Mainstreaming climate change resilience into development planning in Bangladesh

This report examines the process of integrating climate change resilience into the national development planning and budgeting of Bangladesh. It evaluates the country's progress using a 'building blocks' framework consisting of an enabling environment, policies and planning, and projects and programmes.

• Bangladesh has demonstrated strong political will to mainstream climate change into national planning, evidenced by the 2005 National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) and the 2009 Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP). The ruling party's election manifesto explicitly committed to an "integrated policy will be formulated to protect the country from the adverse effects of global warming".
• There is a significant information gap regarding the detailed impacts of climate change, which hinders concrete decision-making. While disaster response data is plentiful, there is a lack of "specific scientific information from across the sectors for effective planning and investment", and planners have relied on "after-casting" (analysis of past cases) which is insufficient for unpredictable climate changes.
• The government has established several financial mechanisms to fund climate resilience. These include the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF), the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF), and the World Bank-administered Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience. Between 2009 and 2012, the government allocated US$350 million from the non-development budget, and the BCCRF was created to attract an additional US$170 million from development partners.
• Climate change is integrated into national planning through the Planning Commission, which incorporates these issues into the Perspective Plan, the Sixth Five-Year Plan, and the Annual Development Programme. However, some existing policies, such as those for exports and industry, may conflict with climate goals, such as the expansion of shrimp cultivation which "increases salinisation and erodes biodiversity".
• The BCCSAP serves as the primary strategic framework, featuring six thematic areas and 44 programmes containing 145 actions. Investment data shows a heavy bias toward physical works, with 44.24 per cent of allocations going to infrastructure and only 1.93 per cent dedicated to "capacity building and institutional strengthening".
• Institutional coordination is managed through a climate change cell established in 2004 within the Ministry of the Environment and Forests (MOEF), which coordinates focal persons in every ministry. To increase flexibility, projects valued below US$250 million can be approved directly by the Ministry of Planning without needing to go to the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC).

APA

Pervin, M. (2013). Mainstreaming climate change resilience into development planning in Bangladesh. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Bangladesh_PRESS_0.pdf

Chicago

Pervin, Mousumi. Mainstreaming climate change resilience into development planning in Bangladesh. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2013. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Bangladesh_PRESS_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pervin |first1=Mousumi |title=Mainstreaming climate change resilience into development planning in Bangladesh |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=April 2013 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Bangladesh_PRESS_0.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pervin2013mainstreaming, author = {Pervin, Mousumi}, title = {{Mainstreaming climate change resilience into development planning in Bangladesh}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2013}, month = apr, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Bangladesh_PRESS_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }