Climate change adaptation efforts for increasing resilience: Exploring the case of Bangladesh climate change trust fund projects

Abstract

The world is facing increased challenges from climate-related disasters. This is particularly the case for resource-constrained countries, such as Bangladesh, which contributes little to global gas emissions, yet is most vulnerable to climate change. However, Bangladesh has adopted a pro-poor and climate-resilient development pathway for achieving sustainable development by 2021. Among many other initiatives, the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF), drawing from the national budget, is one of the key initiatives to reduce vulnerability and to increase resilience. This chapter seeks to draw lessons for climate change adaptation programmes in Bangladesh by investigating 472 projects implemented since the inception of the BCCTF in 2009. Questions asking how these projects are implemented and how they are contributing to building a climate-resilient Bangladesh are yet to be studied. Therefore, this study aims to examine the list of all the projects implemented by BCCTF, to identify how these projects are increasing resilience by focusing on the six themes of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) to further explore the scope of achieving Bangladesh’s climate goals. This chapter draws from 38 in-depth interviews (IDIs) from key stakeholders to investigate the focus, nature, volume and regional distribution of these projects. Findings demonstrate significant progress in adaptation readiness, preparing policies and programs, coordinating participation and implementation strategies with a range of ministries and local government. The BCCTF allocated funds to all the thematic areas mentioned in BCCSAP where many of the funded projects addressed climate change well achieving infrastructural, institutional and community resilience. However, some challenges emerged such as a scarcity of funds reflecting difficulties in accessing global climate funds, and the lack of climate-vulnerability assessment for each district and subdistrict area. IDIs recommended that strategies and appropriate negotiations need to be in place to access more international climate funds, collaboration and communication between the ministries and local governments should be enhanced and monitoring and evaluation of the project implementation on a case-by-case basis is needed to increase efficiency and effectiveness.