Bangladesh ready to show the way

More than two dozens of well-known and promising researchers have gathered in Dhaka for a week-long brainstorming session to understand better how to cope up with the changing climate.Learning from Bangladesh, the researchers will make academic papers focusing on how to strengthen resilience activities and build a network among researchers, policymakers and development workers.They will apply the knowledge in other vulnerable regions in their local context.“We are proud to host the scholars from around the world. We call it Resilience Academy,” Saleemul Huq, director of International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCAD), told The Daily Star.He said the researcher would spread across the globe the experiences they gathered in Bangladesh about tackling climate change.ICCAD of Independent University in Dhaka; RE Foundation of Munich, Germany; and United Nations University, Institute of Environment and Human Security (UN-EHS) have jointly organised the Resilience Academy.Beginning on September 15, the first session of the academy ends today. The academy is being implemented under a five-year project called ‘Gibika’, which is to conclude in 2017.Asked whether it was possible to use the adaptation knowledge of one region in another given the differences of culture, geography and economy, David Lewis, professor of Social Policy and Development at London School of Economics and Political Science, replied in the positive.He said, “Microcredit of Bangladesh is now being practised in other countries. But it had to be adopted in local context.”The Resilience Academy would highlight its practical experiences and brief policymakers at the coming climate change summit. It would seek political actions based on that experience, said Prof Koko Warner of United Nations University.She said despite environmental challenges, Bangladesh was making good progress.Many countries would face what Bangladesh was facing now and Bangladesh could show them how to deal with those environmental challenges, she added.Participants from this year’s session would meet again in Munich in next year and present their research findings. In 2015, a fresh group of researchers will attend a session in Dhaka for the third Resilience Academy, which will again meet in Munich on 2016, said organisers.Under the academy, two new research schemes — on migration pattern of the climate-distress people and determinants of alternative livelihood, and social resilience across old and new places — will be conducted.Bangladeshi researchers Nadiruzzaman of ICCAD and David Wrathall of UN-EHS will jointly conduct the researches.They have selected six areas in Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Kurigram, Kishoreganj, Jamalpur and Naogaon districts that are exposed to cyclones, river erosions and drought for their study on vulnerable people.Once a certain area is hit by a natural disaster, the affected people move from there and it is hard to track them if the pattern of their migration is not precisely known, said Nadiruzzaman.French organisation Flowminder is providing technical support to the researchers and the academy will initially use Gameenphone call data to conduct a pilot research on migration of affected people in two coastal regions hit by cyclone Mohasen.A Letter of Intent has already been signed in this regard.