangladesh Deputy Resident Representative Sonali Dayaratne. “So we were delighted that UNDP Bangladesh achieved the Golden Gender Seal for Development in October 2023, one of only 9 to reach this accolade between 2021 and 2023. Sida helped us by running perspective building sessions on Gender Equality, Gender Responsive Monitoring and Evaluation, Work Life Balance, Gender Marker and Gender Mainstreaming, and Gender Responsive Communications.”
The Gold Gender Seal process has had a transformative effect within the Country Office, which now extends into the portfolio with staff setting gender transformative indicators for upcoming programmes.
“The Gold Gender Seal really opened our eyes on how we could work with similar institutions who are not as advanced in gender parity and introduce this process in their work as well” said Maliha Muzammil.
The government Department of Womens Affairs and the Ministry of Children and Womens Affairs in the Sundarban region says the UNDP/Sida efforts have had a real impact both on vulnerable women in the area and on the environment. In the Final Evaluation Report for Phase 1 of the UNDP/Sida programme, the evaluator said “The Programme has achieved impressive results in gender mainstreaming.”
Trainings conducted as part of project support.
Photo: UNDP Bangladesh
Against the backdrop of these successes, Sida has asked UNDP to co-create a proposal for a possible Phase 2 of the programme, to run from 2025 to 2028. Bangladesh would again be one of the countries involved, alongside Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Myanmar and Vietnam.
“We’re pleased to be offered the potential to continue developing the portfolio approach” adds Tim Scott, UNDP Policy Advisor, Environment. “Much of the success of the current Sida programme is down to Sida’s flexible, co-creative way of working. It’s also important to work at multiple scales – Sida funds activities at global, regional, national and local levels – each reinforces the others as we’ve seen in Bangladesh. Specifically, our Sida Phase 2 proposal in Bangladesh will target local farming communities in the Sundarbans mangrove forest to strengthen water security for agriculture and domestic use. The project will support poor and vulnerable families, build diversity towards more resilient, climate adaptative livelihoods, and reduce dependency on the Sundarbans forest ecosystem.”
Crablet distribution from hatchery to community.
Photo: UNDP Bangladesh
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