Climate adaptation needs stronger local leadership, ownership and financing: Speakers
The workshop was organised by the Swiss-supported Climate Action at Local Level (CALL) consortium in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh's climate adaptation efforts need stronger local leadership, ownership, financing and institutional support to ensure communities can effectively shape and lead climate action, speakers said at a workshop in Dhaka.
The learning and sharing workshop titled "Localisation: Local Voice for Climate Adaptation" was held yesterday (12 August), bringing together around 200 community representatives, government officials, development partners, private-sector representatives and climate practitioners.
The workshop was organised by the Swiss-supported Climate Action at Local Level (CALL) consortium in Bangladesh.
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Diepak Elmer, chargé d' affaires of the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh, stressed the importance of locally led climate action.
"Climate change is global, but resilience is local," he said, emphasising the role of local knowledge, leadership, capacity and solutions in building lasting resilience.
A key outcome of the workshop was the introduction of a self-assessment localisation toolkit, facilitated by Haseeb Md Irfanullah of the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh for the CALL programme.
The toolkit is designed to help organisations assess their existing localisation practices and identify areas for improvement. Participants provided feedback on its application in Bangladesh.
Discussions covered disaster risk reduction and anticipatory action, climate-smart livelihoods, health and WASH, and mitigation. Participants also discussed challenges related to sustainability, funding and local ownership.
Speakers said access to finance remains a major challenge, with many local initiatives depending on national and international NGOs. They called for stronger national systems, institutions and resources to sustain locally led action.
The discussion also highlighted the need to broaden the concept of localisation to include animal welfare, given its links to livelihoods, ecosystems, disaster preparedness and resilience.
The workshop concluded that localisation should go beyond funding or transferring responsibilities to local actors, and instead focus on strengthening local voice, leadership, ownership and systems that enable communities to lead climate action.
Dr Kabir M Ashraf Alam ndc, Secretary General of Bangladesh Red Crescent Society; Ulrich Kleppmann, Counsellor and Head of German Development Cooperation; Dr Md Hazrat Ali, Director of the Horticulture Wing at the Department of Agricultural Extension; Sultana Akter, Deputy Secretary of the Local Government Division; and Cynthia Mela, Country Director of Agence Française de Développement, attended the workshop as special guests.
