UNDP, govt sign US$33m initiative to build adaptive capacity of coastal women

The government and the UNDP signed an agreement to implement a $33 million project, aiming to build adaptive capacity of women.

Monowar Ahmed, ERD secretary, and Sudipto Mukherjee, UNDP's country director, signed the project document on behalf of the government and the UNDP respectively at the Economic Relations Division on Thursday.

Mahmud A Shameen Beni, additional secretary of the Women and Children Affairs Ministry signed the document as implementing partner of the project.

The funding will be utilised for implementing a new six-year project titled " Enhancing adaptive capacity of coastal communities especially women to cope with climate change induced salinity" by the Women and Children Affairs Ministry and Public Health Engineering Department from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2024.

The grant financing of Green Climate Fund or GCF will be utilised for building the adaptive capacities for women and adolescent girls and will benefit about 719,229 people of which 50.2 per cent beneficiaries are women living in the southwestern districts of the country.

Monowar Ahmed said that this is the first of its kind project in the country where GCF has contributed about 25 million US dollar and the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs has provided $8 million as a co-financer to work with UNDP to empower women as "Change-agents" to plan, implement, and manage climate-resilient solutions.

"The project will provide assistance to 70,000 household women and their families in Satkhira and Khulna to adopt resilient livelihoods while ensuring reliable, safe drinking water through community-managed rainwater harvesting solutions," he said.

He further said that it will also seek to strengthen the participation of women in last-mile dissemination of gender-responsive early warnings and continued monitoring and adaptation of livelihoods to evolving climate risks. It will also enhance women's accessibility to markets and finance, reports UNB.

"The successful implementation of the project will bring a meaningful contribution to the climate vulnerable women of the coastal areas of Satkhira and Khulna," Mahmud A Shameen Beni said.

Sudipto Mukherjee said, "We congratulate Bangladesh for taking such initiatives.

UNDP will support such kind of initiatives in future as well. To achieve Sustainable Development Goals, the initiative will be fruitful."