Climate Justice and Food Security:Experience from Climate Finance in Bangladesh

Rahaman, Muhammad Abdur and Rahman, Mohammad (2020) Climate Justice and Food Security:Experience from Climate Finance in Bangladesh. In: Environmental Policy. Wiley, pp. 249-268. ISBN 9781119402619

Abstract

Bangladesh has been experiencing frequent climate-induced extreme weather events which cause large-scale damage to agriculture, food security, livelihoods, and social protection. Both government and nongovernment actors are working to secure climate-resilient development across the country in different thematic areas including adaptation, mitigation, disaster management, and capacity building. This chapter synthesizes the climate change policies, strategies, action plans, and climate finance systems in Bangladesh in line with the different resilience paradigms in spatial, racial, ethnic, and social exclusion perspectives and examines climate justice hypothesis in a resilient food security system. The study was conducted using an exploratory methodology, including analysis of grant allocation by different funding entities in Bangladesh that are engaged with climate-resilient development interventions. The study shows that significant gaps are evident in fund allocation from four major funding mechanisms of the government: Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF), Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR) Bangladesh, Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF), and nongovernmental efforts. Moreover, fund allocation and project implementation lack equity and justice in the process, failing to consider vulnerability, ethnic, and social disparities, etc. that result in food insecurity among the most vulnerable communities. The results illustrate that the implemented projects are beyond climate justice.