A seven-year climate adaptation project has strengthened the resilience of more than 7 lakh people in Bangladesh’s southwest coastal region by improving access to safe drinking water, promoting women-led climate-resilient livelihoods and enhancing institutional capacity to address climate risks.
As the Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation (GCA) Project draws to a close, government officials, development partners and community representatives have called for the initiative’s successful approaches to be sustained and replicated in other climate-vulnerable coastal areas.
The call was made at the project’s “Learning Sharing and Closing Workshop” in Dhaka, where participants reviewed its achievements, lessons and pathways for sustaining the results beyond the project period, UNDP said in a media release on Tuesday.
Implemented between January 2019 and June 2026, the project was financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, the Department of Women Affairs and the Department of Public Health Engineering.
According to project data, a total of 719,229 people in Khulna and Satkhira benefited directly and indirectly from the initiative.
It helped 24,724 households adopt climate-resilient livelihood practices and provided 144,597 people with year-round access to safe and reliable drinking water.
More than 15,700 climate-resilient drinking-water systems were installed, while 720 government officials received training to strengthen climate risk-informed planning and management.
Additional Women and Children Affairs Secretary Mohammad Masud Rana Chowdhury underscored the importance of collective action in addressing climate challenges.
“For sustainable development, we have no alternative to adopting a whole-of-society approach,” he said.
Highlighting the importance of sustaining project gains, Sonali Dayaratne, deputy resident representative and officer-in-charge of the Resident Representative at UNDP Bangladesh, said the long-term impact of the initiative would depend on the continuity of its interventions.
“As we reflect on the project’s accomplishments today, we must also focus on sustainability. The true measure of success will be how these interventions continue to benefit communities long after the project closes,” she said.
Through salinity-tolerant agriculture, crab farming, hydroponics, homestead gardening and other climate-resilient livelihood options, participating women diversified their income sources and strengthened household food security, according to the project.
Community-managed water systems also reduced reliance on unsafe water sources and eased the burden on women and girls by cutting the time spent collecting water.
Participants said the project had created a strong foundation for scaling up integrated, locally led and gender-responsive climate adaptation efforts across Bangladesh’s coastal belt.
Sarder M Asaduzzaman, assistant resident representative and head of Resilience and Inclusive Growth at UNDP Bangladesh; Sajal Kanti Banik, joint secretary at the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs; Md Monir Hossain, additional director; and Ehtesamul Russel Khan, additional chief engineer at the Department of Public Health Engineering, among others, spoke at the event.