Resilient and inclusive urban development (RIUD)

Context

Bangladesh is one of the countries with the highest rates of urbanisation in Asia. It is also one of the most vulnerable ones when it comes to the impacts of climate change. The consequences have adverse effects on people’s livelihoods and cause significant flows of migration into cities. The urban population is expected to double to about 112 million people by 2050. Many of the new parts of rapidly growing cities are slums and have a lack of basic infrastructure and services, and only limited access to social, economic or political decision-making processes.

The limited capacities of the cities and municipalities to respond effectively to this rapid urbanisation carries along new challenges when it comes to protecting the population against climate-related disasters. In many cases, however, decision-makers in the administration of cities are only poorly informed about the dangers of climate change in insufficiently planned urban areas. Moreover, the local governmental institutions are underfinanced and cannot accomplish the task of giving the new neighbourhoods the necessary resilience.

Objective

Selected cities are implementing measures to protect people in urban areas against the effects of climate change. In doing so, they actively involve the population and increase the capability of new neighbourhoods to deal with the challenges of extreme weather conditions.

Approach

Through the project the administrations of two municipalities (Sirajganj and Satkhira) and three city corporations (Barisal, Khulna and Rajshahi) receive support in taking the necessary steps in the new neighbourhoods. Members of administration in the cities are brought together with the communities of the neighbourhoods. This will help to design the necessary measures to improve the living conditions in the neighbourhoods. One of the necessary steps are vulnerability mappings.

The project raises awareness among decision-makers in local governmental institutions regarding the specific climate-related challenges faced by poor and marginalised people; it helps to improve the skills within city administration when it comes to planning the necessary budgets, planning and administering processes of the municipalities and city corporations, including the integration of climate-related measures and the provision of basic services to the poor communities. Current focusses of this work are climate-resilient disaster management and planning operations and maintenance for physical and technical infrastructure in the two cities.

Results

On a general level, the awareness of the dangers resulting from climate change has increased. People are aware of the need for preparation to natural disasters. Cities were able to identify their shortcomings in the preparation for natural disasters.

Through the participatory community development process, nearly 4,000 households in the cities of Rajshahi and Khulna have so far cooperated with their ward councillors and city administration officials to identify and prioritise the challenges they face as a consequence of climate change. The overall focus is that people will start to support each other while facing the challenges.

A livelihood and skill development training database is now available to all five cities, providing information on 21 relevant subjects taught at 136 technical and vocational training institutions. These institutions have a combined annual enrolment capacity of almost 60,000.

The establishment of the “One Stop Service Center (OSSC)” by the five partner cities has enabled them to deliver the services to the citizens more efficiently. This has improved transparency and accountability of the city administrations.