Published:  08:15 AM, 07 January 2025

A Path to Resilience for Bangladesh’s Climate Future

A Path to Resilience for Bangladesh’s Climate Future

Samiha Saleha

Imagine a small village in the southern region of Bangladesh where the local people suffer the wrath of cyclonic storms, or sea level rise as a direct impact of climate change. Since these effects cannot be eliminated at once, they formulate a few strategies to minimize loss and damage. They adapt in every possible way within their existing resources and knowledge gained from their experiences. That can be called the perfect example of Community-Based Adaptation (CBA). As solutions to tidal surges, or salinity, they tend to raise the house plinth and cultivate salt-resistant crops or localized embankments at low or no cost to save their communities. But if they get further, their adaptive capacities get limited due to constraints of budget, or technology. Additionally, the central government system is not being notified about the existing practices by the locals. Thus, here comes the concept of Locally Led Adaptation!

Locally Led Adaptation (LLA) refers to the approach that involves local communities including local government, and organizations to take the lead in identifying climate risks in different sectors and developing their climate-resilient solutions.

Established by the Global Commission on Adaptation in 2021, the Locally Led Action Track was created focusing on Adaptation Finance and Managing vulnerable communities and strengthened by generating a set of eight principles of LLA. IIED, Slum Dwellers International, Huairou Commission, International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), and many other organizations have been working relentlessly to develop a bigger picture for tackling climate-induced disasters and LLA is being implemented progressively. Most people may confuse the concept of LLA with the foundation of CBA as both concepts focus on community engagement. However, in terms of scope, sustainability, or funding mechanism CBA and LLA are considered differently in the field of climate change. While CBA takes actions at the grassroots level with immediate solutions, LLA is more centralized on systemic changes at the local level and building leadership within the communities.

Compared to CBA, LLA picturizes the broader scale of communities and tries to connect local actions with the national and international platforms at the policy level and governance systems. It involves local governments, civil society organizations, and even the private sector, all working together to create a holistic response to climate change. The process of LLA takes out the knowledge and experiences of the locals and utilizes them while revising policies and planning in a bottom-up approach. Natural catastrophes can be community or locality-centric, whereas adaptation measures can be taken by the local leaders with the resources from external contributions. Thereby, LLA bridges the gap between community resilience and institutional support.

As LLA in Bangladesh is evolving, the local, and national organizations and multiple stakeholders are cooperating to develop a robust framework for community-led climate resilience. Few of the GOs and NGOs conduct their surveys, research, and identify the challenges and needs of communities by hearing their stories which should be well-received by the local and national government. The present state of the decision-making process in this context is certainly transforming but requires collaborative attention. While different parts of Bangladesh face different types of natural hazards, root-level NGOs and GOs focus on the most accessible vulnerable areas to work and implement their projects, and the remote areas remain overlooked. Hence, their coordination must be well-developed, and transparent with all organizations fostering a sense of mutual compassion focused on enhancing programs to enrich LLA. With a focus on building up coordination, (ICCCAD) has initiated a strategy to hold Divisional Platforms on Locally Led Adaptation (DPLLA) to bring the local leaders, stakeholders, and academicians into one platform and take collaborative actions. So far, DPLLA has been launched in five districts (Khulna, Chittagong, Sylhet, Mymensingh and Rangpur). It is high time for all the stakeholders and communities to align their efforts and collaborate in strategizing more practical and efficient actions.

As climate change is a never-stopping scenario for the environment and society, it is highly crucial to create a sustainable approach considering the needs and decisions of communities based on direct national and international resources.


Samiha Saleha is working in the
International Centre for Climate
Change and Development
(ICCCAD) as a Research Associate.



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