Reaching Resilience CARE Bangladesh Strategy to Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

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This strategy lays out CARE Bangladesh’s rationale for and approach to the full integration of resilience-building into its long-term programs focused on the rural extreme poor, marginalized urban poor, and women and girls (rural and urban) whose rights and entitlements are denied by institutionalized gender inequality.
Section I (Introduction) briefly explains the rationale for the development of this strategy and summarizes the logic and analysis underlying the resilience Theory of Change (ToC) developed. This section also situates this strategy in the context of the global CARE 2020 strategy, which highlights resilience-building as a key approach to addressing the underlying causes of poverty and achieving priority humanitarian and development outcomes.
Section II (Weather and Climate-Related Risks) clearly documents the high level and diverse nature of weather-related disaster risks in Bangladesh and the probability that multiple risk factors will be exacerbated under climate change. For CARE Bangladesh, a clear understanding of climate-related risks, both at the national level and in each of its focus geographies, is an essential input into the development of this strategy to support its impact populations in increasing their resilience to shocks and stresses. All of CARE Bangladesh’s zones of intervention are characterized by high levels of weather-related risk, although risks are most diverse on the southwest coast. Overall, the primary risks are related to the combination of extreme weather events (heavy rainfall events, tropical cyclones) and sea level rise. Although disaster and climate change risks are very high in the Bangladesh context, the reader is reminded that Bangladesh is not without assets and comparative advantages that should be leveraged as part of adaptation efforts. Taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the Bangladesh context and then following through to build on its history of innovative work should be hallmarks of CARE Bangladesh’s resilience strategy.
Section III (Government Plans and Strategies) summarizes the current strategic framework and policy context for resilience-related work. Bangladesh has a welldeveloped strategic framework, including a National Disaster Management Plan, a Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, and a recently completed Seventh Five-Year Plan. Such plans, however, have yet to be fully implemented due to a range of factors, including capacity gaps, financing constraints, and challenges of inter-institutional coordination. The updating of the Climate Change strategy and the development of a National Adaptation Plan offer opportunities to address these shortcomings. In addition to the above-described core resilience planning processes, the Government of Bangladesh also developed in 2013 a Climate Change Gender Action Plan (ccGAP), which is directly relevant to CARE Bangladesh’s long-term program goals. The Seventh Five Year Plan also offers the opportunity to implement and resource this Climate Change Gender Action Plan.

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