Communities develop blueprint for climate-resilient cities in Bangladesh
For the first time, residents of climate-vulnerable towns such as Laksam, Feni, and Mirsarai have developed roadmaps to address recurring challenges
Vulnerable communities in Bangladesh are stepping into the driver's seat of climate action, preparing their own adaptation strategies and reshaping how cities can build resilience in the face of intensifying climate crises.
The results of this groundbreaking, community-led approach were presented today (21 September) at a national workshop in Dhaka, highlighting the People's Adaptation Plans for Inclusive Climate-Smart Cities initiative, reads a press release.
For the first time, residents of climate-vulnerable towns such as Laksam, Feni, and Mirsarai have developed roadmaps to address recurring challenges including floods, excessive rainfall, waterlogging, and heatwaves.
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The initiative is funded by the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), supported by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), and implemented by Save the Children Bangladesh and Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), with technical support from Jahangirnagar University (JU). It is designed to empower low-income groups who are disproportionately impacted by climate change due to inadequate infrastructure and services.
ABM Firoz Ahmed, deputy team leader of the Climate Change and Environment Team at the British High Commission, and Golam Md Baten, deputy director (local government) of Feni and administrator of Feni Sadar Municipality spoke, among others, highlighted the importance of scaling up the bottom-up approach and turned the initiative as turning point in community-driven urban development.
"Every monsoon, our homes go underwater, and we face a severe crisis of safe drinking water. A proper drainage system could solve this," said a community representative from Laksam.
"Through this project, we have finally found a voice to express our needs."
A defining feature of the initiative has been the integration of advanced scientific tools, such as GIS mapping, with community knowledge gathered through household surveys and focus group discussions. This blend has produced People's Adaptation Plans (PAPs) that are both scientifically sound and rooted in local realities.
"These PAPs are their plans, not ours," said Abdullah Al Mamun, director at Save the Children International. "Our role has been to facilitate their vision for a safer, more resilient future."
Key achievements to date include reaching more than 2,100 direct beneficiaries across 27 low-income communities, training Community Mobilizers to sustain adaptation work, and establishing Local Adaptation Committees (LACs) to strengthen community governance.
Rita Lohani, country representative for the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), emphasised the project's wider significance, saying "The people-led model we see here has the potential to transform urban climate resilience across Bangladesh and serve as a template for other developing countries facing similar crises."
Panelists from the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) called for integrating PAPs into municipalities' Annual Development Plans and aligning them with Bangladesh's Smart Cities agenda to ensure long-term sustainability.
The workshop, attended by senior government officials, representatives from the British High Commission, BMDF, and development partners, concluded with strong consensus that scaling up this bottom-up model is vital for building climate-smart cities in Bangladesh — with those most at risk leading the way.
