Women and the poor must protect from climate risk and endangerment
Rising sea levels will create permanent waterlogging in the coastal districts and increase droughts and floods in the north.
This will further increase the disaster risk and endangerment of women, poor and disadvantaged people. Therefore, it is necessary to properly assess women’s and disadvantaged people’s climate risks and vulnerabilities and adopt appropriate adaptation programs.
The speakers said this at a training workshop titled ‘Women-Friendly Climate Adaptation Program and Increasing Tolerance.’ Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and UN-Women jointly organized the workshop in Dhaka recently.
The training workshop aims to enhance the skills of government officials, NGO personnel, and research representatives selected among experts on climate change.
During the Workshop, Dwijen Mallick, Research Fellow at BCAS, said that the inclusion of gender-equitable adaptation programs in Bangladesh government policy and project implementation is a timely and vital issue.
Referring to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change‘s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, he said that global warming is increasing alarmingly. As a result, the sea level rise expects to increase rapidly.
Priyadarshini Avi, UN Women’s Representative, said, “Despite the vital contribution of women in the agricultural and productive sectors, their contribution does not get recognization as they do not have property rights.
Although there are recommendations in the policy strategies to increase the capacity of women, in reality, we do not see its application in many cases.
Due to the absence of a women-friendly environment in the shelters during disasters, women do not feel comfortable. In many cases, they do not even want to go to shelters.”
“The UN-Women Empowerment Project is trying to identify these issues and incorporate and implement ways to address them.
The research project has been implemented in five districts (Jamalpur, Kurigram, Cox’s Bazar, Satkhira, and Khulna) with the help of local women’s organizations. BCAS, a partner organization of UN Women, is cooperating in implementing the research project,” She added.
The workshop featured three presentations on climate change and its impact, the inclusion of gender equality in climate change policy, and a women-friendly climate budget by Dwijen Mallick, BCAS research fellow, Monwarul Islam, BCAS senior researcher, and Professor Sharmind Nilormi, Jahangirnagar University economics department.
