Bangladesh: Plan to help women hit by climate change

DHAKA, Bangladesh

Bangladesh and the UN have jointly launched a $33 million project to help around 700,000 climate-vulnerable people, mostly women and adolescent girls in country’s southwestern region, a UNDP press release said on Sunday.

“Ministry of Women and Children Affairs joined hands with the UNDP to implement a six-year long project in Satkhira and Khulna districts”, said the statement.

The project will provide assistance to women and girls in the region to adopt resilient livelihoods, while ensuring reliable, safe drinking water through community-managed rainwater harvesting solutions, it added.

“The project will empower women to plan, implement, and manage climate-resilient solutions to safeguard livelihoods and lives and help us to become a middle-income country,” the statement quoted Women and Children Affairs Secretary Kamrun Nahar as saying.

The project will focus on enhancing women’s access to markets and finances and link women groups to business via networking activities. It will also provide support to access credit from the financial sector, the statement said.

Highlighting the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which have to be completed by 2030, the UNDP’s Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee said: ''They cannot be achieved if the women are ignored, as they are more vulnerable to adverse impacts of climate change.”