Community Driven Disability
Bangladesh is frequently cited as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change because of its disadvantageous geographic location; flat and low-lying topography; high population density; high levels of poverty; reliance of many livelihoods on climate sensitive sectors, particularly agriculture and fisheries; and inefficient institutional aspects. Many of the anticipated adverse effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, higher temperatures, enhanced monsoon precipitation, and an increase in cyclone intensity, will aggravate the existing stresses that already impeded development in Bangladesh. These impacts could be extremely detrimental to the economy, the environment, national development, and the people of Bangladesh. The impacts from climate change disproportionately affect the wellbeing of vulnerable and marginalized communities such as the poor, women, elderly and indigenous peoples.
Despite efforts to include marginalized communities, national programs and policies did not specifically consider another highly vulnerable group of society – persons with disabilities. Therefore, there is an urgent need to address the challenges of climate and environmental change for the Bangladesh’s persons with disabilities from an intersectionality lens in order to effectively foster sustainable inclusive and just futures. Considering the burning context above, this study was undertaken to identify the gaps of inclusion of persons with disabilities in adaptation measures to climate change and find out further scope of work and operational strategies in the Sundarban adjacent coastal areas on Disability Inclusive climate change adaptation through CDDiDRM & CCA project in Sharankhola, Bagerhat. Based on this, this study provides a comprehensive way forward for Disability inclusive Climate Change Adaptation (DiCCA). In order to achieve the objectives, the study applied a mixed-method approach combining both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and analytical tools. Data had been collected from field such as Organization Survey, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), Key Informant Interviews (KII) and Expert consultations. The secondary sources include extensive review of relevant national and international literature, development project reports, peer-reviewed journals, policy plans, and frameworks and so on. The study showed that climate change is amplifying the risks and exclusion systematically that persons with disabilities already experience in their daily lives. Additionally, climate change is introducing new risks and creating new barriers. This is of particular concern in terms of the barriers persons with disabilities already face in securing livelihoods and ensuring household food security. On the basis of our findings, persons with disabilities present a call to action to all agencies and organizations working on climate-related policy and programming in the Bangladesh. Crucially, disability-inclusive climate action needs to better address existing and emerging risks and respond to the differential impacts of climate change on persons with disabilities. Disability inclusive climate action can only be achieved by ensuring the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in climate preparedness, adaptation, and mitigation. On the one hand, this study found that there is a great need for knowledge, capacity building, skills and expertise among policy makers, people with disabilities and their organizations around climate change and its impacts, and how these fit with the aims of the disability development, particularly in terms of the wider social transformation development agenda. There is also a great need of persons with disabilities to participate in existing and ongoing climate justice movements and to be part of the ongoing conversation and actions.
For many people with disabilities, systemic exclusion across all sectors of society has led to a focus on immediate priorities, rather than those which are seen as deferrable. But there is a dearth of research around these issues to understand the specific impacts on people with disabilities, or to understand how the perspectives of differing group can be bridged. This study explored that the disconnect between the climate and disability rights and development in the realm of climate change adaptation calls for more systematic engagement from the national level all the way down to the grassroots. This study thinks that the need to integrate intersectional voices and considerations is critical, but it needs to be driven by people with disabilities themselves. Finally, there is a need to create a better, more resilient, and adaptive system to respond to climate impacts that do not (even unintentionally) exclude people with disabilities from the systems. At the same time, there is an overall lack of literature that really seeks to explore the specific impacts of climate change on people with disabilities, or the policies and interventions that support mitigation and adaptation and adjust for these impacts on people with disabilities, while acknowledging that they are not a homogeneous population.