Can asset transfer promote adaptation amongst the extreme urban poor? : lessons from the DSK-Shiree programme in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Hashemi, Syed and Cawood, Sally and Razzak, Noara and Rashid, Mamun ur and Roy, Manoj Kumar (2016) Can asset transfer promote adaptation amongst the extreme urban poor? : lessons from the DSK-Shiree programme in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In: Urban poverty and climate change : life in the slums of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research . Routledge, London, pp. 202-220. ISBN 9781138860506

Abstract

This chapter presents an experimental asset transfer programme, which reaches the poorest of the poor. It shows that a poverty alleviation programme which reduces vulnerabilities (such as employment, food, dwelling and health insecurities) simultaneously enables households to change from being ‘risk prone’ to being ‘risk averse’. Although as a short-term donor-funded project it faces many challenges, the results support calls to incorporate both development (i.e. infrastructure improvement) and adaptation (i.e. damage resilient livelihoods) into NGO, donor and government policy, planning and practice.