Concern Worldwide Korea, the international humanitarian organization, launches its first climate change adaptation project after completing a field survey in 2021. The project area is Khulna district, located on the southwest coast of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is one of the vulnerable countries most affected by sea level rise due to climate change. According to German Watch, which publishes the Climate Risk Index every year, Bangladesh is ranked 7th among the top 10 countries with the highest climate change crisis based on the cumulative damage from 2000 to 2019.
The Khulna District, the project area, is one of the areas with the large number of poor and vulnerable masses have notably lost their lives and livelihoods due to climatic events. Especially in the Dacope and Koyra Upazilla, the 25% of the population falls under the poverty line. 85% of the residents in Khulna are engaged in agriculture, but as the seawater seep into the farmland, it is reducing crop productivity and access to safe drinking water. In addition, the number of people living in poverty is rapidly increasing due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
The project ‘Enhancing resilience of coastal communities and improving income of extreme poor households in Khulna district of Bangladesh’ is targeting about 5,500 people. As part of this project, Concern Worldwide will conduct activities such as providing vocational training, promoting Climate Smart Agriculture, capacity building training of community water resource management, and strengthening the capacity of the local government to ensure disaster risk reduction and prevention of loss of livelihoods.
The project period is about two years and six months starting from June 2021 to December 2023. The total project budget is about 1.5 billion, funded by Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Concern Worldwide Korea.
Jun Mo Lee, Executive Director of Concern Worldwide Korea, said, “Many of developing countries are already suffering from climate change, but they are lacking the time and resources to adapt to the changes. With the help of Korean citizens and KOICA, the poorest people in Bangladesh have an opportunity to respond to climate change timely.”
Concern Worldwide is working with the most vulnerable people in the world to tackle hunger and extreme poverty. Currently, it is implementing programs in 23 vulnerable countries and extremely poor area, including Somalia, Central African Republic, Syria, and Afghanistan. It has been working in Bangladesh since 1972 and has been working with the Korea International Cooperation Agency to prevent malnutrition through emergency response to COVID-19 at the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar since 2020.
