In Bangladesh, $33m to be invested in women and girls for climate adaptation and resilience

7 July 2019, Dhaka, Bangladesh - Bangladesh's Ministry of Women and Children Affairs is joining hands with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to implement a six-year long project in Satkhira and Khulna districts, benefitting almost 7 lac people, mostly women and adolescent girls, for climate-resilient solutions. The inception workshop of the project, ‘Enhancing Adaptive Capacities of Coastal Communities, Especially Women, to Cope with Climate Change Induced Salinity’ took place on 7 July in the capital. 

The project is largely financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the world's largest multilateral fund for climate change action, with the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs providing $8 million.

Speaking as the chief guest at the inception workshop, Kamrun Nahar, Secretary, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs said, “The project will make a paradigm-shift in the way women will be empowered as ‘change-agents’ to plan, implement, and manage climate-resilient solutions to safeguard livelihoods and lives and help us to become a middle-income country.”  She thanked UNDP and GCF for their support.

UNDP’s Resident Representative, Sudipto Mukerjee said, “We are committed to leaving no-one behind in implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, with the government and partners like GCF. It cannot be achieved if women remain ignored as they are more vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, given the higher risks they face and that they bear greater burdens every single day.”

"That’s why, through this project, we are specifically focusing on women and girls to help them adapt better to climate change in Bangladesh," Sudipto added.

The project will provide assistance to women and girls in Satkhira and Khulna to adopt resilient livelihoods, while ensuring reliable, safe drinking water through community-managed rainwater harvesting solutions. It will also seek to strengthen the participation of women in last-mile dissemination of gender-responsive early warnings and continued monitoring and adaptation of livelihoods to evolving climate risks.

A key aspect of the project is that it focuses on enhancing women’s access to markets and finance. In addition to training in business development, the project will link women’s producer groups to business via networking activities (including through Public-Private Initiative platforms to be established at local level) and will provide support to access credit from the financial sector.

Additional Secretary, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Sheikh Rafiqul Islam chaired the workshop where among others, Md. Saifur Rahman, Chief Engineer, Department of Public Health Engineering, Badrun Nessa, Director General, Department of Women Affairs and Dr. S.M Munjurul Hannan Khan, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change also spoke.

For more about the project, please visit https://www.adaptation-undp.org/projects/enhancing-women-and-girls-adaptive-capacity-climate-change-bangladesh