Dhaka, 11 March 2012. Today in a national workshop held Dhaka speakers opined that, to make effective and sustainable plan regarding disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, mass participation is must. They demanded separate climate commission to strengthen climate adaptive activities. They said that during the concluding ceremony of that two days workshop.
Minister for Forest and Environment Dr. Hasan Mahmud was present as the chief guest of the concluding ceremony. The program was moderated by the Executive Director of COAST Rezaul Karim Chawdhury. Among others Member Secretary of Unnayan Dhra Foundation Aminur rasul Babul, Executive Director of Bangladesh NGO Network for Community Radio (BNNRC) A H M Bazlur Rahman, Executive Director of Credit and Development Forum Abdul Awal, Executive Director or UDDIPAN Emranul Haque Chawdhury, Member of the Board of trustee of COAST Dr. Tofail Ahmed, Aus Aid Representatives (Ms. Amanda Jennings) were also present.
Dr. Sohel Iqbal of COAST Trust presented the evaluation of the moderators of respective moderators on the eight sessions held in the two days workshops. This presentation mainly focused on the learning and recommendations came from the two days workshops.
Aminur Rasul Babul said, without mass participation no development plan regarding climate adaptation can be effective and sustainable.
A H M Bazlur Rahman said, the slogan ‘think globally, act locally’ is null and void now, rather we have to keep in mind that, Think globally, act all level, but very carefully
Abdul Awal said, Already a large part of Bangladesh has been affected from various climate related disaster and various vulnerabilities have been increased. Food security is at stake now. To solve these problems political will and effective initiatives are must.
Emranul Haque Chawdhury said, Process and initiatives of the government on climate change should be reached to the mass people. Lesson on climate change can be added in the school curriculum. As the recommendation of the workshop he proposed Climate Commission to ensure effective coordination among different ministries’ and NGO activities. The recommendation also suggests that, the commission can play a vital role in ensuring transparencies of all climate funds.
Dr. Hasan Mahmud said, climate change issue is not a political issue. So we have been trying to ensure participation from experts to our national plan and international negotiation process without consideriung their political backgrounds. My ministry has introduced monthly public hearing. I believe that, we should work all together for the welfare of our people.
In concluding remarks Dr. Tofail Ahmad said, climate has already changed, we have to emphasize on climate adaptation. We should not think only funding, we have to think about knowledge. We have to refrain ourselves from degrading the climate furthermore.
It is to be noted that, the workshop titled Sharing understanding and identifying concern: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) in Sustainable Development” was organized by the Bangladeshi member of the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network. The members are BPDC, COAST Trust, Dhaka Community Hospital and Dwip Unnayan Shongstha. This two days workshop was being organized to share macro and micro level experiences on DRR and CCA, about 200 representatives of 150 local organizations are participating in the program.
Please Download [Bangla Press] [English Press]
