Bangladesh has the Zero Draft of its National Adaptation Plan
Story by Meer Ahsan Habib
25 February 2022 - Experts urged to make the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) inclusive and participatory to the best extent possible. The call was made at the draft National Adaptation Plan (NAP) sharing and consultation workshop held in Dhaka on 24 February 2022. The consultation was jointly organised by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the Ministry of Finance and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF). More than 50 representatives from different government ministries and departments attended the event and provided their valuable comments on the zero draft of the NAP document.
Mr Md Mostafa Kamal, Secretary, MoEFCC was present as the Chief Guest while Dr Abdul Hamid, Director General, Department of Environment (DoE), Mr Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik, Additional Secretary, MoEFCC and Mr Prasenjit Chakma, Assistant Resident Representative, UNDP were present as Special Guests. Mr Md Mizanul Haque Chowdhury, Additional Secretary (Climate Change Wing), MoEFCC and National Project Director of the NAP Formulation Project chaired the session. Professor Dr Ainun Nishat, Team Leader of the NAP Formulation team was also present and spoke on the occasion.
Professor Dr Ainun Nishat said that NAP was a locally-led approach that largely incorporated the indigenous knowledge on climate change adaptation. He added that one major goal of the NAP would be ensuring food security in line with the Paris Agreement.
While presenting the zero draft Mr Malik Fida A Khan, Executive Director of the CEGIS informed the participants that considering different vulnerability factors and future risks, NAP considered eight hydrological regions of Bangladesh. It identified 12 hazards that include riverine flood, drought, cyclone and storm surge, sea-level rise, extreme temperature, erratic rainfall, salinity intrusion, flash flood, landslide, cold snap, lightning and urban flood.
The zero-draft of the NAP proposed a climate change act, revision of the climate change trust fund act and emphasised turning the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) into an overall umbrella policy.
Commenting on the financing mechanism, Mr Md Ziaul Haque, Director, Dhaka Region of the DoE emphasised making cost assessments for key adaptation projects till 2030. He maintained that this would help the government in determining the required resources from domestic and external sources and make a justified allocation.
To avoid duplication of adaptation projects, Mr S M Mahbub Alam, Deputy Secretary, ERD and Deputy Project Director, NAP recommended monitoring of projects during the formulation stage. He further recommended that the MoEFCC should play a supervisory while the ERD and Finance Division should oversee the financing.
Commenting on effective monitoring, Mirza Shawkat Ali, Director, Climate Change and International Convention of the DoE and Deputy Project Director of NAP recommended that the MoEFCC should play the key monitoring role in collaboration with a relevant government agency.
Mr Prasenjit Chakma assured that UNDP would go hand in hand with the people and the Government of Bangladesh in formulating and implementing the NAP process.
Mr Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik urged aligning the NAP with the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP). He also echoed the notion of the climate change act.
Dr Abdul Hamid expressed his high hopes that NAP would mainstream Bangladesh’s adaptation efforts and spearhead her journey toward achieving resilience. He added that NAP should create a balance between our industrial efforts and adaptation measures so that the two are not in conflict.
The Chief Guest Mr Md Mostafa Kamal opined hosting the NAP on the website of MoEFCC website so that experts, academics and individuals could share their views. He maintained that this would make the NAP even more inclusive and participatory.
The Chair Mr Md Mizanul Haque Chowdhury concluded by informing the participants about the NAP formulation process. He mentioned that several consultations and field visits were made at national, divisional, district, and upazilla levels in the most climate-vulnerable regions which were a critical part and participatory approach of the NAP process.
Sustainable socio-economic development through long-term adaptation strategies and integration of climate change adaptation into the planning and financing process is key to adopting a planned adaptation approach. The NAP process envisions setting up a strong institution coordination mechanism with horizontal and vertical linkages through stocktaking of institutional capacity, barriers, and gaps and finally developing an effective result-based monitoring and evaluation framework.
***
Communications: Communications: Md Mijanur Rahman, PhD, Project Manager, Email: md.mijanur@gmail.com and Meer Ahsan Habib, Communications Specialist – National Consultant Email: meer.habib@undp.org Formulation and Advancement of the National Adaptation Plan Process in Bangladesh.