Enhancing Adaptive Capacities of Coastal Communities, especially Women, to Cope with Climate Change-induced Salinity in Bangladesh
Project overview
Lead by the Bangladesh Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, this project focuses on strengthening the adaptive capacities of coastal communities, especially women and adolescent girls, to cope with impacts of climate change-induced salinity on their livelihoods and water security.
The 6-year project (2018-2024) focuses on the Southwestern coastal districts of Khulna and Satkhira, both of which frequently experience cyclones and tidal flooding and experience severe drinking water scarcity due to salinity.
Under the project, communities will be empowered as ‘change-agents’ to plan, implement, and manage resilient livelihoods and drinking water solutions.
The project will promote a paradigm shift away from a focus on short-term responses and technology-led interventions towards community-centric solutions that build ownership and capacities across multiple stakeholders, to sustain and scale-up adaptive responses to safeguard livelihoods and water security.
An estimated 719,229 people (about 245,516 directly and 473,713 indirectly) are set to benefit.
*The designations employed and the presentation of material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations or UNDP concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
Expected outcomes
Output 1: Climate resilient livelihoods, focusing on women, for enhanced adaptive capacities of coastal agricultural communities
Output 2: Gender-responsive access to year-round, safe and reliable climate-resilient drinking water solutions
Output 3: Strengthened institutional capacities knowledge and learning for climate-risk informed management of livelihoods and drinking water security
Project details
Levels of intervention
Community
Source of funds
Green Climate Fund
Key implementers
National governments
Non-Governmental organizations
Funding amounts
US$32.98 million total financing. $24.98 million from Green Climate Fund
US$8 million from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs
Project partners
Green Climate Fund
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Project dates
2018 to 2024
Introduction
Lead by the Bangladesh Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, this project focuses on strengthening the adaptive capacities of coastal communities, especially women and adolescent girls, to cope with impacts of climate change-induced salinity on their livelihoods and water security.
The 6-year project (2018-2024) focuses on the Southwestern coastal districts of Khulna and Satkhira, both of which frequently experience cyclones and tidal flooding and experience severe drinking water scarcity due to salinity.
Under the project, communities will be empowered as ‘change-agents’ to plan, implement, and manage resilient livelihoods and drinking water solutions.
The project will promote a paradigm shift away from a focus on short-term responses and technology-led interventions towards community-centric solutions that build ownership and capacities across multiple stakeholders, to sustain and scale-up adaptive responses to safeguard livelihoods and water security.
An estimated 719,229 people (about 245,516 directly and 473,713 indirectly) are set to benefit.
Project details
Sep 2017
GCF FP Submission (first)
Feb 2018
GCF FP Submission (last)
Mar 2018
GCF Board Approval
Oct 2018
FAA Effectiveness
Dec 2018
ProDoc signature
Under three inter-related outputs, the project will implement the following:
Output 1. Climate-resilient livelihoods, focusing on women, for enhanced adaptive capacities of coastal agricultural communities (responsible party for execution of the activities is DWA, department of Ministry of Women and Children Affairs)
Activity 1.1 Enterprise- and community-based implementation of climate-resilient livelihoods for women
Activity 1.2 Strengthened climate-resilient value-chains and market linkages for alternative, resilient livelihoods
Activity 1.3 Community-based monitoring and last-mile dissemination of early warnings for climate-risk informed, adaptive management of resilient livelihoods
Output 2. Gender-responsive access to year-round, safe and reliable climate-resilient drinking water solutions (responsible party for execution of the activities is the Department of Public Health Engineering)
Activity 2.1 Participatory, site-specific mapping, beneficiary selection, and mobilization of community-based management structures for climate-resilient drinking water solutions
Activity 2.2 Implementation of climate-resilient drinking water solutions (at HH, community, and institutional scales)
Activity 2.3 Community-based, climate-risk informed Operation & Maintenance (O&M) and management of the resilient drinking water solutions
Output 3. Strengthened institutional capacities, knowledge and learning for climate-risk informed management of livelihoods and drinking water security (responsible parties for execution of the activities are DWA and Department of Public Health Engineering)
Activity 3.1 Strengthen the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs’ technical and coordination capacities for design and implementation of gender-responsive, climate-resilient coastal livelihoods
Activity 3.2 Strengthen DPHE capacities for climate-risk informed innovation and management of drinking water solutions across the Southwest coast
Activity 3.3. Establish knowledge management, evidence-based learning, and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) mechanisms to promote long-term, adaptive capacities of coastal communities
Signature programmes:
Thematic areas:
Climate-related hazards addressed:
Level of intervention:
Key collaborators:
Primary beneficiaries:
An estimated 719,229 people (about 245,516 directly and 473,713 indirectly) are set to benefit from this project.
Implementing agencies and partnering organizations:
Green Climate Fund
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Project status:
Under Implementation
Location:
Rural
Funding source:
Financing amount:
US$32.98 million total financing. $24.98 million from Green Climate Fund
Co-financing total:
US$8 million from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs
News
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Water crisis in the Southwest of Bangladesh: ‘Paani Apa’ to ...
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'UNDP, Government sign $33m climate adaptation project' - The Daily Star, December 28 2018. Secretary to Economic Relations Division (ERD) Monowar Ahmed and UNDP Country Director Sudipto Mukherjee signed the project document at the ERD yesterday.
'Bangladesh to empower women and girls in the face of increasing climate impacts' - UNDP Bangladesh, February 28 2018. The world's largest multilateral fund for climate change action, the Green Climate Fund, has approved almost US$25 million in grant funding in support of Bangladesh’s efforts to build the adaptive capacities of vulnerable coastal communities. With a focus on women and adolescent girls, a new 6-year project is set to benefit 700,000 people living in disaster-prone southwestern districts.
'UNDP, Government sign $33m climate adaptation project' - The Daily Star, December 28 2018. Secretary to Economic Relations Division (ERD) Monowar Ahmed and UNDP Country Director Sudipto Mukherjee signed the project document at the ERD yesterday.
'Bangladesh to empower women and girls in the face of increasing climate impacts' - UNDP Bangladesh, February 28 2018. The world's largest multilateral fund for climate change action, the Green Climate Fund, has approved almost US$25 million in grant funding in support of Bangladesh’s efforts to build the adaptive capacities of vulnerable coastal communities. With a focus on women and adolescent girls, a new 6-year project is set to benefit 700,000 people living in disaster-prone southwestern districts.
Country initiatives
Key results and outputs
Overall, the project will benefit 719,229 direct and indirect beneficiaries in vulnerable coastal districts of Khulna and Satkhira (about 16.25 per cent of the total population of the two districts) with 245,516 people directly benefiting from the project interventions in building resilience across water and livelihoods through household, community, government, and partner capacities.
The interventions will provide indirect benefits to 473,713 people to the nearby communities in the targeted Wards and other unions in the 5 Upazilas through integration of climate change concerns into planning and implementation of the mandated agencies as well as the pathways established for replication to other communities through knowledge and learning mechanisms.
The primary measurable benefits that will be realized include:
- 25, 425 women will directly benefit from the interventions to switch to (or phase in) climate-resilient livelihoods with associated 500 people benefiting from capacity building and support to value-chain and market actors.
- 245, 516 people will benefit from timely, gender-responsive early warning information and climate risk reduction strategies, facilitated through the women and girl volunteer groups established by the project at each of the targeted wards.
- 68, 327 females and 67, 783 males will benefit through year-round access to safe and reliable drinking water improving their health and safety, and significantly decreasing the unpaid time burden of women in regards of water collection and thereby creating opportunities for education and/or enhanced income generation.
- 525 government staff will benefit from improved capacities for climate-risk informed planning and implementation of resilient solutions for water and livelihood security.
- The project support to women groups for climate resilient livelihoods options in aquaculture and agriculture yields increased income benefits and enables participation in the formal economy, for a total expected increase in income of USD15 million (over the full life of the project). By providing an alternate higher quality source of water, salt intake by the population in the target communities will substantially decrease deaths and averting quality adjusted life years (the rainwater harvesting technologies have sufficient capacity to provide for basic drinking water needs even in times of low precipitation), for net benefits measuring US$4 million.
Reports and publications
Case Study
Project Brief / Fact Sheet
Multimedia
Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation Project- Documentary on Capacity Building | March 2023
The Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation Project aims to build technical and coordination capacities of 525 officials from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA), the Department of Public Health Engineering, and other relevant key Ministries through facilitating knowledge generation and exchange and establishing learning frameworks to sustain, replicate, and scale resilient livelihood and drinking water solutions for coastal communities.
Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation Project- Documentary on Livelihood | March 2023
The Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation (GCA) Project is addressing the barriers related to low awareness of and access to climate-resilient livelihood practices, lack of technical and financial capacities, and limited adoption and scalability hindering the small-scale farmers, fishers, and agro-laborers to diversify livelihoods and implement adaptive livelihood strategies.
Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation Project Base Level Documentary | March 2023
Climate change - manifesting in the form of intensified cyclones, storm surges, and sea-level rise - is accelerating saltwater intrusion into the freshwater resources of the coastal belt of Bangladesh. Climate change-induced soil and water salinity is projected to adversely impact freshwater dependent agricultural livelihoods (leading to loss of productivity or livelihoods) as well as the availability and quality of drinking water in the vulnerable coastal communities.
Rainwater tanks and "Paani Apa" bring relief to women and families living in Bangladesh's southwest
In the southwestern region of Bangladesh, the water crisis during the dry season is a battle that every woman has to fight. Women of every household have to walk for hours to fetch water from sources far from their homes.
Raushan Ara Akhter, locally known as "Paani Apa", has received training to install rainwater harvesting systems and fix technical issues related to them. She now goes door-to-door, fixing the water tank pipelines of every house and cleaning the filters.
State Minister's Visit to GCA Project in Bangladesh
Backed by the Green Climate Fund, the project 'Enhancing Adaptive Capacities of Coastal Communities, especially Women, to Cope with Climate Change-Induced Salinity in Bangladesh' (known locally as the Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation, or GCA, project) is empowering communities in Bangladesh, especially women, as ‘change-agents’ to plan, implement, and manage resilient livelihoods and drinking water solutions in the face of worsening climate change
Alternative & sustainable livelihood solutions for coastal women by project GCA in Bangladesh
Backed by the Green Climate Fund, the project 'Enhancing Adaptive Capacities of Coastal Communities, especially Women, to Cope with Climate Change-Induced Salinity in Bangladesh' (known locally as the Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation, or GCA, project) is empowering communities in Bangladesh, especially women, as ‘change-agents’ to plan, implement, and manage resilient livelihoods and drinking water solutions in the face of worsening climate chang
Gender-responsive and climate resilient water solutions for coastal communities by GCF-funded GCA project in Bangladesh
Backed by the Green Climate Fund, the project 'Enhancing Adaptive Capacities of Coastal Communities, especially Women, to Cope with Climate Change-Induced Salinity in Bangladesh' (known locally as the Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation, or GCA , project) is addressing the barriers of limited understanding and, technical know-how and the constraints on vulnerable communities to safeguard against the deterioration of their drinking water resources due to climate change-induced salinity.
Monitoring and evaluation
A project implementation report will be prepared for each year of project implementation. The annual report will be shared with the Project Board and other stakeholders.
An independent mid-term review process will be undertaken and the findings and responses outlined in the management response will be incorporated as recommendations for enhanced implementation during the final half of the project’s duration.
An independent terminal evaluation will take place no later than three months prior to operational closure of the project.
The UNDP Country Office will retain all M&E records for this project for up to seven years after project financial closure in order to support ex-post evaluations.
Monitoring, reporting and evaluation arrangements will comply with the relevant GCF policies and Accreditation Master Agreement signed between GCF and UNDP.
Link to Interim Evaluation (August 2022)
Links
Social media profiles
