Women living near the Sundarbans are increasingly embracing alternative livelihoods and emerging as entrepreneurs, thanks to a pilot project that identified 45 potential climate-resilient livelihood options.
Based on the experiences and interests of 925 women, these options were shortlisted during an eight-month study across three unions in Koira and Dakope upazilas.
Urmila Mondal from Maheshwaripur village in Koira once faced health challenges while collecting crab and shrimp fry from the brackish waters of the Sundarbans. She has now transformed her expertise into a home-based candle business, producing colored, scented, and showpiece candles using local beeswax from her husband’s honey collection. “Within a month, my income increased fivefold compared to the previous two months,” she said.
Over 900 women in the project area are diversifying their livelihoods for survival. Some engage in agriculture and vegetable cultivation, others in poultry, livestock, or aquaculture, while many explore small-scale businesses.
Sabeya Begum, a divorced resident of Maheshwaripur, explained, “Earlier, floods and cyclones destroyed everything I worked for. Now, I plan carefully and know when to act.”
In Kalabagi village of Dakope upazila, small trader Dipti Rani Mondal said, “Years of farming were ruined by cyclones and waterlogging. With project guidance, I opened a small grocery shop near my home. The hardship has lessened.”
The initiative, under the Women Adaptation Plan for Climate-Resilient Livelihoods in the Sundarbans, is implemented by Uttaran with technical support from Khulna University and EQMS Consulting Limited, and funding from the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA). The project integrates locally led adaptation approaches with scientific risk analysis, emphasizing women’s leadership, nature-based solutions, and community capacity building.
Livelihood options were selected based on the availability of natural resources, women’s skills, market demand, investment feasibility, risk, and climate adaptability. Identified livelihoods include crop cultivation, aquaculture, livestock and poultry rearing, small-scale businesses like bakeries, pharmacies, grocery shops, tailoring, honey trading, bag making, coconut products, and fishing net production.
Anzum Akter of Koira upazila said the project empowered women who were previously hesitant to step outside. “Now they confidently speak in towns and have learned to market their products,” she noted.
Tanushree Mistry of Maheshwaripur shared that the project transformed her from an ordinary woman into an entrepreneur, while Mariam Bibi of Kalabagi now runs a shop and has trained four others. Humayun Kabir said that women’s confidence and community participation have significantly increased.
Md Rahat Hossain of Uttaran explained that the project focuses on understanding livelihood realities under climate risks, identifying adaptive livelihood options, and creating locally acceptable adaptation plans with women at the center.
Shahidul Islam, Director of Uttaran, highlighted the project’s role in reducing pressure on the Sundarbans while addressing climate vulnerabilities such as cyclones, floods, and salinity.
Project activities included forming 2,603 Women Adaptation Labs (WALs), conducting climate risk analysis in three villages, surveying over 1,000 households, involving 40 women’s groups, developing 925 climate-resilient business plans, preparing 45 livelihood adaptation plans across five sectors, applying five capital-based frameworks, and forming a local project advisory committee (LPAC) for oversight.
The project has equipped women with technical and analytical skills, participatory planning experience, and market knowledge, while integrating local experience with scientific analysis. Women’s confidence, leadership, and collective capacity have grown, opening a new horizon for climate-resilient livelihoods and sustainable development in Bangladesh’s most vulnerable coastal regions.
