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BSS -48
SWEDEN-UNDP-CLIMATE
Sweden satisfied over Bangladesh’s climate change adaptation programmes
KHULNA, March 18, 2021 (BSS) – The Swedish Minister of International
Development Cooperatives, Per Olsson-Fridh, has expressed satisfaction over
the use of his country’s climate change adaptation support in Bangladesh.
The minister today visited the Sweden-funded projects being facilitated by
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations
Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) in the climate change vulnerable coastal
belt of Bangladesh, a UNDP press release said.
“We are delighted to see that women in such remote place are benefitting
from drinking water from a plant set up with Swedish support,” he said.
“This is a good example of climate change adaption support being used
effectively,” he said after visiting a water purification plant set up by the
Local Government Initiative on Climate Change (LoGIC) project in Sutarkhali
in Khulna’s Dacope.
During the day-long visit, the minister observed the initiatives of UNDP’s
Gender-Responsive Climate Adaptation (GCA) for Women and Strengthening
Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities (SWAPNO) projects.
“Climate-adaptive livelihoods are reducing climate migration which will
have long term positive impacts on the country,” he added after talking to
the beneficiaries of the GCA project in Tildanga of Khulna’s Dacope.
“Empowering one woman is empowering a family and a society, I am happy that
Sweden is supporting SWAPNO to empower rural women in Bangladesh,” the
Swedish minister said after seeing the project activities in Shatkhira’s
Tiger Point.
He also visited UNDP’s conservation activities around the Sundarbans, the
world’s largest mangrove forest, including dolphin conservation activities.
The minister was accompanied by Alexandra Berg von Linde, Swedish
Ambassador to Bangladesh; Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee of UNDP
Bangladesh; Joint Secretary of Local Government Division Saila Farzana; and
Country Focal Point Jesmul Hasan of UNCDF, among others, delegates.
Bangladesh, ranked 7th among 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change
and disasters, have been experiencing extreme weather events like cyclones,
floods, droughts and rise in salinity of water, which particularly affect the
poor and vulnerable, especially women.
BSS/PR/MRI/RY/1950hrs