In last week's column, I proposed that the Bangladesh National Adaptation Plan (NAP) that is now being developed should be innovative and not just a business-as-usual (BAU) report that will gather dust on a shelf, as many such plans have done in the past. I argued that we should focus on constructing the foundations for enhancing capacity building of many different institutions in the country to enable them to continue the implementation of the adaptation plans after the initial NAP exercise ends after a year or so.
But how can we help different ministries, agencies, training institutes, universities, private organisations and NGOs to develop their own respective adaptation plans for enhancing their capacity to adapt to climate change over the next ten years?
This would require each of the members of the team of national and international consultants, who have been selected by the government to carry out the task of developing the NAP over the next year or so, to be given the responsibility of engaging with several such key institutions and helping them develop their respective adaptation plans. The Department of Environment (DOE), who are in charge of preparing the NAP and also UNDP, who is supporting, should agree to such a non-BAU approach.
