Progress report for
Building Capacity & Empowering Communities in Bangladesh, towards Sustainable Agriculture, Aquaculture Development and Climate Change Adaptation Interventions
Achievement at a glance
Participants (around 75% women) from 64 climate-affected communities led 3,000 community members to improve climate change resilience, build community resistance and income. by participating in Design for Sustainable Settlements, Permaculture, and Climate Change Intervention courses. Average household income increased by around 23%. Participants learnt skills for establishing combined food and water production systems, including horticulture, vermin culture, diverse organic vegetable gardens (such as brinjal, sweet pumpkin, gourd, okra, spinach, potato, and korola), and canal fisheries. 39 community-led small-income generation projects were set up, including nine community gardens, six vermiculture and six horticulture sites, and six canal fisheries. Community members practice more efficient waste management and recycling systems, adapted to withstand adverse weather conditions. Participating women have increased access to different forums and social events. Traditional attitudes and norms towards women have shifted, diversifying the roles of women within communities. It was observed that women have established ownership over family resources and their freedom of movement, domestic decision-making capacity, lobbying, advocacy and networking capacity of women has increased tremendously. These same women have opened the first organic produce shop in Banishanta market, where they are selling their surplus produce and enriching their livelihoods. Through the lessons learnt on the project, and in setting up their own projects, participating villagers have become educators in their own right: spreading the techniques and sharing the results of their productive yields to the wider community. Inspired by these trained change agents, both directly and indirectly, women and men of different ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds are now engaged in similar horticultural and small income generation projects achieving remarkable success in terms of increased food production, household income and community vitality and resilience.Challenges faced in implementation
The 64 communities of the project include several marginalised and vulnerable communities such as Dalits, lower caste Hindus, sex workers and landless communities. The target areas of these communities are Burriri Dapur (landless/lower caste groups), Banishata Antola (Dalits), and Banishanta Brothel area (sex workers). These communities are largely affected by poverty, lack of basic services (education, healthcare, shelter, food security) and lack of livelihood opportunities. They live on the fringes of society and are neglected by the government and other communities. They are situated on land that is highly vulnerable to climate change (low lying areas, beside rivers, salinated land) that is prone to flooding and natural disasters. They are also situated in hard to reach locations making it difficult for them to access markets, government services and connect with other communities. These communities are the most in need of support. The project has provided training to a number of people from these communities, constructed CCA Houses, and implemented small demonstration projects. This learning, training and demonstration activities have greatly benefitted the communities and they are implementing the activities. However, due to their high vulnerability to climate change, severe poverty, and social position at the end of the project the communities still face many challenges in particular with salinity in the soil, access to freshwater, continued erosion of the rivers and natural disasters. The Bangladesh Government and local authorities may need to step further in protecting these communities from the effects of climate change and provide suitable infrastructure.Beneficiaries
Direct beneficiaries of Women for Economic Empowerment and Climate Action in Satkhira (WEECAS) will be community leaders and villagers in 42 vulnerable communities in Southern Bangladesh (eg Koilashgonj, Laudob and Chila), from all different social castes and religions (such as Muslim, Hindu, Rishi, Dalit, etc). ‘Indirect’ beneficiaries include the families of the direct beneficiaries, who benefited from the added regenerative income as well as possibly learning the skills and knowledge themselves. This initiative will contribute, at district level, to the achievement of the GoB’s target of a more empowered female labour force (VNR 2017).