Development partners will work closely with Bangladesh on climate change adaptation

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and UNDP jointly organized a virtual consultation workshop on Tuesday to update the development partners on the Formulation and advancement of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) in Bangladesh.

The participants expressed their views and opinions on the preparation of a comprehensive and inclusive NAP.

More than fifty representatives from different government ministries, development partners including the European Union (EU), Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)-the UK, Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNWOMEN), German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) , Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, Embassy of Switzerland, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) attended the consultation.

Welcoming the participants, Mr Mirza Shawkat Ali, Director (Climate Change), DoE and Deputy National Project Director, NAP Formulation Project said that NAP is going to be one of the most important policy documents in combating the climate change impacts on economic sectors, lives and livelihoods of the affected population.

Hence, all the stakeholders from the vulnerable communities on the ground through the government to the development partners should be closely involved in the formulation process, he added.

While delivering the keynote presentation, Professor Dr. Ainun Nishat, Lead Consultant of the NAP Formulation team, said that the consultation process has been taking place in three tiers – the national, regional and local level.

"NAP will analyse ongoing adaptation efforts, gaps and mainstreaming efforts undertaken by the government and other national entities," He added.

Ms Paula Schindeler , Paula Schindeler, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, said that the Netherlands is very much active in the field of climate change adaptation in the sense that the Netherlands has been a long partner when it comes to supporting the creation and implementation of the Delta Plan 2021.

British High Commission Ms Anna Balance said that the UK government will support Bangladesh's adaptation effort very much so.

She added that there has been a proposed programme that has been sent to the UK minister for possible consideration. The programme will look into adaptation and environmental management.

Ms Cornie Henchoz Pignani, Embassy of Switzerland said that Bangladesh climate change adaptation and mitigation is a key area of engagement and her country is working with the EU and the US to strategise ways of engagement on this critically important issue.

Mr Dario TROMBETTA, Programme Manager, Delegation of the European Union said that EU is looking into scaling up adaptation through Green Climate Fund.

The USA will come up with a new climate change strategy before the COP 26 in November this year, said Mr Keith Metzner, USAID Bangladesh. Adaptation will be one of the key priorities in that strategy.  

Mr Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik, Joint Secretary, MoEFCC also the Special Guest of the virtual consultation said, "NAP is being formulated aligning with all the existing climate-related policy and planning documents of the country to make it seamlessly aligned with the national budget setting process and easily implementable."

Speaking as the chief Guest, Mr Md. Mizanul Hoque Chowdhury, Additional Secretary, Climate Change Wing, MoEFCC, and National Project Director of the NAP Formulation project said that NAP should be a vehicle for mainstreaming climate-smart development.

He expressed his high hopes that Bangladesh would be able to formulate NAP in time despite the fallouts of the COVID-19 endemic.

Considering NAP as a guiding document for mobilising internal and external resources for climate change adaptation, Mr S M Mahbub Alam, Deputy Secretary (UN-V), requested the development partners to persuade respective capitals and head offices to come forward and fiance NAP.

The moderator of the session Mr Arif M Faisal, Programme Specialist, UNDP said, in the broader perspective, NAP is necessary to sustain the economy and to achieve our aspiration of becoming a middle-income country and that NAP should be an inclusive, participatory and country-driven process.

Participants of the consultation highlighted the need for stronger integration of local governments into the NAP process, establish stronger mechanisms for smoother inter-ministry coordination, align multilevel policy at all levels of the government and enhanced knowledge on adaptation process at the local and national levels.