International Consultant for development of climate risks and impacts and adaptation scenarios for coastal livelihoods-GCA Project

Climate change, manifesting in the form of intensified cyclones, storm surges, and sea-level rise (SLR), is accelerating saltwater intrusion into the freshwater resources of the coastal belt of Bangladesh. Climate change-induced soil and water salinity is projected to adversely impact freshwater dependent agricultural livelihoods (leading to loss of productivity or livelihoods) as well as the availability and quality of drinking water in the vulnerable coastal communities. Among the vulnerable coastal communities the women and socio-economically marginalized groups such as Indigenous groups are more vulnerable given their specific livelihood circumstances, their socio-political isolation perpetuated by unequal power dynamics, and related information asymmetry and constraint in decision making processes.

A large portion of the coastal population of Bangladesh is highly exposed to climate change impacts. Particularly, climate-induced increases in the salinity of soil and freshwater aquifers (through sea level rise and cyclone-driven salt water inundations) pose a significant threat to agriculture-based livelihoods. Both Khulna and Satkhira experience extreme and increasingly common weather phenomena such as tropical cyclones, storm surges, floods and droughts on regular basis. These events severely impact the agriculture sector, drinking water supply, homes and infrastructure in both districts, putting people’s lives, livelihoods and assets at risk. The vulnerability of coastal communities to these changes in their environment is shaped by the topography, by virtue of being low-lying and pervaded by river networks, due to pervasive poverty, and due to limited enabling environment to allow the shift towards alternative, climate change resilient livelihoods. Between 16 and 35 percent of people living in Khulna and Satkhira are extremely poor. Gender inequality prevails in these districts through various social and cultural norms that shape women’s day-to-day activities as well as their capacity to adapt to climate change. For example, women have less decision-making power within the household and the workplace and are expected to manage the household and care for the family. Compounding these factors, climate change aggravates the burden of unpaid care work, creating a cycle, which undermines their climate change resilience.

The project is targeted to support an estimated 245,516 people directly from 56,264 households  including 579 Indigenous Peoples/Ethnic Minority households (0.19% of the total households) and seeks to offer targeted support to women and adolescent girls in two coastal districts – Khulna and Satkhira in Bangladesh, by-

1. Providing skills training and assets for a selected number of fisheries and agriculture-based climate-resilient livelihoods, and promote market linkages for these livelihoods options;
2. Providing potable water solutions for a selected number of most salinity-affected wards within the districts, not currently covered by other interventions, through Rain Water Harvesting System (RWHS) at the institutional, community and household levels and pond based system with filtration treatment technologies at the community level; and finally
3. Strengthening institutional capacity, knowledge and learning on the climate-risk informed management of livelihoods and drinking water security.

By improving the water security and livelihood options of women in the target districts, the project aims for gender-responsive results regarding women’s access to resources and decision-making power and support women in taking the lead in building community adaptive capacity.

The project “Enhancing adaptive capacities of coastal communalities, especially women, to cope with climate change induced salinity” [Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation (GCA)] funded by GCF/GOB/UNDP, has already identified 8 livelihood options as gender responsive and climate change resilient livelihoods. These came from a long list of 38 livelihood options gained from community-level assessments and the assessment of the best practices in comparable settings down to 17 considering salinity and cyclone resilience and fresh water dependency, followed by a comprehensive screaming of those options with the different aspects of the livelihood options- (i) profitability and market potential/value chain access; (ii) gender responsiveness and transformation potential; (iii) socio-economic considerations and community acceptance; and (iv) environmental impacts.

Finally accepted 8 livelihood options which are including- (i) crab farming and trading (ii) crab nursery (iii) aqua-geoponics (iv) hydroponics (v) plant nursery (vi) sesame cultivation (vii) homestead gardening (viii) crab and fish feed processing. A total of 1017 groups (details breakdown are provided in Table 1) will be formed with 25 members in each group and each group will be trained on 3 livelihood options out of eight and will be given input support for 3 production cycles for 2 selected livelihood options based on beneficiary preference.

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The main objective of the assignment is to develop a climate risks and impacts and Adaption Scenarios Model (ASM) of coastal livelihoods. The ASM will be used to implement the project activities in order to mitigate potential risks and adverse impacts on women and Indigenous Peoples/Ethnic Minorities in the Project area. It will also intend to build the adaptive capacities of women in coastal communities of southwest Bangladesh and enable them to take up resilient, adaptive livelihoods in the face of climate-induced salinity.

The specific objectives of the assignment are

• To identify the Key Hazards, Vulnerabilities and Risks due to Climate Change in coastal regions, for women and adolescence girls.;
• To identify the Key Impacts of climate change (Changing Live, Losing Livelihood);
• To explore the Settlements and Infrastructure;
• To help/facilitate coastal poor households and communities taking gender-responsive and climate risk informed livelihood decisions;
• To facilitate promotion of climate adaptive Knowledge Attitude and Practices (KAP) into livelihood planning of project households and communities; and
• To facilitate the Adaptation Strategies of coastal livelihood for Reducing Vulnerabilities due to Climate Change.