Community-based adaptation (CBA) empowers local communities to plan for and cope with climate change impacts based on their priorities, knowledge, and needs. In Bangladesh, CBA projects focus on drought, flooding, water scarcity, and natural resource management. The CBA program builds community adaptive capacity and reduces climate risks by working with local people and influencing policy. However, CBA faces challenges in attracting sufficient long-term funding and integrating local projects into national adaptation efforts.

1. Effectiveness of Community-based Adaptation
in Developing Countries
Aparajita Alam
University of Southern Queensland

2. Definition of Community based Adaptation
• Community-based adaptation to climate change is a community-led process,
based on
• communities’ priorities,
• needs,
• knowledge and capacities
that should empower people to plan for and cope with the impacts of climate
change.

3. Aims of Community based Adaptation
• Community Based Adaptation aims to develop initiatives build on the
knowledge and decision of affected peoples,
• with strong participating methods together with local initiatives and
empowerment can make them more resilient.
It has also received attention at international level such as UNFCCC
conferences of the parties but in order to inadequate reporting system, it is
difficult to determine how much climate finance is directed at CBA.

4. Research Country
Bangladesh
• Why do I Chose Bangladesh?
• It is flat and low-lying topography on the other hand, location on the coast at
the top of the Bay of Bengal, which make it more vulnerable to climate
change.
• Dr Saleemul Huq, the senior Fellow at International Institute for
Environment and Development, mentioned Bangladesh as the adaptation
capital of the world at seventh International Conference on Community
Based Adaptation to Climate Change.

5. Research Country
Bangladesh
• The CBA projects in Bangladesh focuses on
• drought,
• floodwater,
• lack of fresh water and agriculture
• as well as community-level natural resource management activities

7. CBA in Bangladesh
• The CBA programme in Bangladesh is trying to build community-level adaptive
capacity,
• to reduce climate change risks that the local people face,
• and in turn to influence policy and institutional arenas
• to facilitate sustainable community management of natural resources in the face of
the above predicted climate impacts.
CBA starts identifying either most vulnerable poor communities or communities those
ask for assistance.

8. Disaster Risk Reduction
• An integrated CBA/ DRR approach combines traditional local knowledge
with innovative strategies that has been adopted to address current
vulnerability whereas building adaptive capacity to face new and dynamic
challenges.
• By this process, local Government representatives and communities
increased their awareness of climate change and the risk of it as well as adapt
some adaptation plans and activities. It has developed and is continuous
updating has created a guide to the field-testing of community prioritized
activities by the good practice in adaptation and DRR.

9. Finance for Community based Adaptation
• The community-based adaptation is a five-year United Nations Development
Programme global initiative funded by the Global Environmental Facility
(GFF) within the Small Grants Programme (SGP) delivery mechanism.
• The eighth International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation was
held in Kathmandu based on financing Local Adaptation and presenters
focus on the deficiencies of adaptation funding at a local level.

10. Kathmandu declaration
• It has designed to provide guidance to
• intergovernmental,
• national and
• local funding bodies
• to direct adaptation funding to those most vulnerable.

11. Kathmandu declaration
• By this declaration, it mentioned that the global community specially
developed countries must scale up public finance and the Climate Change
Fund must deliver on promise for a 50-50 fund split into adaptation and
mitigation and CBA.
• It has also mentioned national government to ensure coordination with
public sector adaptation and engage non-state actors in local finance.

12. Challenges for the Community Based Adaptation
• The challenges now Bangladesh is facing is to tackle present changes that
already being faced as a result local population often feel a race against time.
• CBA’s focus on small scale, local and project based adaptation, which may
limit the potential to provide adaptation support to the massive populations
of environmentally vulnerable populations in developing countries.

13. Challenges for the Community Based
Adaptation
• It should focus on local needs to higher levels of decision-making and
integrate into broader adaptation and development schemes so that attract
donor funding and line up projects with adaptation supporting requirement.
• Corrupted political system and lack of political will, lack of coordination and
lack of collaboration between and within government agencies and
implementing NGOs difficulties for the planning development.

14. Conclusion
• CBA creates awareness of climate change and its impacts where the rates of literacy
in the local community are low.
• It is important to use local information and knowledge rather formal presentations.
• If there is absence of historic scientific information and data, they can use
memories and experience of older community members as a source of information.
UNDP also helping the national policy makers better understand local vulnerabilities
and needs, field test initiatives and learn valuable lessons that can improve the
effectiveness of national adaptation policies.

15. Thank you
Q&A