The Adaptation Fund, for the first time, has approved a $10 million for a project in Bangladesh aiming to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities of small islands and riverine charland islands.
The project titled “Adaptation Initiative for Climate Vulnerable Offshore Small Island and Riverine Charland in Bangladesh” is jointly being implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The fund, established under the Kyoto Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, has, since 2010, committed US $532 million to climate adaptation and resilience activities — including supporting 80 concrete adaptation projects.
However, Bangladesh, despite being one of the most climate-change-vulnerable countries, is receiving the funding for the first time. The allocation was made at a board meeting of the Adaptation Fund held in Bonn, Germany in March 2019.
A total of US$32.5 million was approved for new projects: in Armenia, the Dominican Republic, Bangladesh, and the Western Balkans — to fulfill the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
"Despite a very full agenda, it was great to see the progress in new projects funded to benefit vulnerable communities across a variety of adaptation sectors, including adaptation on small islands in Bangladesh," said the Fund’s Manager Mikko Ollikainen.
“UNDP was pioneer in supporting the Government of Bangladesh’s transformational change through providing policy recommendations and thought leadership while policies and strategies to address climate change are formulated,” said Sudipto Mukerjee, UNDP Resident Representative in Bangladesh.
“It has provided innovative solutions for community-based adaptation and ecosystem-based adaptation to enhance resilience of climate-vulnerable communities, helping Bangladesh move closer to attaining SDG13 by 2030,” he added.
“We will continue to extend our full support to the Government of Bangladesh in this regard and keep emphasizing climate-resilient and green development.”
The project will contribute towards achieving national priorities set in the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
This new initiative will be part of UNDP’s continuous effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, eradicate poverty and inequality, plus tackle the dual threats of climate change and natural disasters.
