Accomplishment

Our Recent Activities

Mid-term Evaluation of the Climate Change Adaptation part of the “Strengthen civil society and public institutions to combat gender-based violence and build community resilience to adapt climate change impacts” Project. Implemented By ManusherJonno Foundation, and supported by SIDA.

The unprecedented impacts of climate change on natural and human systems especially in Bangladesh has prompted the public, NGOs and private sectors to take many initiatives to adjust the impacts or adapt with them. Since, climate change impacts differently on different groups of people with woman, marginalized and poor people are most vulnerable. Some projects have also been taken to specifically help them adapt to the impacts of climate change. Different public institutions and civil society often play a key role to facilitate the adaptation process. Against this backdrop, a project has been taken on “Strengthen civil society and public institutions to combat gender-based violence and build community resilience to adapt climate change impacts”. This 49 million SEK project works with two components – Combating Gender-based Violence and Climate Change Adaptation – to support 23,506 beneficiaries in 14 districts through 17 partner NGOs during December 2016 – November 2021. The overall purpose of the project is to enhance the capacity of civil society and public institutions to address violence against women in public and private domain and build greater resilience of vulnerable communities to deal with climate change. The Climate Change Adaptation component of the project area covers 12 Upazilas (sub-districts) under 8 districts of Bangladesh and focuses on coastal, char land and hilly areas. For this part the specific expected outcome of the project are:

Communities, especially women are resilient to climate change impacts and natural disaster in three climatic and environmentally vulnerable coastal, char land and hilly regions in Bangladesh.
Public institutions respond effectively on climate change issues through improved cooperation with civil society organization.
Local Government Institutes and public service providers are capable to respond appropriately to victims of climate change impacts.

Conducted a study on “Climate Resilient Agriculture in Coastal and Flood-plain Regions of Bangladesh.” supported by Manusher Jonno Foundation and SIDA.

A project has been initiated by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) named “Strengthening civil society and public institutions to address combating gender-based violence and building community resilience to adapt climate change impacts” which has been funded by Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) under its two thematic areas, namely ‘Combating Gender Based Violence’ and ‘Climate Change Adaptation’. The specific objectives of the project are –

Reduction in gender based violence within the public and private domain
Building community resilience to climate change and its impacts
Strengthening of public institutions to ensure responsiveness towards gender concerns Including violence against women & girls (VAWG) and climate change
Knowledge management and capacity development

The project intends to support the most vulnerable communities to deal with climate change impacts on their lives and livelihoods in Bangladesh. Because of its geo-physical location, Bangladesh is prone to natural disasters such as tropical cyclones, tornadoes, droughts, floods, storm and storm surge (Ali, 1996), among which tropical cyclones originating from the Bay of Bengal and associated storm surges are the most devastating. Moreover, climate change has been accelerating frequency and intensity of these natural occurrences like floods, storms, storm surges, high temperature, droughts, salinity, irregular rainfall, heat and cold waves. These have intense impact on every sector of Bangladesh including agriculture. Agricultural production is adversely influenced by erratic rainfall, high temperature, increased salinity, droughts, floods, river erosions, storms and storm surges, cold waves and heavy fog. Agriculture is the prime sector of livelihoods of rural people who account for majority of the national population. Therefore, climate change impacts on agricultural production being coupled with socio-economic drivers, make this agriculture based rural people highly vulnerable in terms of loss of livelihood and food insecurity, which has direct impact on health, education and other factors of wellbeing. Agriculture plays a key role in sustaining food security of the country. National climate change documents, BCCSAP and NAPA, consider agriculture sector with great emphasis and there are initiatives taken by both government and non-governmental organizations to deal with the problem. However, considering the extent of existing and projected impacts on this important sector, it is essential to take more technologically appropriate and socially acceptable initiatives towards climate resilient agriculture. The role of public institutions as key duty bearers is most important in this regard.

With this given context, the project intends to promote context specific, eco-system friendly and climate adaptive agricultural practices in coastal and flood plain regions. Therefore, a comprehensive study has been planned to assess climate change impact on agriculture, to understand community and institutional responses and needs, and to identify climate resilient agricultural practices with a major focus on climate smart technologies in these two climate vulnerable areas.

Purpose of this study would be to generate in-depth information on existing agriculture practices, women’s involvement in agriculture; to identify climatic impacts on existing agricultural practices; to identify further needs of technology; to develop an inventory of climate resilient technologies and possible adaptation options; to identify climate vulnerable communities, specially women’s access to existing climate resilient agricultural technologies; to recommend a set of context specific climate resilient agricultural technologies and practices; to assess institutional arrangement, service options and their effectiveness to support climate resilient agriculture and identify gaps and capacity building needs of institutions and to review policies related to agriculture and climate change and identify a set of recommendations for policy advocacy.

Final Evaluation of “Community Climate Change Project (CCCP)” under Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF). Implemented by Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF).

Community Climate Change Project (CCCP) is an adaptation project that aims at enhancing the capacity of selected communities to increase their resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change. Originated form BCCRF, the CCCP is mandated to channel 10% of the multi-donor trust fund through NGOs for community level climate actions. CCCP introduced a new and innovative approach to finance community-based adaptation interventions in selected climate-vulnerable areas by building the institutional capacity of PKSF to administer a climate change adaptation fund. PKSF received a total of USD 13 million under two separate agreements signed with the BCCRF for implementation of CCCP. The project had also received contribution from the Project Implementing Partners and also from community people directly involved with the project. Community contribution was 6.69% that has made the project unique. CCCP is being implemented in 36 upazilas (sub-district) under 15 districts of Bangladesh. The project focuses on three climate risks that are prevalent in Bangladesh: salinity, drought and flood. A total of 41 Project Implementing Partners (PIPs) are implementing 41 sub-projects under the CCCP.

Final Evaluation from a Resilience Perspective of Islamic Relief, Bangladesh implemented project – “Program for Augmenting Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Capacity of the Communities in the South-western Bangladesh”.

Though over the past couple of decades Bangladesh made significant progress in human development, yet severity of extreme poverty is existed in some geographically backward and highly disaster prone areas. The project “Program for Augmenting Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Capacity of the Communities in the South-western Bangladesh”, considered both climate change adaptation and mitigation, as the vehicle of the vulnerable people to survive within the new situations to be created due to climate change impacts. Domestic response and risk reduction capacities of the people living in the highly disaster prone areas are also considered as the additional strengths to cope with any unpredictable situation that may be created from unpredictable natural disasters than those that are currently occurring. The project was designed based on the needs of the communities and disaster related platforms including target beneficiaries, local government institutes (LGI), disaster management bodies and other relevant stakeholders.

The project has 12,305 direct beneficiary households from Asasuni upazila in Satkhira district and Koyra upazila in Khulna district. The project was implemented by IR.B in Koyra upazila and by its partner organization UTTARAN in Asasuni upazila.

Feasibility Study on Saline Crops/ horticulture and Halophytes in Cox’s Bazar District and Exploration of Their Market Opportunities Implementing by ICCO ICCO-Cooperation and funded by WFP.

Unprecedented impacts of climate change have been reported in the agricultural sector and Bangladesh is at the forefront of that impact. In the coastal region of Bangladesh, the impact of the increased level of salinity in agriculture due to climate change is becoming a serious concern. To tackle the impacts some adaptation measures are going on by the affected community as well by the government and non-government agencies. However, these efforts are inadequate and the level of the damage is increasing with time. Saline tolerant/resistant agricultural technology is one of the effective and needed adaptation measures that have been practiced to partially solve the problem. In Bangladesh, the use of this technology is still in a research stageand ICCO-Cooperation (Part of Cordaid) a Netherlands-based international NGO with funding support from World Food Program (WFP) has been implementing such a project in Teknaf Upazila of Cox’s Bazar district in southern Bangladesh. The overall objective of the project is to promote climate-resilient agriculture among the vulnerable smallholder farmers in Cox’s Bazar district to ensure their food security and sustainable production. The ICCO-Cooperation hired the Environment, Climate Change & Social Development Initiatives (ECSDI) to conduct a feasibility study during September – October 2021for this project. The objectives of the study are to –

Identify areas/ sites for saline agriculture and halophytes production in Cox’s Bazar district;
Identify suitable varieties of crops/ horticulture and halophytes for production in salinity land; and
Explore markets for and saline tolerant vegetables and halophytes.

Baseline Report on Saline Agriculture and Halophytes Production Project in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar. Implementing by ICCO ICCO-Cooperation and funded by WFP.

Different climate change-induced shocks and stresses have been affecting agriculture especially in developing countries including Bangladesh. In the coastal region of Bangladesh, the impact of the increased level of salinity in agriculture due to climate change is becoming a serious concern. To tackle the impacts some adaptation measures are going on by the affected community as well by the government and non-government agencies. However, these efforts are inadequate and the level of the damage is increasing with time. Saline tolerant/resistant agricultural technology is one of the adaptation measures that has been proved successful to partially solve the problem. In Bangladesh, the use of this technology is still at a very early stage. ICCO-Cooperation a Netherlands-based international NGO with funding support from World Food Program (WFP) has been implementing such a project in Teknaf Upazila of Cox’s Bazar district in southern Bangladesh. The overall objective of the project is to promote climate-resilient agriculture among the vulnerable smallholder farmers in Cox’s Bazar district to ensure their food security and sustainable production. The ICCO-Cooperation hired the Environmental Climate Change & Social Development Initiatives (ECSDI) to conduct a baseline study during July-August 2021 for this project. The main objective of the baseline study is

To determine the current status of the project defined by the indicators related to the project’s expected outcomes, outputs and inputs.

Endline Survey and Capitalization of learning of Saline Agriculture Project entitled “Saline Agriculture and Halophytes Production Project”. Implemented by Cordaid, Bangladesh and funded by WFP.

Salinity intrusion is already a significant challenge in the coastal region of Bangladesh that impede agricultural production in the affected areas by reducing freshwater sources. Farmers in these areas have very limited technology or training for saline agriculture and halophyte production. Cordaid in Bangladesh, with the technical support from Seawater Solutions Ltd., initiated a project named “Saline Agriculture and Halophytes production” funded by WFP to promote climate-resilient agriculture among the vulnerable smallholder farmers in 4 Unions (Baharchara, Subrang, Hnila and Teknaf Sadar) of Teknaf Upazila in Cox’s Bazar District to ensure their food security and sustainable agricultural production. The specific objectives were to-

Introduce saline tolerant crops varieties and technology for improving the dietary intake, nutritive values and increase the farmers’ income; and
Pilot halophyte production and to explore market opportunities.

This endline survey aims to examine the project results in line with the expected outputs and outcomes, as well as the project efficiency, effectiveness, relevance and sustainability of the project after the end of the project (March 2021 – March 2022) to gather and document project learning and recommend points for future similar projects. This study has used a mixed-method approach to collect data through questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews of related relevant personnel and FGD for triangulation and validation.

The project has conducted a range of activities such as project inception event at upazila level, baseline study, project beneficiary selection, community inception event & farmers’ group formation, feasibility study for site selection and crop market opportunities, selecting lead farmers for demonstration plot, foundation training on saline agriculture and halophytes, land leasing, establishment of demonstration plot, farmer’s training on summer and winter crops, input support, farmer selection for halophyte cultivation, installation of solar irrigation system, providing tools for agriculture, small scale bio-fertilizer plant setup, group meeting and exploring the market facility.

Mid-term evaluation for improving the livelihoods of extremely poor people by promoting green energy and biodiversity in the context of climate change in disaster-affected areas of Bangladesh (ILPGB) Project. Implemented by Caritas Bangladesh and funded by Andheri Hilfe and co-funded by BMZ.

Globally, Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Each year climate induced disasters such as cyclones, storm surges, floods, flash floods, droughts, erratic rainfall affect the extreme poor people of Bangladesh living in the remote and climate vulnerable areas dependent mainly on natural resources for their livelihood. Various government and non-government organizations in Bangladesh work on sustainable development and climate change adaptation to better the existing situation for these extreme poor populations. The renowned non-government organization Caritas Bangladesh (CB) has been implementing a project to improve the livelihoods of extremely poor people by promoting green energy and biodiversity in the context of climate change in disaster-affected areas of Bangladesh which has been funded by Andheri Hilfe and BMZ. The project works in three climate vulnerable and disaster-prone areas (i.e., Mymensingh, Sylhet and Dinajpur) covering 86 villages of 8 unions of 4 sub-districts in 3 districts. These are mainly haor (wetland) and Char (island) areas in northern Bangladesh. A total of 7,900 households from 37,741 extreme poor communities mainly landless, women headed or disabled are aided through this project.

The CB project entitled “Improving the livelihoods of extremely poor people by promoting green energy and biodiversity in the context of climate change in disaster-affected areas of Bangladesh (ILPGB)” has started on October 2019 and will end on December 2022. This study has conducted the mid-term evaluation (MTE) to review project performance after three years of its implementation (review progress made with respect to results’ indicators mentioned in the log-frame). Moreover, it has assessed the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact of the project. The study also aimed to provide recommendations about possible measures regarding the added value of the regional aspect (char and haor areas) of the project, identify scope of future intervention and areas, and recommend similar interventions in the future. Despite the adverse impacts of COVID-19, this assessment documented the initiative/activities of Caritas team and communities to overcome the challenges.