RCE Sundarbans - COVID-19: Impacts, Response, and Resilience Prof. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, RCE Sundarbans 13th Asia-Pacific Regional RCE Meeting 2nd Online Session, 24 September, 2020

1. RCE SUNDARBANS
COVID-19:
IMPACTS,
RESPONSE AND
RESILIENCE
Presented in a Webinar: AP RCEs Achievements and Collaborative
Initiatives in Response to COVID-19 organized by RCE Kyrgyzstan
24 September 2020
Prof. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, RCE Sundarbans
Email: rtitumir@unnayan.org

2. IMPACTS OF COVID-19
• Poor healthcare sector
• Rising in poverty, especially in low income groups
• Increasing inequality
• Inadequate and inefficient social security programs
• Changes in migration pattern and decrease in
remittance
• Violence against women significantly increases
• Ethnic minorities and Rohingya refugees were hit
hard
• Economic fallout
• Lack of response from NGOs and Micro Finance
Institutions
Bangladesh*
Confirmed cases – 337,520
Recovered – 240,643
Dead – 4,733
Khulna District*
Confirm cases – 6,085
Recovered – No Data
Dead – No Data
*At 14 September 2020
Source: Institute of Epidemiology, Decease Control and Research (IEDCR)

3. CYCLONE AMPHAN
• The strongest tropical cyclone since 2007 made a
landfall on 20 May
• Khulna Division, the area of RCE Sundarbans was the
hardest hit by the cyclone
• Total damage from the cyclone worth Tk1,100 crore
• 20 people were killed in different districts of
Bangladesh
• The cyclonic storm caused around 60% network towers
(13,000 in number) of the region to be cut off the power
supply.
• Coastal areas of Satkhira, Bagerhat and Patuakhali
were affected most among 26 districts that were hit.
• 1,100 kilo-metres of roads, 200 bridges and culverts
were damaged.

4. SOCIAL EDUCATION AND POLICY
ADVOCACY
• RCE Sundarbans and its stakeholders organised
a series of webinars under the theme Academics-
practitioners’ dialogues during COVID-19 – cover
the topics Urban Poverty, Refugees, microcredit
and NGOs, Ethnic minorities, Migrant workers,
Street level bureaucracy, women, coping
mechanisms and violence, and IUCN Statement
on COVID-19, Environment and Sustainable
Pathways
• Moreover, several articles, reports focusing on
economic solution during COVID were published
in the leading newspapers of Bangladesh

5. RESPONSE
Response aligning SDGs and ESD
• Involving higher education institutes to promote
education for sustainable development in the
Sundarbans
• Enhancing capacity of local communities in the
Sundarbans in resource management
Stakeholders
• Unnayan Onneshan, Department of Development
Studies, the University of Dhaka, Khulna
University, Secondary Schools and Collegiate
School in Khulna district
• Three Traditional Resource Users Cooperatives
in Khulna district

6. RESILIENCE

7. THANK YOU!