(PDF) Climate Change-Induced Migration in Bangladesh: Findings from the Focus Group Discussions in Vulnerable Areas
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Chapter 01: Background
Objective of FGDS Methodology
Participants Demographics
Chapter 03: Summary and Analysis of the Findings
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Climate Change-Induced Migration in Bangladesh: Findings from the Focus Group Discussions in Vulnerable Areas
Mizanur Rahman
Tawfique Haque
Todd Eisenstadt
2018, Climate Change-Induced Migration in Bangladesh
October 11, 2025
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Abstract
AI
This research investigates the implications of climate change-induced migration in Bangladesh, emphasizing the experiences and perceptions of affected populations. The study highlights the urgent need for better policy-making that considers citizen input and adaptation strategies, while also advocating for improved weather forecasting and environmentally friendly development. It identifies key challenges such as corruption and the importance of bilateral relationships in addressing the root causes of climate-related displacement.
Key takeaways
AI
Bangladesh faces severe climate-induced migration, with estimates of 15 million migrants by 2050.
Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) revealed insights into the perceptions of climate migrants and affected citizens.
Participants showed significant awareness of climate change impacts but lacked knowledge of government initiatives.
Corruption in government relief distribution and climate project funding undermines effective adaptation efforts.
Migrants prefer to stay in urban areas due to job opportunities, with low return rates to original homes.
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Climate Change-Induced
Migration in Bangladesh
Findings from the Focus Group Discussions in Vulnerable Areas
Todd A. Eisenstadt
Sk. Tawfique M. Haque
Jie Lu
Mizanur Rahman
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Climate Change-Induced
Migration in Bangladesh
Findings from the Focus Group Discussions in Vulnerable Areas
Todd A. Eisenstadt
Sk. Tawfique M. Haque
Jie Lu
Mizanur Rahman
Published in December 2018
Copyright@2018. All rights reserved
Published jointly by South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG), North South University
and American University.
Photo Credit: Research team members at outdoor focus group, courtesy of South Asian Institute of Policy and
Governance (SIPG), North South University (Bangladesh).
Cover, Design and Layout : ,
[email protected]
Printed in Dhaka in December 2018
South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG)
Room No - NAC 1076, Phone: +88-02-55668200 Ext. 2163/2164
www.sipg.northsouth.edu,
[email protected]
FGD Team Members
Professor Sk. Tawfique M. Haque, PhD Mizanur Rahman
Director, South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance, and Lecturer
Chair Department of Political Science and Sociology Department of Polictial Science and Sociology
North South University North South University
Professor Todd Eisenstadt Mainul Haque Khan
Department of Government Program Officer
American University South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance
North South University
Jie Lu
Associate Professor Mahfuza Siddiqua
Department of Government Research Associate
American University South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance
North South University
Professor Salahuddin M Aminuzzaman
Adviser, South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance Sazzad Nayeem
North South University Research Assistant
South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance
Dr. M Mahfuzul Haque North South University
Assistant Professor and Research Coordinator
South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance
North South University
FGD Team at Pekua FGD Team at Kurigram FGD Team at Korail Slum, Dhaka
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Table of Contents
Chapter 01: Background
Abbreviations vi
Introduction
01
Objective of FGDs 02
Methodology
02
Organization of the Report 02
Chapter 02: Findings
Section 01: Findings from the FGDs Held in Climate Migrant Sending Areas
(Climate Impacted Districts) and Climate Migrant Receiving Area
A glimpse of the occupation of the FGD participants 09
Participants’ knowledge about Climate Change 11
Participants’ view about the ongoing flood (flood of 2017) 12
Citizen point of view about staying in, leaving from or returning to their original home 13
Government initiatives during the crisis period 15
Expectations from the Government 16
Section 02: Findings from the Focus Group with University Students
Students’ views on weather and climate change 19
Students’ degree of knowledge about climate change 20
Students’ awareness of government initiatives 20
Students’ evaluation of government performance 20
Suggestions for the Government provided by the students 22
Students’ suggestions for heightening citizen engagement in Bangladesh 23
Section 03: Findings from the Focus Group discussions with experts and practitioners
Experts’ views on Climate Change 24
Methodological issues in researching climate migration in Bangladesh/Research
methods for studying climate change in Bangladesh 25
Government efforts to showcase and promote climate change concern fall short 26
Corruption and governance of climate change in Bangladesh 27
Suggestions for Government 29
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Chapter 03: Summary and Analysis of the Findings
Section 01: Focus group with climate migrants & with the people currently live in
vulnerable areas
Occupation of the FGD participants in climate sending and receiving areas 30
Knowledge about Climate Change 11
Participants’ view about current flood 12
Citizens’ point of view about Staying in, leaving from or returning to their original home 13
Government Initiatives during the crisis period 15
Suggestions for Bangladesh Government and Expectation from the Government 16
Section 02: Focus group with the Students
Section 03: Focus group with the Experts, Practitioners, and Activists
References
Appendix 1: Interview Guidelines for FGD with climate migrant and people living in climate
vulnerable areas 35
Appendix 2: Interview Guidelines for FGD with university students 36
Appendix 3: Interview Guidelines for FGD with the Experts 37
Appendix 4: Administrative Structure of Bangladesh 38
Appendix 5: Local Government Structure of Bangladesh 39
Appendix 6: MAP of Kurigram 40
Appendix 7: Map of Cox’s Bazar District 41
Contributors/Authors 42
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Abbreviations
BCCRF Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund
BCCTF Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund
BWDB Bangladesh Water Development Board
CAG Comptroller and Auditor General
DC Deputy Commissioner
FGD Focus Group Discussion
IMED Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature
NEMAP National Environment Management Action Plan
NGO Non-governmental Organization
PKSF Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation
(Foundation for Assisting Rural Employment)
PM Prime Minister
TIB Transparency International Bangladesh
UP Union Parishad
WB World Bank
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Chapter 01: Background
Introduction
Climate change is one of the pressing issues of current times. Scholars predict that climate
change will substantially degrade the environment during this century (IPCC, 2007 in Reuveny,
2007). In some areas, the impact of climate change is quite evident than others. Bangladesh
is already one of the most climate vulnerable nations in the world. Because of its geographic
location, Bangladesh has to face severe climatic disorders such as flooding, drought, landslides,
which force people to relocate their homes temporarily or permanently.
Bangladesh is one of the largest deltas in the world which makes it highly susceptible to
natural disasters. According to the Bangladesh government’s 2009 Climate Change Strategy
and Action Plan,
“In an ‘average’ year, approximately one-quarter of the country is inundated... Once in every
four to five years, there is a severe flood that may cover over 60% of the country and cause
loss of life and substantial damage to infrastructure, housing, agriculture and livelihood
(MoEF, 2009, p.08)”
Rapid erosion of coastal areas has already inundated dozens of islands in the Bay. For example,
Sandwip Island, near Chittagong, has lost 90% of its original 23 square miles in the last two
decades. In recent times, river erosion has annually displaced 50 to 200 thousand people.
“About 15 million people in Bangladesh alone could be on the move by 2050 because of
climate change causing the worst migration in human history” (IUCN, 2015). Climate change
in Bangladesh may cause the largest mass migration in the human history, anticipated by
several newspaper articles.
Two scholars from the American University, Washington, DC visited Bangladesh in August 2017
under an extensive research project on ‘Climate Change-Induced Migration’ in collaboration
with North South University, Dhaka. The international community has pursued to technically
define ‘climate migration,’ though they have not seen the light of success. Hence, the
current project aspires to formally define ‘climate migrants’ in relation to climatological and
demographic information as opposed to other forms of economic migrants.
Nonetheless, for the purpose of the data collection phase, ‘climate migrants’’ are defined as
“those who migrate for reasons related directly to extreme weather and other meteorological
events.”
As a part of the project, a series of FGDs were held in different selected locations in Bangladesh.
The present report attempts to provide a synthesis of those FGDs. The core questions of the
proposed project are: how affected populations will react to the political development caused
by climate changes.
More specifically, what are the related changes in public opinion and political behavior? For
instance, Will migration take place in response to climate change? If so, which people are
more likely to migrate and where will they go and why? If not, how will they adapt? Whom
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
do they blame for their sufferings and losses? How does the fact of climate change shape the
nature and scope of their political attempts to seek redress?
To address these questions, Bangladesh was chosen as one of the most climate-vulnerable
nations on earth. A series of FGDs have been held at some specific locations in Bangladesh.
FGDs work well to determine perceptions, feelings and the thinking of people towards
particular issues, services or opportunities (Krueger and Cassey, 2009:2). The present report
will focus only on the findings of the conducted FGDs.
Objective of FGDs
4 To understand the broader phenomena of climate migration from the view of adversely
impacted respondents in Bangladesh.
4 To determine how the climate change fact shapes the nature and scope of the migrants’
political attempts to seek redress.
4 To help policy maker to understand how climate migrants pick their new home and what
do they seek from the government.
4 To recognize general citizens’ and experts’ conception, whether climate is really changing,
and its probable effects on their livelihood, migration, adaptation strategy, personal
outlooks and views of what public policies should and can do.
4 To get feedback from the experts in order to formulate a research design that will match
the research theme as well as the context of the study.
Methodology
FGDs were held during August 2017. In total, ten (10) focus group sessions were conducted.
Groups ranged in size from six to ten participants.
Seven (07) FGDs were conducted in climate-impacted districts from which people are likely to
migrate, and those in destinations, such as urban neighborhoods in the nation’s fast-growing
cities, where climate migrants have resettled. FGD participants were mostly climate change
affected citizens.
One (01) FGD was held with the University students, at North South University, and the rest
two (02) FGDs were conducted with the climate change experts and practitioners. FGDs
with experts and practitioners took place at North South University and the Bangladesh
Meteorological Department office Dhaka, respectively.
Total ten numbers of FGDs were conducted in following formation and locations:
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Type of Respondents:
‘Leavers’ (i) and ‘Stayers’ (ii) from regions with different levels of climate change vulnerability
Climagte • Areas where migrants’ resettled:
Change
– Korail Slum, Dhaka (2 FGDs)
Migrants
• Climate Impacted areas from which
people are likely to migrate
People living in • Mogulbasha Union, Kurigram - drough prone
Climate Vulnerable area : 03 FGDs
Regions • Kutubdia Upzilla, Cox’s Bazar - cyclone prone
area : 01 FGD
• Pekua Union, Cox’s Bazar - cylone & flood prone
area : 01 FGD
Type of Respondents/Criteria Location of FGDs
These areas have one thing in common, i.e., all three locations suffer from flood during
monsoon, and they are vulnerable to climate change. Mughulbasha Upazila is a drought-
prone area, while Kutubdia and Pekua are cyclone-prone areas. “Kutubdia has halved in size
in 20 years, with family homes destroyed by ever-encroaching tides” (McVeigh, 2017).
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Type of Respondents: Experts (iii)
Environmentalist, Policy maker,
• North South University, Dhaka (1 FGD)
NGO officials, member of
thinktank and research • Bangladesh Meteorological Department (01)
organization.
Type of Respondents: University Students (iv)
University Students from
University of Dhaka, • North South University, Dhaka (1 FGD)
North South Unievrsity and
Jahangirnagar University
Type of Respondents/Criteria Location of FGDs
The locations of FGDs are marked on the following map:
Figure: Map of Research Area1
4 CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
The Interview questions (see the appendix 1,2,3) were developed with the direction and input
from the partner university’s (American University, Washington) researchers. In each FGD, the
facilitator welcomed the participants with a concise introduction of the FGD team members.
The participants were briefed on the purpose of the FGDs straightforwardly. The anonymity of
participants in the focus groups is strictly protected in this report.
Participants Demographics
i. Climate change induce migrants
They were termed as “leavers” in the original project proposal. Two FGDs divided into a) male
and b) female were conducted in Korail, Dhaka.
FGD with migrated people at an NGO’s cooperative office, Korail slum, Dhaka
ii. Citizens who are currently living in climate change vulnerable areas
These citizens were termed as “stayers”. Five FGDs were conducted in three different locations.
Registered voters and local government representatives participated in the FGDs.
Curious audiences during an FGD in a climate vulnerable area FGD with the climate vulnerable people at Kurigram
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH 5
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
iii. Experts
A group of climate change and environmental experts and practitioners were gathered to
participate in the FGD.
FGD with the experts held at North South University
iv. University students
Participants were undergraduate students studying in different universities.
FGD with the students from different universities, held at North South University
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Organization of the Report
The report is divided into three chapters:
Chapter 01: provides the “introduction” and “background” of the study. This chapter consists
of study Objectives, Demographics of Participants and Methodologies.
Chapter 02: describes the major “findings” of the study. The findings part is also divided into
three sections:
4 In the first section, findings from the FGDs conducted in ‘climate migrant-
sending areas,’ and ‘climate migrant-receiving areas’ are described.
4 The second sections present the findings of the FGD with ‘undergraduate
students’ from different public and private universities in Bangladesh.
4 The third part is dedicated to explaining the discussion held among veteran
environmental experts, activists, practitioners, NGO officials and researchers.
Chapter 03: presents a quick “summary” of the findings of all focus group discussions along
with a brief “analysis” drawn by the researchers. Like findings chapter, this
chapter also arranged in three sections in similar manner: i) FGD with climate
migrants’ & climate vulnerable people, ii) FGD with students and iii) FGD with
experts and practitioners.
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Chapter 02: Findings
Section 01:
Findings from the FGDs Held in Climate Migrant Sending Areas (Climate
Impacted Districts) and Climate Migrant Receiving Area
In total, 07 FGDs (2 in receiving and 05 in sending areas) were conducted in this phase. The
participants of FGDs’ in climate receiving area (Korail Slum, Dhaka) were selectively chosen
based on their migration track record; all the participants were migrated from their original
habitat due to climate change-related damage. Most of our FGD respondents were forced to
relocate themselves due to ‘river erosion.’ Two separate FGDs were conducted, divided into
‘male’ and ‘female’ considering the national culture that female participants may not be open
up in front of male counterparts or vice versa.
On the other hand, in ‘climate migrant-sending areas,’ registered voters were selected. Of five
FGDs conducted in ‘sending areas,’ one FGD was with Union Parishad (local government body,
see Appendix 4 & 5) members and chairmen.
Table: Name and location of the FGDs with climate migrants and climate vulnerable
Name of the Place Location
Capital city, located in central of
Korail Slum, Dhaka (2 FGDs)
Bangladesh
North-West part of Northern
Mogulbasha Union, Kurigram2 Upazila (03 FGDs)
district of Bangladesh
Kutubdia Upazila, Cox’s Bazar3 (01 FGD) Southern district of Bangladesh
Pekua Union, Pekua Upzail, Cox’s Bazar (01 FGD) Southern district of Bangladesh
A glimpse of the occupation of the FGD participants:
See Appendix 6.
See Appendix 7.
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Table: Occupation of the current climate migrants and potential climate migrants
Areas Women Men
• Housemaid / domestic servant • Rickshaw puller
• Small business (tea stall, selling • Daily Labor
have resettled in Cities
Climate Migrants who
vegetables.) • Security Guard at home,
• Tailoring (home/shop), they bought shop.
sewing machine by taking loan from NGO. • Small Business (tea stall,
• Working in Textile industries vegetables, groceries,
etc.)
Old profession Home Maker Old profession: Farmers
(lease + own land),
fisherman.
climate vulnerable
People residing in
• Home Maker • Farmer
• Part-time or seasonal worker • Work in salt farm
It is apparent from the above table that people have more options to work in city areas where
they have resettled, compared to the people live in climate vulnerable remote districts. On the
other hand, women in climate vulnerable regions are mostly housewife or homemaker, while
women resettled in cities are getting more opportunities to engage in different professions.
A lady busy on household chores at Korail Slum, Dhaka
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
It was observed in the Korail slum that comparatively older women are usually engaged in
household jobs, running a small shop in their local area, while younger girls are more into the
textile industry.
In Kutubdia, many work in the salt farm (Kutubdia is one of the major salt producing area
in Bangladesh). People from Kutubdia reported that both male and female go to adjacent
districts to seek job during the time of hardship, especially flood. Female participants of
Kutubdia explained that women are compelled to work during the natural calamities because
their husbands do not have any work/job, and their children have to stop going to school.
Even the scope of going nearby districts to find a job for a woman is limited.
Participants’ Knowledge about Climate Change
It was found that the people of sending areas are more concerned about the climate change
and its impact. On the other side, the people who had already resettled in a city are not much
bothered by the climate change issue. Researchers posed particular questions to capture
participants’ climate change related knowledge. In response, a large number of participants
voiced:
“Allah (God) knows well”
This statement captured the level of expertise the climate migrant possesses about the climate
change.
A flooded grave
They were asked “whether they feel temperature is changing’ – they said they could assume
that the temperature is changing, it is increasing. One (65 years old) of them reckoned
“The expansion of the population is responsible for climate change.”
This explanation was right away opposed by a woman, who previously worked with a local
NGO, said:
“There is no relationship between people and nature, Allah (God) is increasing this”
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
They do admit that they are noticing the amount of rainfall is alarmingly increasing, winter is
getting shortened, but they are not aware of the causes of these incidences. They do not pose
the question; why? Why are these occurring? They are not aware of the imminent danger of
the climate change as well! They do not know what will happen if the sea level rise by one
meter, they are not aware of how rapidly the climate is changing. Also, they are not aware of
government initiatives, government run’s climate change projects.
Their only concern is to ensure food for their family members, and provide a better education
for their children,apart from these,, they have no space spare no space spares for thinking
about climate change or other issues. Also, they consider illiteracy as the prime reason for
their ignorance of the climate issue. One respondent expressed that they only know a little
bit about the weather condition from the weather forecasting part of the television and radio
news.
Compared to the migrated people, the people currently living in the climate vulnerable areas
got more profound knowledge. Most of the participants know about the climate change and
recognize the shift through the irrational behavior of climatic events. They said, the temperature
during summer, as well as the intensity of winter has increased. They also observed untimely
and heavy rainfall, which is unusual. One significant observation shared during the FGD is that
currently, the demarcation of six seasons has become ambiguous, the distinct features of six
seasons are not evident.
Participants’ view about the ongoing flood (flood of 2017)
The FGDs were conducted at a time when the country was facing a severe flood. FGD team
found most parts of the surface was inundated during their field trip to vulnerable regions. So,
naturally, ongoing flood issue came several times during the focus group discussions. Flood
issues occupied a crucial position in the focus group.
Flood water in the house courtyard, Kurigram A river in Pekua
Participants from the Mughulbasa, Kurigram said, their area is not a flood prone area. However,
all the participants unanimously agreed that this year’s flood is most horrific, they have ever
experienced since 1988. Local representatives of the same area went one step further; they
believe the current flood broke the record of 1988.
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
However, Participants explain the flood of current year (2017) causes serious damage to
their livelihood. They had been trapped in water for days and passing through a distressful
situation. They do not have work, enough food storage to survive. In addition, government
aid and relief are insufficient. They had been on the embankment for last three days. The
embankment was full of flood-affected people.
The participants reported a sense of ‘anxiety’ about their food security in the coming days.
They are assuming that the flood-resistance variety of paddy may not secure their fate. If this
kind of paddy submerged under water for more days than the scheduled time, it gets rotten.
Participants of Kurigram deem that water flows from the upstream is mainly responsible for
the flood. “We came to know from the media, India opened the sluice gate that caused our
flood,” mentioned by the participants of Kurigram. Aside, they could not tell much regarding
other causes of the flood, and how and who should be held responsible for it.
Citizen point of view about staying in, leaving from or
returning to their original home
Respondents from a cyclone prone area mentioned that people usually go to the adjacent
places for a temporary period. People living in these regions face great hardship during flood
periods, people have no work, children cannot go to school. They leave for nearby cities for
seeking job opportunities. The returning rate is higher among the migrants those migrated
into nearby places. A UP (Union Parishad, see the appendix 4 & 5) chairman of a cyclone
prone area of Kutubdia said that in his constituency, 20-40 people left the land and only
five returned. The return rate is lower when people resettled in a remote city. In general, the
majority of the people do not want to return to the original homeland.
FGD team with Moghulbasaha Union Parishad (UP) representatives, Moghulbasaha
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Participants were asked to explain how do they move to other cities, what process do they
follow while moving to another location. Climate vulnerable people initially take shelter in the
highlands like barrage, dams or government lands. In rare cases, they take temporary shelter
in their relatives’ house. Then they spread towards nearby cities or big cities like Dhaka. Most
of them remain in the resettled place for good. Among the migrant relocated to Dhaka, the
majority of the male members solely came to Dhaka at first; then they brought the rest of their
family members. In very few cases, all the family members move together to the distant big
cities.
Climate migrants were asked the question, “would they return to the place they had come
from if they had given a chance.” Most of the FGD participants came to Dhaka about 20 years
ago. Participants stated.
“We are not willing to go back. Yes, we do have an emotional feeling for our ancestral
home; but what will we do after going back there? Our children are born and brought
up here, and our next generation does not intend to go back to the village, so we have to
be here to tune with our children’s wish. Plus, we are now able to provide an education
to our children that would not be possible in our original living place.”
Participants also stated that if they had stayed in their villages, they would not get sufficient
food, at least here they are getting food. Only one participant expressed wish to go. The rest
of the respondents unanimously supported the idea of staying in the current residence.
Children are playing football on a field at Korail slum, Dhaka
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
They also asserted, if the government wants them to rehabilitate, the government should do
it here, not in other places. At one point, one participant said that government should build
mosque, schools, temples in the areas where the government wants them to relocate, nobody
would otherwise prefer to move there; just providing the land is not enough, they need
facilities like education, availability of prayer facilities (mosque, temple), job opportunities
and so forth.
Out of all participants, only one person said that his family still owns a house in their old place.
Even that family does not want to go back because they do not think they will get a job there,
and that small piece of land they have in the village is not sufficient at all to cover their living
expenses. They want to be here for their next generations. Participants accepted that they
have an emotional attachment to their birthplace, but their children do not feel the same way
about their original home place
Narratives of participants from Dhaka were clearly demonstrated that they are not willing to
return to their native land.
Government Initiatives during the crisis period (flood,
river erosion, cyclone)
Korail slum dwellers shared the experience they had faced about 20 years ago. One FGD
participant put up a statement that was representative of the comments of most focus group
participants:
“UP chairman (Local Government representative) paid occasional visits only to a few
houses. Climate victims never received actual support from the government, except
getting a small amount of rice. The relief channels are not fair, the amount granted by
the government is not distributed equally”.
Interestingly, many FGD participants in Korail slum believe that government fund is always
massive, but the relief distribution channels are corrupted, so it does not reach the actual
victims. On the other side, the rest of them have a different view.
A 60+ years old participant opined, “How come a government can provide support to
such large number of victims, who had affected by the river erosion, flood.” He shared his
experience while he was migrating to Dhaka aftermath of a natural disaster in his hometown –
“The number of victims was too high for the government to provide assistance. Besides, relief
centers were quite far away, and we have to catch a long queue before getting the relief, so I
did not go for collecting the emergency relief.”
The discourse of the participants shows that they have different opinions about government
affordability, some participants think the government can afford a full-fledged support in
times of emergency while others think differently.
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Displaced communities with nowhere to go, Kurigram
Participants from Kutubdia, a climate change vulnerable area, consider that government does
their work only during the crisis time. Government remains traceless in regular time. Many
participants mentioned, “government just forgets us in times of normal period.” Even they
are not satisfied with the government efforts during the crisis period. One flood victim of
Kurigram district stated,
“Government response to handle flood is inadequate; they are not providing sufficient
relief to the affected people. During the earlier flood of the current year, the government
provided up to 30 K.G. rice which was insufficient.”
The initiatives to adapt clime change are infected with grave corruption, alleged by the
participants. As an example, participants mentioned the existing corruption in renovating
embankment. Main contractors usually sub-contract the projects to the sub-contractors and
sub-contractor withdraw the bills without even completing the job. FGD discussion illustrated
the picture that how corruption, dam, and disaster feed on each other.
Expectations from the Government
Participants were asked to talk about what do they expect from the government or what do
they want government to do and what measures the government should take to improve
their quality of life and livelihood and fight the climate change danger they face.
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
The expectations and suggestions significantly differ between the people left for the big
cities, and the people stayed or remained in the climate vulnerable areas since they do have
different priorities in their life, facing different kinds of challenges.
When climate migrants were asked to express their suggestion towards government, straight
away one female participant expressed,
“Does the government really care about us? They only visit us during the election
period”.
This statement sums up the frustration of the most inhabitants of that neighborhood.
The poor migrated people live in slums under threat of eviction. Like many other slums in
Bangladesh, the Korail slum sits on government land; and a considerable portion of the slum
situated on the roadside and on the bank of the lake which was convicted as ‘illegal’ by the
court. In this situation, slum dwellers demand immunity from the eviction. A participant said,
they formed a massive human chain six/seven year back to protest against the eviction, the
then Home Minister pacified them by assuring ‘there would be no eviction.’
Researchers in a typical urban slum, Korail
In addition, participants urged that if the government wants to rehabilitate them, government
should do it in their current living place, not in the other areas. They are ready to provide
utility fees they get the legal utility connection. They have the legal water connection, and
some of them feel that this gives them right to the property. Though they do not have direct
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
gas and electricity subscription, they get gas and electricity through illegal connections set
up by different syndicates. In short, they are using pirated electricity and gas. Further these
illicit gas pipes and electricity cables are faulty and unsafe, and consequently, they have
already faced several deadly fire incidents. Therefore, they expect that the government will
ensure authorized and safe gas and electricity connections to their area. Furthermore, the
government can provide loans to them, by which they can do something for their livelihood.
They claimed that they always pay off the borrowed money, where rich people do not.
Regarding rehabilitation, participants already mentioned it earlier, that if the government
wants to rehabilitate them, government should do it in their current living place, not in the
other places. They are ready to provide utility fees if they get the legit utility connection. They
already found jobs here; they may not get a job in the new place. Though one participant
said, they might consider the idea of relocating to another location if the facilities, like the
availability of the job, access to education, a place to perform prayer, were made available to
them, just providing a small piece of land to live in is not the all they demand. “What would
we do with that home without having required facilities” explicitly stated by a few participants.
In the urban area, they managed to find at least something, and they do not want to lose it at
any cost.
To put it simply, climate migrants in big cities prefer to have government support for enhancing
their living conditions in current living place, instead of relocating themselves to somewhere
else. They explained, they already found jobs here, the job may not be available in the new
location.
Now we are turning our attention to the people who have stayed or currently living in climate
vulnerable areas. As predicted, their focus is quite different from the migrants’ people. Local
government representatives suggest the following for the government:
n Dredge the River
n Renovate the Embankment
n Set up more disaster shelter center
Following list of suggestions is made by combining all the recommendations that were
proposed during the focus group discussions conducted in climate vulnerable areas:
n Elevate the land
n Embankment repair
n Construct more flood/shelter center
n Construct concrete made embankment
n Dredging the river on a regular basis
n Provide sufficient relief for the affected area
n Planting trees in the barren field
n Ensuring drinking water, particularly during the crisis period (flood, cyclone).
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Section-2:
Findings from the Focus Group with University Students
Students from three different universities participated in the discussion. Participants’ university
affiliation as follows:
University Students
Types Public University Private University
University Dhaka University
North South University
Name Jahangirnagar University
Business studies (major in
Student’s Public Administration, Government and
finances, Marketing), Electrical
Major Politics, international relations
Engineering
Students freely talked about different issues of climate change, government role and so on.
What follows is a summary of the relevant findings from the discussion generated in the focus
group with the university students.:
Student’s views on weather and climate change
Students feel that the weather is changing. A public university student said, “I think the
weather is changing, this summer is hotter than ever before ….. weather is changing, seasons
are changing, and we hear it from the news that ice keeps melting in Antarctica, sea level is
rising.” The rest of the participants agreed with this statement.
A female participant explained that the seasons are getting longer, “now we are having mostly
two seasons: winter and summer whereas Bangladesh used to have six different seasons. We
are nowadays facing frequent natural disasters like the disaster of 1988.”
Students’ degree of knowledge about climate change
The participants mostly focus on the increase in temperature and global warming to explain
the climate change. They consider the rising temperature drives other disasters like flood,
rising sea level. A couple of participants had accepted their blind ignorance about what
climate change is. One business student confessed that he does not have any idea about the
climate change.
It was found that social sciences’ students in public universities usually require completing
courses like disaster management or disaster governance. “These kinds of courses give them
a good understanding of climate change matter,” stated by them. An engineering background
student expressed his wish to take such kind of course if he had the opportunity.
Students were directly asked to explain “who is responsible for climate change.” One student
answered, “‘consumer’ should be blamed first for their careless consumption pattern without
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thinking about the environment.” Another participant mentioned, “ignorance of people is
responsible for this. People do not learn about climate change in their schooling.”
“Deforestation for urbanization and industrialization primarily responsible for climate change,”
said by the student of politics while he was sharing his thought.
Students’ awareness of government initiatives
A public university student considers that the government started to take measures after the
incidence of 1988. One mentioned about NEMAP (National environment management action
plan). Only two participants had heard of the NEMAP before; others do not know about it.
A student from Jahangirnagar University says, government mostly focuses on “post-measure,”
not “pre-measure.” This perspective is shared by the other participants as well. A student from
North South university mentioned, government employed the army to distribute food, shelter
in the flood-affected zone.
In short, students mentioned two government initiatives which they are aware of: one is
NEMAP, and another is emergency relief in times of flood, cyclone. They are not aware of any
other government initiative.
Students’ evaluation of government performance
When describing the overall performance of the Bangladesh government, participants stated
that governance performance in disaster relief is better compared to total government
performance and service provisions. They also stated, the government performance and
negotiation in the international forum and climate change security fund is reasonably well,
but students have shown a pessimistic view about bilateral relations between Bangladesh and
India regarding climate-related issues.
Basic living conditions in a coastal area of Cox’s Bazar district
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Many student participants opined, Bangladesh has a well-structured institutional framework
to fight climate change, but it lacks in efficiency. During the discussion, all participants many
times mentioned about corruption. An example was given by a student: “when government
purchases something, let’s say equipment, a low standard product is intentionally purchased to
substantiate corruption. Many good plans are not implemented at all or partially implemented
due to massive corruption.”
The issue of ‘political instability’ also brought into the discussion by the students as an unstable
political condition hampering the plan and process regarding the climate change initiatives.
An interesting issue came out of the discussion is the lack of continuity of planning. When a
new government takes over the power, they dismantle the old plan. Plans are still there, but
nobody talks about the previous government’s formulated plan.
Participants claimed that ‘political culture’ of Bangladesh is confrontational and therefore
policy formulated by the previous government has meager chance to carry forward to the
next ruling government’s policy priority. As a result, a vacuum created in the policy level and
it affects the implementation of policy. A student claimed that ‘climate change cell, 2006’
and ‘climate change resilience fund, 2008’ had not implemented due to regime change, this
example was supported by another female student.
The students were asked to assess the state of accountability of Bangladesh government. A
female student of public administration said, there are different layers in distributing relief,
the affected people do not have much idea about the relief process, and thus there is no
accountability of the government.
Suggestions for the Government provided by the students
FGD with the students generates the following suggestions:
4 The meteorological department can procure more advanced equipment to forecast
the weather with higher precision. So that people can take precautionary measures,
which in turn reduce the damage during climatic incidents.
4 Government does not consider the perception of affected people during the
formulation of policy. Government should be more participative to include citizens’
view in policy making.
4 Environmentally friendly development is required to protect the environment.
4 The bilateral relationship is essential, said by the students, like present flood caused
by opening up the gate of Indian dams. They suggested that government should
seek the solution to issues with the neighboring country through maintaining a
harmonious bilateral relationship.
4 Favoritism based on political affiliation needs to be checked, it will help to reduce the
corruption.
4 Continuation of planning has to be ensured so that regime change does not have an
adverse impact on the sound plan.
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
4 One student gave emphasize on including climate change-related courses in the
university curriculum.
4 Some students’ participants mentioned empowering people, particularly empowering
women. Many people do not go to safe places even after being warned by the
authority, and the problem is more acute for the women as they cannot leave home
easily for social taboos. Women have restrictions in our country. For example: if
women have to climb the tree to save themselves during the flood, they cannot do.
Therefore, they need to be aware of their rights, and they should be given education
opportunity.
4 One female participant put a suggestion that government and NGO should come and
plan together
An NGO office in flood-prone area of Moghulbasha
Students’ Suggestions for Heightening Citizen
Engagement in Bangladesh
Students were explicitly asked to provide some suggestion to enhance public involvement:
Social Media
One student suggests ‘social media’ (specially Facebook); which was straight away backed up
by the others. They mentioned social media could play a vital role to mobilize people. They
brought the incidence of ‘Shahbag Movement’ as an example 4 They specifically mentioned
the “Facebook” as a medium of mobilizing people to fight climate change. One student
explained, “globally, it becomes norms to get news, good or bad, even sometimes fake news
from the social media. Facebook plays a big role in disseminating information.”
A mass protest began in Shahbag, Dhaka in 2013 following demand for capital punishment for convicted war criminals.
Social media played a crucial role to spread the call for revolt.
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Community Services
Another suggestion was to involve university students in community / voluntary services.
They can go to the village and create consciousness among mass people. Different student
associations can play a role in this regard; young people can help to spread the word.
Better GO-NGO Collaboration
Last but not least, they recommended government should work in collaboration with NGOs.
One female participant wonderfully said,
“Government got authority and power, and NGOs got resources. If government and
NGO work together, then the outcome will be more effective and long-lasting. There
should not be any competition between government and NGOs regarding showing
better performance; they need just collaboration”.
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Section 03
Findings from the Focus Group discussions with
experts and practitioners
Two separate FGDs were conducted, one with government officials and another with non-
governmental experts like environmentalist, academic, public policy expert, environmental
activist & researcher.
Experts’ views on Climate Change
Participants expressed different points of view whether climate change takes place or not.
Government Meteorologists and environmentalist stated in the focus group that they are
not sufficiently convinced that climate change is a reality. Other FGD participants took the
different stand. They said, “they can feel the climate change in their daily lives based on
own life experience and observation of nature.”
Two prominent Meteorologists of Bangladesh, currently working for the government, said
that they were not fully convinced whether there is any climate change in Bangladesh. They
said climate is 50-60 years matter, what we see is the weather change. The Meteorologists
mentioned some methodological issue, which they have used in different international
model of climatic changes and they said that if the climate change evidence is not 99%
statistically correct or significant, they cannot say that this is climate change, though they
agreed that from 1971 until the present, the temperature had increased 0.75 degrees
Celsius in Bangladesh.
Another prominent Geographer, currently involved in teaching disaster management and
similar types of courses at a university, also expressed his suspicion regarding climate
change phenomena. He stated:
“For climate change, I have a different feeling; Climate actually performs their
phenomena in response to the lunar system, not the English calendar. It is a question
of perception, for example; English calendar is a fixed calendar and climate roam
around with the lunar calendar. Bengali calendar was not fixed, before the onset of
the fixed calendar, we had an excellent good relationship with the perceived notion
of the calendar. Since it is fixed, we have a different expectation and observation,
and we cannot match it. Because in June-July, people expect the highest rainfall in
Bangladesh, now its August, coming close to September. Climate always performs
or rotates with the lunar calendar.”
He also added another point,
“Climate has its behavior; sometimes it can act erratically like human behaviour.
People do not have the same temperament every day, in one day one might be jolly
and in another day, the same person might be upset. This is a tantrum of mood, and
the very same thing with the climate as well. It has the same tantrum too.”
In contrast to the suspicion expressed by Geographer and Meteorologist participants
other participants voiced quite differently. They think climate change is taking place. A
climate change professional, he was a government delegate to Climate change convention
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
IPCC and authored few books on climate migration topic, firmly stated that climate change
is happening. He said, “almost all the respectable scientists accept that climate change is a
human-induced phenomenon.”
Another participant, who is a veteran political scientist, says; “I have experienced a secular
change in season in my lifespan. I feel that the season is shifting; we see more flood and
coastal area is submerging.” His views more or less shared by the other participants.
Methodological issues in researching climate migration
in Bangladesh
Defining and identifying climate migration is a daunting task, agreed by the participants. A
political scientist showed his concern about the difficulties to recognize which one is economic
or which one is climate change induce migration. We asked the experts participated in our
FGDs to provide the suggestion concerning ‘designing question’ to collect climate change
data from the people. More or less all agreed to pose the open-ended question. They share
the following methods:
4 One scholar suggested taking the narratives of three different phases of the same
person regarding climate change experience. For example, a respondent is 60
years old; here researcher can divide his lifespan into three parts like first 20 years
(childhood), second 20 years (youth) and last 20 years (old) and collect experience
of these three phases. Finally, the researcher can make a comparison and eventually
reach a conclusion.
4 Another participant suggested a slight modification of the above method, He said,
the researcher can pick respondents or participants of two different age groups, one
group of youth and a group of senior people, and then finally compare the responses
of these two groups.
4 A participant, who is basically a geographer, shared the research method he used in
many studies. The first step of his method is to follow the national dailies in order to
seek migrant people and then track the migrant people into slum areas. After that,
researcher investigates their origin and plot it on the map. He also asserted that he
would prefer the term ‘climate displacement’ rather using the term ‘climate migration,’
his logic is ‘migration’ is a choice, when one move from one place to another. Whereas,
‘displace’ is under compulsion. There are push factors, not pull factors are responsible
for displacement, while both push and pull factors are responsible for the migration.
Location: Kurigram
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CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Government Efforts to Showcase and Promote Climate
Change Concern Fall Short
A participant tentatively said, “perhaps climate change adaption is more complicated than
disaster relief”. However, another participant with a vast experience of working with Bangladesh
government and international avenue, said
“government negotiators change now and then. We can observe that government
negotiators and relevant experts are given relevant training, when they finally settle
in their positions, they get transferred or shift to another ministry. This causes lack of
institutional memory.”
Enthusiastic villagers in a vulnerable climate area of Cox’s Bazar
Experts highlight the point that Bangladesh is not showcasing themselves in international
arena compared to the magnitude of adversity Bangladesh face. At the same time, they
opined that it is not as easy for Bangladesh to showcase the damage as like Maldives, Nepal.
A tide can submerge a significant portion of Maldives that can easily be portrayed, or it is
easier for Nepal to draw international attention by showing ice is melting in Himalaya.
A scholar, however, strongly stressed:
“We should stand up on our own. We should teach or provide the education to our
people on how to adapt to the climate change rather than begging hands to others.
Just receiving the donation- will make people bend down to the knees. Therefore, we
must learn to live and survive saline water, and we should develop crop varieties”.
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Visit at Deputy Commissioner (DC) office, Cox’s Bazar
Corruption and governance of climate change in
Bangladesh
A researcher from Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) shared a detailed picture
of corruption and various aspects of climate change governance in Bangladesh. TIB man
mentioned that usually it takes one and half year for approving any government project
since it has to go through some monitoring and evaluation mechanisms like IMED, but it
takes only three months for climate change project. An FGD participant, who is a renowned
public policy expert, endorsed that expediting the process is a good thing. He assumes the
present system set up for climate change is to expedite the process. TIB person conveyed
TIB’s concern about the usage and monitoring of the Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF). He
shared some incidences during FGD.
Until today (2017) around TK. 3200 crore allocated trough BCCTF from internal resources. So
far the total number of projects is more than five hundred including government and NGOs
projects, and 2600 crore has been allocated for those projects. The fund started to release since
2010. However, no single project has been evaluated by planning commission’s evaluation
department, which is called IMED (Implantation Monitoring and Evaluation Department)5,
since money directly mobilizes from the government to the Ministry of Environment and
Forest IMED has not monitored any project, the logic is these are not development projects
and funding channelized through environment ministry, so this does not fall under IMED’s
jurisdiction. This is a big drawback of existing laws, stated by TIB representative. He added,
“According to the rule of business. No ministry can rule the other ministry. By position,
environment minister is the chair of the ‘climate change trust fund’. But implementation
is done by other ministries. Therefore, whenever the money goes to other ministries,
for example, the ministry of water, the ministry of forest and environment cannot say
anything about the implementation since a different authority handles it. Prime minister
office has the sole authority to ask the other ministry what they are really doing. On
many occasions, PM (Prime Minister) office found corruption; but only in some cases
suspended the funding, no punitive actions took place. Hence, proper accountability is
not ensured. So there is a fundamental problem lies in giving authority to Ministry of
Environment without ensuring concrete accountability mechanisms.”
IMED is a part of the ministry of planning. All public investment projects have to be approved by planning commission.
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Another allegation was thrown at the ‘Climate Change Trust Fund’ is maldistribution of money.
The rule is ‘ten government ministers’ will be the member of the ‘Climate Change Trust Fund.’
Trustee members are supposed to distribute fund based on the magnitude of the vulnerability
of the affected areas. But the ‘trustees’ are distributing fund equally among them according
to their constituencies; they do not bother with climate change. They are prioritizing their
constituencies. For instance, the northern part of the country which is the most vulnerable
drought-prone zone is getting the lowest allocation because they do not have influential
ministers.
The name of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) pronounced few times during
the discussion for grave corruption. General people are also very disappointed with BWDB,
the research team found during the field trip.
One big problem is Bangladesh does not have any vulnerability map. Dhaka is getting more
money from climate fund. In this backdrop, the TIB representative posed the question - “Is
Dhaka that vulnerable and deserves this priority?”. The actual situation is ministers prioritize
own constituencies. For example, the northern part of the country is the most vulnerable
drought-prone zone, but this part gets the lowest allocation since no powerful minister
belongs to that area.
In this backdrop, TIB has been insisting Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to conduct
audits on climate change projects since no other authority is doing monitoring on climate
fund allocation and implementation. Previously, CAG conducted a special audit on 32 projects
out of 500 plus projects. But now CAG is not operating their special audit on climate change
projects. TIB keeps trying to convince the Office of CAG to resume their special audit function
on climate projects. The third-party monitoring is absent for BCCTF.
Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF)6 assigned third-party monitoring
in addition to the existing government body or mechanisms. WB tries to engage the local
community in monitoring the project implementation. For instance, they appointed ‘local
school management committee’ as an independent oversight authority for the construction
of cyclone center. In some places it is extremely difficult because of the local political economy,
local elites are involved with the contractors. Aside local independent body, a Dhaka based
firm was assigned by the WB. The firm sent many young and energetic engineers to the field
to monitor the project, but these field resident engineers faced life threat from the local
contractors. Many of the resident engineers have been transferred within a year.
TIB representative was asked the question – “why the WB and other donors’ have stopped
their climate fund for Bangladesh. The answer was: the corruption, particularly the ‘project
approval process’. Ministers press to approve the project for own localities. Donors have
become so rigid that without proper evidence related to climate change, they would not
approve any project – this is an issue. Another issue is there are some gaps and disputes exist
between WB and other donors & development partners. On a different note, TI representative
highly discourages the government to rely on WB, ADB loan. The government should look
for a grant from climate fund, not the loan since Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable
nations.
In response to a probing question, TIB person explained that there is a ‘technical committee’
composed of government officials for the ‘Climate Change Trust Fund.’ ‘Trustee board’ is
supposed to approve projects based on the technical committee’s report and evaluation. But
27
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
trustee board hardly meets up, and there is a record that the technical committee did not
approve a project, yet the board approved that project.
Another burning issue came in the discussion which is already discussed in this report. Only 20%
real contractors, who got the contract directly from the government body, are implementing
the projects; mostly sub-contractors carry out the implementation. Contractors need to reach
an agreement with the local muscle to implement the project. Without allying with local
muscle, it is impossible to perform any projects. In many cases, local muscle work as ‘sub-
contractor.’ Local political-economic context plays a crucial role in project implementation.
Some sub-contractors work for the Water Development Board spend only 10 out of Tk. 100.
Suggestions for Government
Discussants in the focus group did not mainly focus on providing policy suggestions; rather
they talked about different governance issues, climate change definition, awareness and so
forth. Nevertheless, few ideas came out while there were discussing various issues of climate
change and climate change migration as follows:
4 One scholar opined that the stakeholders like NGOs and to some extent government
love to hear about climate change because this issue brings money, foreign donation.
But Bangladesh needs to learn more and teach people on how to adapt climate
change. More emphasizes should be given on inventing new crop varieties.
4 Government provides the finances to the climate change trust fund. Hence, IMED
of the ministry of planning should monitor climate change projects funded by the
climate change trust fund, suggested by TIB representative.
4 CAG should perform their special audit to reduce corruption in climate change
projects.
4 Climate change fund needs to be allotted based on the damage face by a particular
region, in this regard formulating a vulnerability map of Bangladesh in quick time is a
matter of great importance.
BCCRF was established in 2010 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of
.Bangladesh, development partners and the World Bank (WB, 2012). BCCRF primarily governed by the WB
28
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Chapter 03: Summary and Analysis of the Findings
The objective of this part is to explain the researchers’ reflection on the FGDs’ findings. The
analysis presents below in thematically:
Summary and Analysis Section-1: Focus group with
climate migrants and with the people currently live in
vulnerable areas
Occupation of the FGD participants in climate sending and receiving areas
Climate migrants in Korail, Dhaka engage in different occupations for their living. The male
members of Korail slum typically work as a rickshaw puller, daily labour, security guard in
house & market, small business-like tea stall, vegetables, while the female work as domestic
servants, do small business, tailor, textile worker. Comparatively, people have lesser options
in vulnerable climate areas. Male members mostly work as farmers, though the profession
depends on their geographic location. For instance: in Kutubdia, many works in the salt farm
since Kutubdia is a salt producing zone.
The proliferation of textile industries in big cities like Dhaka, Chittagong opened a new window
of opportunity for the climate migrants in these big cities. The textile industry employs 4.2
million workers, and most of them are women. The growth of the garment and textile industry
has helped to increase the incomes of low skilled people living in poverty, especially in creating
job opportunities for women (International Finance Corporation, 2014). Besides working
in textile sector, women can work as housemaid, small entrepreneurs. Working outside the
home for a housewife is much more socially acceptable in urban areas, this also helped the
migrant women to be independent. Because of the availability and diversity of jobs, migrants
are facing less food insecurity.
Knowledge about Climate Change
Many, live in climate vulnerable areas, believe that climate-induced disaster is not human-made
phenomena, it is “the will of Allah (God).” Nevertheless, focus group discussants expressed
that they had noticed the inconsistent behaviour of nature like frequent cyclone, storm flow
has increased, rising sea level. In general, the Focus group discussions demonstrate that the
people from climate-vulnerable areas have more knowledge than the leaver or migrated
people, the possible reasons are the people’s preference and priority.
The people who had already left the ancestral land, now they are not much interested in
following climate change progress and climate change related information and news since
they are not facing direct adverse impacts of climate change as stayers in vulnerable areas
are facing. Migrants are quite busy with their own life. Even a former NGO field worker is
not aware of the climate change, where NGO workers usually belong to the better-informed
portion of the slum community. The condition of the rest of the people in that community can
easily be apprehended by this. Aside, the senior citizens in slum areas do not have any clue
about climate change.
29
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
On the other side, people of climate change vulnerable areas comparatively sound more
knowledgeable, their livelihood and many things mostly depend on nature. We found them as
a more careful observer of climate change events and news compared to their city counterpart.
Ninety-five percent of our FGD participants were seniors. Comparatively younger people
possibly have a quite different level of understanding since they have better access to
education, access to modern technology (like mobile phones, internet). Youths, compared to
older people, are likely to have a more in-depth knowledge of climate change related issues.
Participants’ view about current flood [flood of 2017]
Extreme weather migrants from Korail slum did not bring the issue of the flood in their
discussion. For now, they are not directly affected by the flood, and they have many other
pressing issues of greater importance for their life and livelihood, so it is understandable that
they do not have much focus on the flood, and climate issue indeed is not on their priority list.
On the other hand, people in the vulnerable areas ware fighting a severe flood during the FGDs
conduction period.. Arguably, some participants claimed this is the biggest flood they have
ever experienced after the 1988 flood event, while a few said it is more devastating than the
1988 flood. We heard many participants in both migration sending areas and receiving areas
talking and referring 1988 flood event. It appears that 1988 flood had become a “benchmark”
for measuring or comparing the intensity of any flood occur in Bangladesh. The elderly people
participated in our FGDs mostly are from the 60s, 70s and 80s era, so they have experienced
1988 flood in their lifetime. Even the young generation (we noticed it in a different FGD with
the university student) does frequently refer 1988’s flood to measure the intensity of any flood
incidence in Bangladesh.
FGD team, during the field trip, have witnessed a deadly flood in 2007 vulnerable areas. People
of different age are severely suffering from the flood. Their general recommendations towards
government mostly include flood-related matters like dredging, embankment, shelter center,
etc. Their recommendations were associated with the broader concept of climate change.
Citizens’ point of view about Staying in, leaving from or returning to their
original home
Many people were forced to leave their homeland due to the impact of climate change on
their livelihood. During the time of crisis, they face acute job crisis. Some of them go to other
cities for work, and the rest of the family members stay in the village. In many cases, they
resettled in another town with full family. The return rate of migrants is extremely low. People
who have migrated to nearby cities have a better possibility of returning than those left for
the big cities.
In the Korail focus group discussion, It was found found most of the participants had left home
due to river erosion while Bangladesh faces different types of disasters like flood, cyclone. Our
explanation is river erosion completely wipe a particular area which is unrecoverable, whereas
land and home affected by flood and cyclone can be recovered. So, river erosion victims opt for
more permanent migration compared to other types of disaster victims. The ratio of return back
might be different for flood and cyclone affected victims compared to victims of river erosion.
However, almost all participants in Korail slum openly expressed their intention that they do
not want to return. Few participants said that they feel like to go back to their ancestral land,
but they cannot afford to do so because of the lack of job opportunity and inadequate access
30
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
to education. Climate change migrants are completely detached from their homeland. Visiting
homeland is expensive for them. Also, it is hard to get the free day from the workplace.
When they first came to the cities, ‘push factors,’ like losing a home due to river erosion,
inundation of agricultural land, were the dominant causes behind the departure of their
original places. Over the years, many ‘pull factors’ were added, for example, education, job
opportunity and amenities like water and electricity. Mushrooming of textile industries has
created remarkable job opportunities for the people with high and low skills. Jobs turn out to
be the strongest ‘pull factors’ for the people. It is a daunting task to distinguish the ‘push’ and
‘pull’ factors while analyzing climate change induced migration.
Government Initiatives during the crisis period
In general, participants are not satisfied with the government efforts to help the climate
vulnerable people. Few participants accused ‘government’ and ‘local government
representatives’ of corruption. A couple of participants pointed out the government’s lack
of resources and limited capacity to support the massive climate victims. People are also not
satisfied with the performance of local government bodies.
Bangladesh government has been initiating many projects focusing on climate change, and
the participants did not seem to be much aware of these. Sometimes, they receive government
help channelized through different bodies, for instance, PKSF (A government microcredit
organization), many of them may have received PKSF fund through different NGOs while
many are thinking that this is the NGOs’ fund they are borrowing.
It was suggested, government needs to take active measures to fight the alleged corruption
in building dams and embankments by the private contractors. Strengthening local elected
bodies and integrating them into the climate change plan should get more government
attention since Union Parishads (UP) are the lowest tier of local government and therefore
have the most direct link with communities.
Suggestions for the Bangladesh Government and Expectations from the
Government
Participants of focus group discussion showed a very context specific demand and government
intervention. Few participants overtly displayed a very pessimistic attitude towards government
efforts to include citizen in decision making; they are in doubt whether the government pays
any heed to their voice.
Participants in receiving areas (city area) demand immunity from the eviction from their
current home, which is public property; and migrants do not have the legal ownership of that
property. They also suggest that the government should provide them with general amenities
(gas, electricity) in their current living place. Many participants suggest if the government
wants to rehabilitate them, it should be done in their current living place, not somewhere else;
otherwise, they would not find any job in a new area. Few of them accede to rehabilitate in
another place if they had jobs, education and other facilities in a new place.
It is quite noticeable that recommendations and expectations of the Korail slum (Dhaka)
dwellers are hardly directly related to climate change issues. They are not bothered about
what is going on the coastal area of Bangladesh, the condition of the flood in different districts
and not pondering about their old homeland.
31
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
People living in climate-vulnerable areas have provided a series of suggestions for the
government to be implemented. The major recommendations were: dredging to control river
flow, more disaster shelter, repair the old embankments, provide sufficient relief.
Summary and Analysis Section-2: Focus group with the
Students Focus group with the students
Students have a basic knowledge about climate change issues and government initiatives.
Students, participated in the discussion, firmly believe that weather is changing, they feel it,
and they think that increasing temperature is the most prominent driver of climate change.
The curriculum of the students seems to have an impact on their knowledge of climate change.
It was advised, in the focus group, to incorporate climate change in the university curriculum.
It was observed in the focus group that students from the social science background had
shown better knowledge of climate change compared to business and engineering students,
which is quite understandable since they have different course design and curricula.
Students from different Bangladeshi universities consider that government has some initiatives
and institutional framework to fight natural disasters. But government’s initiative’s focus
on “post measure” not the ‘pre-measure.” Even post measures have not been adequately
implemented due to corruption, limited capacity, lack of continuity of plan due to regime
change where newly elected the government scraps the previous government’s policy.
Their major suggestions include GO-NGO collaboration, continuity of planning, using social
media and launching student-based community services to aware and mobilize people to
mitigate climate change.
Summary and Analysis Section-3: Focus group with the
experts, practitioners and activists
The global debate on ‘whether climate change takes place’ - is also present in Bangladesh.
Meteorologists working in core government offices and many scholars from the relevant
disciplines in Bangladesh are yet to accept that climate change is occurring. This is quite
interesting in a backdrop, on the one hand, experts working in the Bangladesh Meteorological
Department are yet to accept ‘climate change’; while ‘Ministry of Environment & Forest’ and
‘Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief’ officials working on climate change issue, and
government already distributed a huge sum of money through the climate change trust fund.
Though, all the experts working with the government did not deny that climate change is
taking place.
However, government of Bangladesh has taken measures to address climate change. Of which,
establishing Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) is one of the major initiatives of
the Bangladesh government. BCCTF have granted funds to more than 500 climate change
projects with an estimated amount of Tk. 3200 crore. But there is no monitoring over the
implementation of the climate change projects. It was suggested that Ministry of planning
should take steps through IMED to ensure monitoring and auditing of climate change projects
in order to check the corruption.
32
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
References
International Finance Corporation (2014). Transforming Bangladesh’s Garment Sector. Retrieved from
Issue_Brief_Bangladeshi+Garment+Sector.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
IUCN. (2015). Climate Change Induced Migration in Bangladesh. Retrieved from https://www.iucn.org/
content/climate-change-induced-migration-bangladesh
Krueger, A., & Casey, M. (2009). Focus Groups. A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks:
Sage.
McVeigh, K. (2017). Rising seas sweep away land and livelihoods in Bangladesh – in pictures. The
Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2017/
jan/19/rising-seas-sweep-away-land-livelihoods-in-bangladesh-in-pictures.
MoEF, (2009). Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2009, Ministry of Environment
and Forests, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Reuveny, R. (2007). Climate change-induced migration and violent conflict. Political Geography, 26(6),
656-673.
World Bank (2012). Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund. Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.
org/en/news/feature/2012/05/22/bangladesh-climate-change-resilience-fund-bccrf.
33
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Appendix 1:
Interview Guidelines for FGD with climate migrant and
people living in climate vulnerable areas
Since how many years are you living here?
Why did you relocate from your Village?
Why did not others migrate from your village?
Do you ever want to go back to your previous home?
What sort of climatic events did you face and how many times?
Did you own any asset/property in your village before leaving your residence?
What is your current occupation?
Do you get any assistance from the local administration?
What kind of facilities and supports do you expect from the government?
Do you face any obstacles from the local people?
Whom do you make responsible for the natural calamities? Any idea?
34
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Appendix 2:
Interview Guidelines for FGD with university students
Do you think that weather is changing?
What is Climate change, what idea do you have about climate change?
How would you assess the performance of the government over last twenty years in
terms of climate change and environment-related matters?
What were the barriers of implementing the government plan?
Tell us about the state of accountability of Bangladesh government.
What initiatives can the government take to include people?
Who is responsible for climate change?
35
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Appendix 3:
Interview Guidelines for FGD with the Experts
Can you talk about the changes in the behavior of nature?
Why is the government not trying to make people aware of the climate change, even at
policy-making levels?
How to separate climate migrants from the other migrant?
What kind of questions do we can formulate to capture of the peoples’ attitude regarding
climate change?
36
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Appendix 4:
Administrative Structure of Bangladesh
Central Government
8 Division
Zila Chairman
64 District
Upazila
490 Subdistrict Or Upazila
Chairman
Mayor
City
4,553 Union Council 323 Municipalities 11 City Corporations Mayor
(Rural area) (Suburb) (Metropolis)
Union
4,553 Union Council 4,553 Union Council
Parishad
(Rural area) (Rural area)
Chairman
37
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Appendix 5:
Local Government Structure of Bangladesh
Ministry of Local Government,
Rural Development & Cooperatives
Local Government
Rural Urban
Local Government Local Government
District Council City Corporation
Upazila Parishad Pourashava
Union Parishad
38
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Appendix 6: MAP of Kurigram
39
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Appendix 7: Map of Cox’s Bazar District
40
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
Authors
Todd A. Eisenstadt
Professor, Department of Government
American University, Washington, DC
Email:
[email protected]
Professor Sk. Tawfique M. Haque, PhD
Director, South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG), and
Chair, Department of Political Science and Sociology
North South University, Dhaka.
Email:
[email protected]
Jie Lu
Associate Professor, Department of Government
American University, Washington, DC
Email:
[email protected]
Mizanur Rahman
Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Sociology
North South University, Dhaka.
Email:
[email protected]
41
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
42
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
43
CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION IN BANGLADESH
References (7)
International Finance Corporation (2014). Transforming Bangladesh's Garment Sector. Retrieved from http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/f8968f8043a64b51a4f2bc869243d457/AM2014_IFC_ Issue_Brief_Bangladeshi+Garment+Sector.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
IUCN. (2015). Climate Change Induced Migration in Bangladesh. Retrieved from https://www.iucn.org/ content/climate-change-induced-migration-bangladesh
Krueger, A., & Casey, M. (2009). Focus Groups. A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
McVeigh, K. (2017). Rising seas sweep away land and livelihoods in Bangladesh -in pictures. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2017/ jan/19/rising-seas-sweep-away-land-livelihoods-in-bangladesh-in-pictures.
MoEF, (2009). Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2009, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Reuveny, R. (2007). Climate change-induced migration and violent conflict. Political Geography, 26(6), 656-673.
World Bank (2012). Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund. Retrieved from http://www.worldbank. org/en/news/feature/2012/05/22/bangladesh-climate-change-resilience-fund-bccrf.
FAQs
AI
What evidence supports the claim of mass migration in Bangladesh by 2050?
add
The report estimates about 15 million people in Bangladesh could migrate due to climate change by 2050, as per recent projections from the Bangladesh government.
How do 'leavers' and 'stayers' differ in their understanding of climate change?
add
Participants in sending areas displayed greater concern for climate change impacts, while migrants showed less awareness due to prioritizing immediate survival over climate issues.
What challenges do climate migrants face in urban areas like Korail, Dhaka?
add
Climate migrants in Korail struggle with instability and illegality, facing threats of eviction and limited access to utilities, despite finding employment opportunities.
How does river erosion influence migration patterns compared to floods and cyclones?
add
River erosion victims tend to migrate permanently, whereas flood and cyclone victims often seek short-term migration, typically returning home after disasters.
What role does government corruption play in climate change funding in Bangladesh?
add
Participants highlighted significant corruption in fund allocation for climate initiatives, with influential political favoritism skewing financial support away from the most vulnerable regions.
Mizanur Rahman
North-South University of Bangladesh, Department Member
Todd Eisenstadt
American University, Faculty Member
Tawfique Haque
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