Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has highlighted the importance of enhanced funds for climate change mitigation and adaptation. During his meeting with President of the 77th United Nations General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi, at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday, Momen also mentioned that the pledge of providing USD 100 billion funds per year should be materialized at the earliest.  The president of the UNGA expressed his support on this issue. Regarding the Rohingya issue, the foreign minister highlighted steps taken by the Bangladesh government on various issues including Covid-19 management and providing education to Rohingya children in their own language. Momen also conveyed his dissatisfaction as not a single Rohingya has been repatriated to Myanmar yet.  In response, the UNGA president commended Bangladesh’s role in providing shelter and humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas.  He also said that the crisis is unacceptable, according to the Bangladesh Mission in New York. Csaba Kőrösi applauded Bangladesh’s remarkable leadership, productive engagement, and significant contribution in recent times to various United Nations endeavours.  At the outset of the meeting, Momen presented two proposals.  Also read: FM urges Palestinian and Jordanian students to highlight development stories of Bangladesh These are, to organize a high-level event on ‘Review of the implementation of SDGs’ and to take initiative to create a forum of the finance, foreign and development ministers of developing countries under South-South Cooperation. The foreign minister expressed concern on the funding gaps in the implementation of SDG, particularly in view of the Covid -19 pandemic.  The proposed high-level event will bring an opportunity to review the progress made towards implementing SDGs and the way forward to meet the funding gaps, the FM added.  The foreign minister also mentioned that under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has been able to maintain a satisfactory GDP growth even amidst the pandemic.  Momen invited the UNGA president to visit Bangladesh at a convenient time. Meeting with Under Secretary General of UN Peace Operations During a meeting with the Under Secretary General of the United Nations Department of Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Foreign Minister Abdul Momen said that Bangladesh has always played a leading role in the United Nations Peace Operations and will continue to do this.  He mentioned that Bangladesh is ready to provide Quick Reaction Force (QRF), Base Defense Contingent, Infantry Contingent, and Police Contingent in the future. Besides, the foreign minister also called for appointing senior military and civilian officers at the leading level, especially force commanders.  Momen requested to use Bangladesh’s expertise, experience, and best practices in building sustainable peace in countries in conflict.  Momen also reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to increase the number of women peacekeepers.  He invited the USG to visit Bangladesh particularly to join the upcoming international seminar on women peace and security and the 26th Annual conference of the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres(IAPTC) Lacroix praised the Bangladeshi peacekeepers for their dutifulness, responsibility, and professional skills in the UN Peace Operations.  He thanked Bangladesh for the recent deployment of the Infantry Battalion from Bangladesh to Abeyi, Sudan, Armored Helicopters and Quick Reaction Force contingents in Mali, Hospital Units in Central Africa, and deployment of Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) contingents in Congo.  Lacroix expressed the hope that Bangladesh will continue to contribute to the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations, including women peacekeepers.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said global actions for adaptation to climate change have virtually remained ineffective due to the lack of finance and strong political will. “To address this, developed countries must fulfill their commitment of annual 100-billion-dollar climate finance with 50:50 allocation for adaptation and mitigation,” she said. The Prime Minister said this while delivering her speech in the Leaders’ Meeting on “Action and Solidarity–The Critical Decade” at the COP26 venue here. READ: Bangladesh cancelled 10 coal-based power plants for climate’s sake: Hasina British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi convened the event. Sheikh Hasina said as the President of the CVF and the host to the South Asian office of Global Centre on Adaptation, Bangladesh is promoting locally-led adaptation in different countries of the world. “But global adaptation actions are not being effective due to lack of finance and strong political will.”

Climate-related hazards are intensifying in the Asia-Pacific, disproportionately affecting vulnerable rural communities, says a new global report. Policymakers must prioritise climate resilience and adaptation measures to protect rural communities from losing economic advancements, according to a new report released Monday by the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). READ: 'Turn pledges into action': Hasina's clarion call to combat climate change The Building Climate Resilience in the Asia Pacific Region report reviews the key results and lessons learned from the IFAD-supported Adaptation for Smallholder Agricultural Programme (ASAP) which ran from 2012 to 2017 and invested $305 million in targeted rural development projects that needed support in adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change on rural communities. The ASAP programme made significant progress in the region, supporting more than 510,000 small-scale farming households to adapt to climate change in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal and Vietnam. The report highlights the diverse, effective, and innovative approaches that IFAD has developed in cooperation with rural communities to adapt to and mitigate the detrimental effects of climate change on rural people's lives and livelihoods. It analyses approaches and actions that were successful and can be "scaled up" in the region, providing a solid foundation for the new phase of the programme called the Enhanced Adaptation for Smallholder Agricultural Programme (ASAP+), potentially channelling an additional $500 million in climate finance to support the climate resilience of 10 million vulnerable people, particularly women and youth. "Small-scale producers often know what they need to be more resilient to the effects of climate change, we can support them by helping them to access the appropriate finance and technology," said Kisa Mfalila, IFAD's regional climate and environment specialist for Asia-Pacific. READ: Extinct dinosaur lectures world leaders about climate change "The report confirms that farmers have developed many successful adaptation techniques over time. We need to act fast to draw upon local knowledge," she added. There will also be a live event at the IFAD Pavilion at COP26 Wednesday that includes a virtual field trip to Bangladesh to discover what steps small-scale farmers are taking to adapt to climate change. Accompanied by documentary filmmaker Qasa Alom, the audience will virtually travel to the country to meet and interact with farmers who are participants of IFAD-supported projects, to discuss their climate challenges and how they and their rural communities are adapting. The report suggests acting fast, using technology to speed assessment of climate change risks and impacts, and drawing upon the experience, knowledge, and creativity of local people. Smallholder farmers have developed many successful adaptation techniques – these must be identified, refined, rolled out and financed adequately and quickly, it says. Also, the IFAD report calls for using public-private partnerships to add value to and speed up the uptake of solutions created by local people. Public sector initiatives should be combined with efforts from private sector players, providing inputs and machinery, advisory services, technology solutions and market access to be able to market more profitable products, it says. Successful adaptations will be spontaneously adopted in rural communities as long as constraints are removed and finance is available. Smallholder farmers quickly adopt production enhancing innovations if supportive policy frameworks are in place and if public institutions and the private sector provide adequate finance and advisory services. Information and communication technology platforms introduced to support climate-resilient initiatives also protect against other adverse events, including pandemic disruption: technology platforms can help bring together suppliers, producers, buyers, and other stakeholders to facilitate their exchanges and to make farmers and food chains less exposed to external shocks like the Covid-19 pandemic, the IFAD report says. Technology platforms help attract young people to enter the food and farming sector, enhancing the rural economy, it adds.