Speakers for building resilient, migrant-friendly cities

Speakers underscored the need to build resilient and migrant friendly cities and towns to fight the diverse issues approaching through climate change.

The second day of annual national conference on Urban Resilience to Climate Change highlighted diverse issues including access to social security and public social services for climate migrants, knowledge gaps and lack of coordination among urban actors, and the importance of involving local communities in building resilient cities and towns. 

The three-day conference that began on Sunday at the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB), in Dhaka has been organised by the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN), International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), along with multiple other partners.  

The flagship session of the urban resilience conference on building climate resilient migrant friendly cities and towns called for a research agenda that can improve the dignity of climate migrants who are coming to large cities in search of employment. 

The discussants in the session debated on the possibilities, approaches and policy gaps in building cities and towns that are migrant-friendly. 

Dr Saleemul Huq, Director of ICCCAD, proposed the idea of building a number of secondary towns that can accommodate and attract migrants, saying “in the context of climate induced migration, we need to highlight research on how people move, where they go and how we can manage this movement from large urban areas to secondary towns where they can live with dignity.”

The session chair Professor Dr Nazrul Islam, chairman of the Centre for Urban Studies, highlighted the challenges to be faced by researchers, policy makers and planners in building cities and towns that are climate resilient.

To date, the national social security system in Bangladesh has largely been targeted at the needs of the rural population, with 30 percent of rural residents benefitting from social security while only nine percent of the urban population receiving support. 

One of the key suggestions was to explore the possibility of developing a database on climate induced migrants, so that social security schemes can be designed accordingly by the Department of Social Services. 

The conference identified a significant gap in knowledge among urban actors such as mayors, councilorsin terms of understanding the implications of climate change on urban systems. Lack of such knowledge often makes the measurestaken to address problems induced by climate changeineffective.

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) also announced the launching of its new phase in Bangladesh at the conference. ICLEI South Asia is one of the four supporting partners in this program, along with non-profit organizations South, SouthNorth, Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano, and the Overseas Development Institute.

In the new phase, CDKN will focus on further engagement with countries like India, Bangladesh and Nepal, and provide them with enhanced knowledge resources to support ambitious climate action, as well as boost learning on climate compatible development.

According to CDKN Director Shehnaaz Moosa, “the latest IPCC report on global warming of 1.5°C highlights the need for urgent action on climate change in the Asian context – a region already suffering grave impacts at the current 1o centigrade of average warming. Now, more than ever, developing countries need relevant and useful knowledge on how to respond to the climate challenges – and to rapidly share learning on how to deliver climate action on the ground.” 

Sustainable consumption and production in the fashion industry and fecal sludge management were also discussed in context of pollution mitigation. Almost all the sessions emphasized involvement of different local communities in the decision making processes as well as implementation for the sustainability of any initiatives.