Speaker
Description
Bangladesh has been ranked seventh as the most affected by climate change since 1995 (The Global Climate Risk Index 2020). The urban population was 30% in 532 urban centres (2001), which is likely to be 50 million by 2021 and may exceed 60 million by 2031 (CUS 2008, Bangladesh Urban Forum, 2011). According to an estimate, by 2020, nearly every other man, woman and child will live in an urban area (World Bank ed., Bangladesh 2020). Mymensingh is one of the largest cities in Bangladesh with an area of 91.315 square kilometres and 471,858 inhabitants it is along the bank of the river Brahmaputra, and this makes it prone to flooding. Furthermore, Mymensingh has been identified as an area which has a high risk of experiencing earthquakes of about 7 Richter scale. Keep all this in mind, to promote resilience, the NGO Forum for Public Health and Oxfam Bangladesh have started implementing an urban resilience project in Mymensingh since from 2017 in terms of Resilience aspects i.e. Physical, Social, Economic, Institutional, and Natural.
The project adopted the approach of empowering the community in disaster preparedness and response through Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) while working in collaboration with city authorities and local Disaster Management Committees (DMC). The collaborative governance approach has been implemented and has been strengthening civil society actors in both formal and informal urban structures and also ensuring their participation is considered as a central concept in urban governance and development.
Inclusive engagement of public, private and communities have been considered the implementation which has been contributing the sustainable change toward resilience. Coordinated efforts have been enhancing the ability to take adaptive action as well as mitigation measures against climatic and disaster risk. The project has integrated among the vulnerable urban communities, particularly women, youth, and people with disabilities in Mymensingh to become more resilient to social, economic and climate shocks and stresses.
