IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE LIVELIHOODS AND ITS ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR THE PEOPLE LIVING IN SOUTHWEST COASTAL AND SLUM AREAS OF BANGLADESH( Funded by the European Union)

1. Introduction

Education and Development Foundation- Educo is a global development and humanitarian organization, established in 1993 in Spain, and operating in Bangladesh since 1999. Educo work with children and their communities to promote just and equitable societies that guarantee their rights and wellbeing, with the vision of achieving a world where all children fully enjoy their rights and lead a life of dignity. Thus, Educo aims to empower children to express their views, ideas, and opinions, and to exercise leadership. With this motto, Educo Bangladesh engage duty bearers, especially parents and local government institutions to create an enabling environment for children where they can influence the decisions that affect them. Educo’s Theory of Change has defined three social impact outcomes (SIOs) to achieve over the next decade; a) Children and adolescents fully develop their personality and abilities, b) Children and adolescents live free from violence in safe and positive treatment environments and c) Children and adolescents drive social change in their social and natural environment. To achieve these SIOs, three strategic priorities; Education, protection and governance have been set under three programmatic areas: 1) Safe, Equitable and Quality Education, 2) Protection against Violence and Exploitation, and 3) Empowerment and Agency for Social Change. In 2021, Educo Bangladesh reached out 188,000 children and adolescents, their caregivers and duty bearers which is more than 7 times growth comparing 2018.

For further advance of programmatic intervention and contribute advocacy, Educo Bangladesh has been engaged in various types of research along with programmatic initiatives.

Background and justification

Amid rising global temperature and changing physical environment, climate change has led to the development of a new social group called persons displaced by disasters and the adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation. Over the last decade, rising sea levels, tropical cyclones, flash floods, soil salinity, and river erosion have emerged as the environmental or climatic push factors in the coastal region of Bangladesh that have forced highly exposed and vulnerable coastal communities to migrate because of poverty and loss of livelihoods. A large number of people have already migrated to the urban slums from the coastal region of Bangladesh due to frequent cyclones, storm surges, river erosion, and many climatic disasters (IOM, 2009). Extreme climatic disasters severely affect the lives, livelihoods, property, mostly in the dwelling and agricultural sector. As a result, around 48 percent of the total population is vulnerable in the case of losing their livelihoods (Ahmed et al, 2008). Loss of accommodation, lack of food security, occupational vulnerability, lack of communication, absence of alternative livelihood opportunities and necessary services are the reasons for displacement caused by climate change. These affected people who have lost their livelihoods, homestead, properties and have been compelled to migrate in search of livelihood due to adverse effects of climate change, are known as climate-induced migrants (Anwer, 2012).

Satkhira Municipality had a population of 113,322 in 2011, and currently, it has reached 169,991 (Municipality: 2018). The rapid rise is due to people migrating from nearby sub-districts and living in the 47 slums here. They are originally from the waterlogged and cyclone-prone areas where lands remain under saline water for 4 to 6 months each year and the communities fail to continue their agricultural activities. The trigger points are recurrent climate-induced natural hazards increasing every year and around 70% of the agricultural lands are converted for shrimp farming, resulting in salinity intrusion of the land that decreases the soil fertility for agricultural use. These further result in increasing unemployment and causing overall protection disruptions within the community. People living in the most vulnerable area from where displacement originates do not have access to climate-resilient technologies for alternative viable economic livelihood options.

Climate change and disasters affect women and men differently. According to a study by ActionAid Bangladesh, during the tidal surge 71% of the women faced GBV and of them, 52.3% faced direct physical violence (The Daily Star, 2018). Although the empowerment of women is increasing in Bangladesh, women in coastal areas are still behind in terms of economic opportunities, skills development, and access to WASH facilities. Poor economic conditions and unequal power distribution are some of the most significant obstacles women face in the coastal region.

Climate-related displacement started decades ago, particularly since the 1988 cyclone. But since cyclone AILA in 2009, a huge spike in displacement has been observed from all over the southwest, followed by Cyclone Amphan and COVID-19 (WHO, 2021 & Relief Web, 2020). The slum settlements  in Satkhira Municipality where the displaced people from neighboring sub-district (Shyamnagar) have resettled are comparatively a lower risk zone in terms of the adverse effect of cyclones, yet the slums settlements are at risk of seasonal waterlogging and inundation due to inadequate drainage system and poor management of existing facilities. Inadequate and improper drainage systems and the poor management of the existing settings compound the problem, resulting in frequent and prolonged water logging incidents. Poor sanitation is a consequence of an inadequate number of poorly constructed and managed public latrines. Moreover, narrow lanes and inadequate circulation spaces exacerbate physical vulnerability. Research shows, climate displaced settlements are characterized by unusually high population densities (Roy, 2007). And the slum dwellers have fewer livelihood opportunities due to the congested slum settings, lack of training, capitals, and proper marketing channels. The authorities, particularly in the targeted areas (Shyamnagar sub-district and Satkhira Municipality) do not show active responsibility to meet the basic needs of livelihood, WASH, education, and DRR due to inadequate resources and lack of sensitization. On the other hand, due to the lack of a collective voice of the slum dwellers, they are not able to hold the relevant departments and authorities accountable. On the other hand, when people migrate from other nearby climate-vulnerable areas, the government has no demographic or trackable data on the displaced people, hindering the process of providing services to them. When it comes to education, the children of slum dwellers have inadequate access to quality education as no formal primary schools are present in the slum locations. The existing dropout rate of the children living in the slums in Government primary schools is 15%-20% (Department of Primary Education in Satkhira). , whereas it is only 8%-10% in other parts of the country. As mentioned above, the poor economic condition further forces the families towards engaging their children in child labor through various income-generating activities such as working in shops, garbage collection, different forms of insecure services, etc. Other reasons for poor enrolment in primary schools consist of less sensitization of parents about education and lack of quality education, a joyful teaching environment, and adequate WASH facilities.

Considering the above factors, Educo Bangladesh has launched a project on “Strengthening the capacity of those displaced by disasters and climate-related causes to cope with adverse situations”.

The aim of the project is to increase capacity, social support, and resources which will help both the people who are already displaced at Satkhira Municipality or likely to be displaced from Shyamnagar to cope with their existing settings and prepare for graduating as human resources to live a dignified life. For the sustainability of the solutions, community-led development approaches will be devised in all aspects of interventions. The project will be devised with continuous learning through research facilitated by Environmental Science Discipline, Khulna University and innovations (by Footsteps) for larger-scale dissemination and replication. During the period of the project following themes – “1. Economic and Livelihood development, 2. Integrated Service Delivery (education, water and sanitation) and 3. Addressing disaster and climate-related human mobility” will be considered to implement for the greater interest of outcomes to be achieved.

Considering the above context and to protect and prevent future displacement a comprehensive action research is necessary to find out the recommendations for a sustainable solution to disaster-related displacement. Based on the research findings and recommendations, climate-resilient alternative income-generating activities has been piloted in the area at risk of displacement from where continuous learning will be developed, disseminated, and conceptualized for the larger scale of replication in the future as a sustainable solution of climatic displacement.

Under this circumstances a research entitle “Impact of Climate Change on livelihoods and alternative solutions for the people living in coastal areas and slum areas in Bangladesh” has been conducted in the 1st phase (6 months) and which will be tested in the second phase (1 year), and finally the learning will be disseminated during the phase-out stage (6 months). Here, the CDGs technically guided (Educo) by the project will play a proactive role through participating in research (at the problem assessment stage) and implementing the recommendation at the piloting stage. These groups (CDGs) will also lead the process of mobilizing resources or necessary services from every possible source from the government and non-government levels. To make sure that the inputs are coming out with the expected results, the project will follow up on the activities in its 2nd year that are mostly planned and implemented in the 1st year.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE Research

Overall objective: To identify the existing climate vulnerabilities, behavior of the communities, and the most suitable adaptive livelihood options for the communities. 

The followings are the specific objectives of this research:

a.       Identifying the root causes of climate displacement and recommending the climate-smart solution of resilient economic options for the inhabitants in the place of origin and destination to protect and prevent them from future climatic shocks.

b.       Identify the existing indigenous knowledge and practices of the community people that can be shared with other communities.

c.       Identifying and analyzing the cross-cutting issues i.e. gender, disability, and environment in relation to climate change and disaster.

d.       Identifying the possible scope of joint initiatives which could be performed by duty bearers, community, and the project to minimize the loss of lives and livelihood assets. 

The following questions to be examined to achieve the above-mentioned objectives:

Objective – 1: Identifying the root causes of climate displacement and recommending the climate-smart solution of resilient economic options for the inhabitants in the place of origin and destination to protect and prevent them from future climatic shocks.

Research questions:

ü  What are the major causes of climate displacement?

ü  How can the climate displacement problem be mitigated?

ü  What are the climate resilient agricultural solutions to protect displacement from the place of origin?

ü  How to prevent the inhabitants from future climatic shocks/ vulnerability?

Objective – 2: Identify the existing indigenous knowledge and practices of the community people that can be shared with other communities.

Research questions:

ü  What are the existing indigenous knowledge, which are being practiced by the climate vulnerable community?

ü  How can the existing indigenous knowledge of climate vulnerable communities be made sustainable?

ü  How can that knowledge be shared with other communities?

Objective – 3: Identifying and analyzing the cross-cutting issues i.e. gender, disability, and environment in relation to climate change and disaster.

Research questions:

ü  What are the present conditions and insecurities of climate vulnerable women, children, elderly people, disable and Dalit community (if any)?

ü  What are the water, sanitation, health and hygienic related issues?

ü  How can the above-mentioned issues be addressed?

Objective – 4: Identifying the possible scope of joint initiatives which could be performed by duty bearers, community, and the project to minimize the loss of lives and livelihood assets.

Research questions:

Ø  What are the status of previous/existing services providing by the GOs-NGOs, social communities, etc.?

Ø  What are the gaps between needs and available services?

Ø  Which types of activity should be prioritized to launch a new project for improving living pattern of the climate vulnerable people?

8. CONCLUSIONS

The conclusions of this research are as following-

1.  Priority actions to do in the three unions of Shyamnager upazilas are:

(i) Ensure the livelihoods in the three unions according to the specific recommendations.

(ii) A pilot project should be initiated in the study unions on the basis of recommended activities.

(iii) Supply the seeds and technology of saline tolerant agriculture.

(iv) Only saline tolerant plant species and climate change adapted local varieties of livestock should be used for plantation and farming.

(v) Ensure safe water, sanitation and emergency health facilities based on the needs.

2.  The priority activities in the five slum areas of Satkhira municipality are:

(a) An experimental project should be launched in the slum areas based on the specific recommendation to mitigate poverty.

(b) Provide only kind support to improve the existing livelihoods.

(c) Increase safe drinking and domestic water, and necessary toilet facilities as early as possible.  

(d) Improve the drainage systems to mitigate the waterlogging

(e) Ensure education support (tuition fees, dress, tiffin etc.) for combating child labour.

3.  Same issues are mandatory for the three unions and five slum areas of the Satkhira:

(i)  Awareness, motivation and training are necessary for the villagers and slum dwellers.

(ii) Community participation must be ensured in all activities (mentioned in the recommendations).

(iii) Monitoring and evaluation programmes need to be operated continuously.

(iv) More integrated research is necessary on the sustainable adaptation mechanism of climate change vulnerability and to mitigate the displacement of the villagers.

• Research Project