Abstract
Internal migration presents many challenges for governmental coordination due to the extensive and immediate action required to address this problem. However, it also poses opportunities regarding education, employment and living conditions, if the government creates pull factors to distribute migration away from primary to secondary cities. This process will require a rights-based approach, whereby the rights of internal migrants are mainstreamed in government planning to enable sustainable migration to Bangladesh’s secondary cities. In this paper, the current international human rights and internal migration laws will be analysed, alongside the domestic laws and policies relevant to internal migration in Bangladesh. In doing so, this paper will explore how government policy and action can employ a rights-based approach to incorporate internal migration within the government’s overarching development framework. A rights-based approach is necessary to effectively prepare for, and adapt to, the increase in internal migration in an equitable way.
Introduction
The impacts of climate change undermine the essentials of human survival and threaten human security, especially for those who rely on the local climate for their sustenance. Approximately two-thirds of Bangladesh’s population reside near coastal areas and are dependent on natural resources, leaving them extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Consequently, vulnerable and exposed individuals often engage in a spectrum of adaptive strategies, the most notable one being involuntary migration. Millions of people are being increasingly displaced by the impacts of cyclones, forest fires, flooding and drought. However, whilst there has been a focus on how climate change creates immediate and clear connections with displacement, climate change also manifests itself through other household stressors. The loss of productive agricultural land due to sea water inundation or drought, or the associated rise in the costs and use of inputs to maintain soil fertility all diminish household incomes for many vulnerable rural communities. These households are faced with a stark choice: either stay and battle a slow decline in their standard of living or move to urban centres to look for alternative sources of income.
To this extent, climate change intensifies existing rural to urban migration patterns, particularly in countries most acutely affected by the consequences of climate change, such as Bangladesh. Each and every day, regardless of the weather, over 2000 people arrive in Dhaka for a new start (Castellano et al., 2021). This places extreme pressure on existing urban infrastructure, resulting in the emergence of slum communities. These communities face a severe lack of access to safe dwellings, food security, clean drinking water, health services and education. This entrenches further patterns of poverty as more and more households desperately seek the limited employment opportunities available, but do not have the ability to increase their skill set or obtain education to access other employment opportunities.
Further unsustainable migration to urban centres, which are at their carrying capacity, needs to be prevented (Streatfield & Karar, 2008). However, migration itself is not the only problem. In fact, migration offers a sound climate change adaptation strategy as the load on local carrying capacity can be distributed across secondary cities or peri-urban areas to share migration induced vulnerabilities (Rana & Illnia, 2021). Migrants are attracted to certain urban centres, such as Dhaka, for their employment opportunities. If new opportunities are created elsewhere, this can create alternative pull factors for vulnerable rural communities who are at their breaking point. This requires extensive governmental coordination between policy and action at both regional and national levels.
Despite recent efforts made by Bangladesh to develop a response to internal migration, effective policy is still lacking. The law and policy framework on the environment and climate change in Bangladesh fail to effectively address issues of internal migration and displacement and this has hindered the achievement of effective long-term solutions to the cross-sectoral challenges faced by climate migrants. Effective solutions require internal migration and displacement to be mainstreamed across the Bangladesh law and policy framework. Mainstreaming is a policy tool that centres the experiences and needs of internal migrants in strategic planning and the implementation of law and policy. Practically, mainstreaming urges agencies to coordinate responses to internal migration which leads to holistic support, reduces inefficiencies and mitigates unforeseen consequences (Scoville-Simmonds, Jamali & Huffy, 2020). Too often, responses to internal migrants are ad hoc and siloed.
Scope and Methodology
This article will first discuss internal migration itself and examine its positioning within the international legal framework. It will then investigate the existing internal migration laws, policies and governance in Bangladesh to determine the extent to which Bangladesh successfully adopts a rights-based approach to addressing climate induced internal migration. In this way, the present challenges being faced by internal migrants will be analysed with a view to providing suggestions for how Bangladesh can better facilitate internal migration in its law and policy framework through mainstreaming the needs and experiences of internal migrants. The cross-sectoral and sustainable outcomes and opportunities from mainstreaming will be showcased. Importantly, the following discussion will contribute to the existing literature in the field by advocating for an integrated, rights-based approach to the issue that focuses on the multiple stages of displacement. It argues that an effective and integrative policy response, that successfully establishes social and economic rights for climate migrants, will assist Bangladesh in improving the education, economic opportunities and living standards of its migrants to ensure that the country is moving towards more long-term solutions to this problem.
This paper adopts a doctrinal research methodology that uses primary (i.e. official government laws and policies) and secondary resources about the internal migration issue in Bangladesh (Hutchinson, 2018). Whilst internal migration and displacement can exacerbate inequalities and limit access to basic needs, such as safe dwellings, clean drinking water and health services, a human rights–based approach facilitates integrated solutions that support migrants to become thriving and active participants in a community. This paper adopts this methodology, given the value that a human rights–based approach can provide by empowering vulnerable groups (Broberg & Hans-Otto, 2018), in this case being Bangladesh’s internal migrants. Despite climate change continuing to exacerbate internal migratory patterns towards established city centres such as Dhaka, this research adopts this approach to critique and analyse existing Bangladeshi law and policy to identify barriers to sustainable migration, and why existing migratory patterns have failed to utilise the carrying capacity and opportunities presented by Bangladesh’s secondary cities.
In adopting a human rights–based approach to this research, this paper acknowledges research and methodological gaps which can form the basis of further analysis. To this extent, a human rights–based approach can lead to less effectiveness for service delivery to vulnerable populations whereby lower literacy or access to information challenges can impede the ability for these populations to assert their rights (Broberg & Hans-Otto, 2018). As such, a human rights–based approach can promote existing inequalities between different groups in society (Broberg & Hans-Otto, 2018), and therefore resources must be dedicated to not only conduct the necessary policy and law reform, but to also promote education and awareness of different rights that vulnerable groups can have which can lead to greater development outcomes.
New Ways of Thinking: Understanding the Internal Migration Context
When we consider internal migration, we often think of the millions of vulnerable people who are directly displaced from catastrophic events such as cyclones or flooding. Internal migration is often portrayed by the media as affecting entire communities who have lost their homes after catastrophic weather events and must consequently tolerate abhorrent living conditions. This is certainly true; in the first 6 months of 2019, over seven million people were displaced because of natural disasters (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2019). However, framing internal migration in this light alone only paints a partial picture. A useful starting point in developing a deeper knowledge of the internal migration problem is understanding how climate change impacts on the environment, community and economy. Climate change occurs with both sudden-onset events (e.g. cyclones, flooding or fire) and slow-onset events (e.g. sea level rise, glacial retreat, drought and desertification). Whilst this dichotomy is a simplistic picture of how climate change negatively impacts our lives, it does reveal that current approaches toward considering internal migration, as the mere immediate displacement from sudden weather events, is only partial at best. Bangladesh is witnessing the emergence of clear sky climate migrants: people who traverse large distances despite the absence of any catastrophic weather event. With over 2000 people migrating to Dhaka each day (Castellano et al., 2021), the scale of these migrants has now escalated to the point of being a silent crisis. As a result, policymakers have been caught flat-footed in understanding the nature and scale of this problem.
Climate change in the form of slow-onset events means that the decision to migrate is often manifested through other push factors (McAdam, 2012). The slow decline in the viability of agricultural jobs, the loss of productive agricultural land due to saline water intrusion and riverbank erosion and the ever-increasing cost of inputs (e.g. fertilisers) has pushed many rural communities to seek alternative livelihoods in urban centres (The Government Office for Science, 2011; White, 2011). As a result, most internal migrants do not self-identify with their plight being associated with climate change as it is driving economic insecurity (Ramirez, 2019). Instead, migrants view their move to urban areas as a means of simply improving their standard of living and finding new work which supplements or replaces their household income. The opportunities and rights of clear sky climate migrants have traditionally been invisible in the Bangladesh policy and law framework.
This creates several problems for policy and decision makers. It is difficult to advocate and generate a political appetite for reform when the policy problem plays out over very long-time scales or it is masked by other factors, such as economic migration. In this respect, climate induced internal migration presents a ‘wicked’ policy problem which requires a suite of policy solutions (Australian Public Service Commission, 2007). A ‘wicked’ policy problem is a complex issue that cannot be solved by traditional governance structures and processes (Australian Public Service Commission, 2007). Instead, the issue must be tackled by an innovative solution that appreciates the multi-causal and interdependent nature of the problem (Australian Public Service Commission, 2007). This starts by recognising the loss of entire communities from slow-onset climate change as households move towards urban centres to sustain their standard of living. Over the last decade, Bangladesh has made significant steps towards understanding the impact of slow-onset climate events on migration patterns and creating new policy tools to build resilience. However, this is a new transformation and there is still a long way to go to fully develop more effective and integrative policy responses to internal migration.
Mainstreaming internal migration rights and displacement into national policies and laws can only strengthen future planning and the variety of tools available to migrants and officials. For example, internal migration and displacement can be integrated into the development planning and policy framework. Development is not only the key to building community resilience to climate events, but associated planning also can improve services, infrastructure and inclusion of migrants in proper settlement. This article will consider how internal migration and displacement, through a right-based approach, can be mainstreamed into the policy documents of Bangladesh.
A Human Rights–Based Approach
A human rights–based approach is a normative framework for development that is based upon international human rights standards (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2006). It aims to strengthen the capacity of rights-holders by ensuring duty-bearers meet their obligations through legal frameworks (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2006). The primary goal of this approach is to alleviate injustice and inequality (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2006). By engaging in this approach, a minimum threshold of entitlements is owed to citizens by their government (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2006). Furthermore, the approach facilitates legitimacy and accountability, whereby, states are obliged to consider the needs of rights-holders and if they fail to do so, the class can commence proceedings for appropriate redress (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2006). Consequently, this approach ensures that those who are most vulnerable are able to safeguard their rights.
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) has undertaken important work in this respect. The UNHCR has investigated the implementation of rights-based approaches that can deliver orderly cross-border climate migration through the rollout of climate mitigation projects, improving new migrants’ adaptability to their new surrounds and to embed human rights obligations into climate change treaties (2018). Early debates on climate induced migration concentrated on cross-border migration, where there was a fear (which is still held to this day) that millions of displaced persons would present themselves at various ports of entry (Stuhtrager, 2008; Gemenne & Brucker, 2015; Byrne, 2018). However, envisioning climate induced internal migration as just cross-border migration again paints a partial picture. Climate induced internal migration, especially migration brought on by slow-onset events, will most likely trigger internal movement from rural areas to urban centres, and often under the guise of chasing better economic opportunities (The Government Office for Science, 2011; White, 2011).
The current international human rights framework has been caught flat-footed in identifying and protecting the new wave of internal migrants, including both internal and cross-border climate migrants. Although international law has long recognised that certain migrants who are fleeing violence or persecution must be offered some legal protections (United Nations, 1951), difficulties arise when applying these same protections to climate migrants. Under Article 1 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, states are compelled to provide migrants with access to courts, identity papers and travel documents and provide an opportunity for these migrants to resettle (United Nations, 1951).
However, the 1951 Convention offers a restrictive definition of a refugee, being a person that is ‘unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’ (United Nations, 1951). Internal migrants do not fit neatly into this category. Internal migration, especially slow-onset migration, is manifested through many other push factors including a decline in the household standard of living. Situating internal migration into the international refugee framework experiences its first hurdle when it is confronted by the fact that many internal migrants do not self-identify that their plight is climate-change driven (Ramirez, 2019). Often, internal migration operates under the pretence of voluntary migration, despite climate change directly influencing many of the choices offered to household and migration is therefore far from voluntary in nature (Ionesco, 2019).
For this reason, many advocates argue that a focus on international law to provide protection for climate induced migrants will only offer a partial solution. According to McAdam (2012), it is difficult to identify displacement that results from climate change, thus rendering a treaty option ineffective. But a rights-based approach must embrace the symbiotic relationship with the economy, the community and the environment, all of which frame the decision to migrate. Development aims to sustain this symbiotic relationship in pursuit of economic, social and cultural rights. Improving the economic opportunities of migrants is vital, but this cannot occur if migrants do not have sufficient legal rights or protections to effectively interact with the economy and the community.
Civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights are all critical to the experience of internal migrants. These rights include a right to life, education, shelter and food. Basic needs are struggling to be met in Dhaka’s slum communities due to the strain on infrastructure and services. States are obliged to respect, protect and fulfil human rights, and thus can be dependent on resources and institutional capacity. The development process aims to secure human rights by creating sustainable communities, reducing inequalities and building State capacity. Resultingly, the human rights approach to internal migration promotes sustainable and integrated solutions to the challenge.
Situating Internal Migration within the International Context
The current international legal framework concerning internal migration encompasses a broad array of intersecting regimes, from international human rights law to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (United Nations, 1992). In some respect, the rise of climate induced internal migration, especially internal migration, poses a challenge to instruments such as the Refugee Convention. Although international law has long recognised that certain migrants who are fleeing violence or persecution must be offered some legal protections as refugees (United Nations, 1951), difficulties arise when applying these same protections to climate migrants. This is particularly evident when considering the fact that climate induced internal migrants do not fit neatly into the definition of ‘refugee’ under the 1951 Refugee Convention (United Nations, 1951).
Nevertheless, international responses such as the UNFCCC and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (‘Sendai Framework’) are indicative of a proactive response to migration caused by both slow and sudden climate onset events (United Nations, 2014). The UNFCCC Conference of Parties has recognised the important role of planned relocation at international, regional and national levels in adaptation planning (UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, 2011). In addition, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons identify the rights and guarantees that are relevant to the protections of displaced persons, including protection against arbitrary or forced displacement, and rights related to housing and property restitution (Commission on Human Rights, 1998).
Importantly, a core principle of the Sendai Framework is policy coherence with a view to achieving risk based approaches to disaster management. The Framework recognises that policy coherence creates a stable regulatory and policy environment to allow other sectors to effectively operate and that there is a need for proactive responses to mitigate risks faced by vulnerable communities as opposed to reactive approaches to sudden-onset events. As the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction indicates, this principle requires policy makers to ensure that each sector’s objectives and capacity to prevent and reduce climate risk are shared in respect to the scale of both individual businesses and its collective (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2015). Within Bangladesh, the integration of climate migrant into overarching policy and law will promote cross-sector coherence and certainty. The Sendai Framework, alongside the development of coherent laws and regulations, recognises that policies need to address the ‘prevention or relocation, where possible, of human settlements in disaster risk-prone zones’ (United Nations, 2014).
United Nations Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons
The United Nations Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons (‘the Guiding Principles’) identify the rights and guarantees that are relevant to the protections of displaced persons, including protection against arbitrary or forced displacement, and rights related to housing and property restitution (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 1998). The Guiding Principles place the duty and responsibility to protect and assist internally displaced persons on national authorities. Although they are not binding international law, the Guiding Principles provide a framework for governments to ensure that migration policy establishes effective access to national legal systems so that the rights of migrants affected by climate change induced displacement are realised.
The Guiding Principles incorporate existing international human rights law and humanitarian law and provide the basis for the development of normative human rights frameworks to accommodate the protection gaps regarding internally displaced persons (Zetter, 2011). This approach in clarifying the existing norms and rules rather than developing new obligations, has allowed for a swifter adoption of the Guiding Principles in countries affected by displacement. As such, this soft-law approach has proven to be particularly effective in consolidating existing universal norms and making it easier for states to implement such norms, in turn increasing levels of compliance (Betts, 2008).
The Guiding Principles provide an important set of principles which reflect ‘best practice’ national standards at all stages of displacement – before, during and after displacement (McAdam & Saul, 2010). McAdam and Saul (2010) advocate for the Guiding Principles to be incorporated into domestic legal frameworks in order to ensure that internally displaced persons are assisted and protected in accordance with the human rights framework elucidated by the Guiding Principles. Recognition within domestic law and policy strengthens the actualisation of rights for internal migrants and displaced persons.
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (the ‘GCM’) is a non-binding agreement adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2018 that recognises the role that climate change related disasters in influencing migration and perpetuating displacement. The GCM calls for signatories to ‘better map, understand, predict and address migration movements, such as those that may result from sudden-onset and slow-onset natural disasters, the adverse effects of climate change, environmental degradation’ (United Nations, 2018). Signatories are also called to cooperate to devise ‘planned relocation and visa options’ (United Nations, 2018). The GCM has been cited as a tool that could be ‘leveraged by civil society to advocate for domestic migration policy reform’ (Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2019). Despite the legally non-binding nature of the GCM, the human rights obligations of states underpinning the agreement are binding as states cannot relieve themselves of their human rights obligations if they have voluntarily chosen to be bound by them (Guild et al., 2019). As it is in the early stages of adoption, success of the agreement will be dependent on effective implementation and a realisation of the commitments made by signatories (Guild et al., 2019).
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (‘2030 Agenda’)
The symbiotic relationship between the economy, the community and the environment are the focal point of the international sustainable development regime. The 2030 Agenda is the collective commitment to balance economic, social and environmental needs (United Nations, 2015). 17 Sustainable Development Goals (‘SDGs’) accompany the 2030 Agenda. The SDGs aim to improve various areas of social life, including education, health, work and governance. 169 targets are used to indicate progress and guide national policies (United Nations, 2015). Poor management of internal migration and displacement undermines development progress in all these areas. Goal 11, to ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable,’ would ultimately be regressed. The 2030 Agenda advocates for safe and well-managed migration (Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office, 2018). Importantly, the 2030 Agenda identifies internally displaced persons as vulnerable category of persons to be accounted for in development and migration activities (Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office, 2018). This reference improves visibility of internal migrants in project design, funding and implementation (Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office, 2018). Unfortunately, this visibility is limited as no targets reference internally displaced persons (Zeender, 2018).
Realising development goals in Bangladesh would minimise the factors that push a person to migrate. At risk communities would become more resilient to climate migration triggers and larger cities would be resilient to waves of internal migration. Shelter, education and employment, for example, would be more accessible to internal migrants. Importantly, development funds can assist states achieve their development goals recognising resource inequities between states.
Internal Migration Law and Policy and its Governance in Bangladesh: Towards Mainstreaming a Rights-Based Approach to Migration into Existing Policy
While Bangladesh has made recent efforts to develop a response to internal migration, effective policy is still lacking and the law and policy framework addressing the environment and climate change is generally silent on issues of migration and displacement. Article 18A of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (1972) holds that, ‘the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to preserve and safeguard the natural resources, bio-diversity, wetlands, forests and wild life for the present and future citizens’. Despite this constitutional duty to protect the environment, the provision ‘does not establish any corresponding rights for displaced people or those who are at risk of displacement due to failures to protect the environment’ (Naser, 2015). Migrants and displaced people need to be mainstreamed in the Bangladesh’s law and policy framework to be afforded appropriate and comprehensive protections by the State and realise this right as recognised by the Bangladesh Constitution.
Mainstreaming as a Policy Tool
Mainstreaming is the process of centring ‘marginal considerations’ in decisions, policies and projects (Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, 2012). This tool has shifted the focus of policies to account for gender, disability, poverty and climate change (Alhassan & Hadwen, 2017). There are two types of mainstreaming. ‘Issue mainstreaming’ requires an issue to be abstractly considered in decisions recognising the interrelationship between the issue and the decision (Scoville-Simmonds, Jamali & Huffy, 2020). ‘Budgetary and operational mainstreaming’ adapts mechanisms and institutions to resolve an issue (Scoville-Simmonds, Jamali & Huffy, 2020). For example, climate changes risks are factored in development project objectives (Alhassan & Hadwen, 2017), and then climate finance is redirected to development activities (Scoville-Simmonds, Jamali & Huffy, 2020). In doing so, more inclusive and sustainable outcomes have been achieved. Mainstreaming is a tool to alleviate rather than eliminate inequality (Daly, 2005). However, commitment to and consideration of an issue can be undermined by other interests (Daly, 2005), and the weak institutional, technical and financial capacities of a State (Daly, 2005).
In practice, mainstreaming requires decision makers from various sectors, agencies and backgrounds to contribute to an overarching, intergovernmental policy, rather than adopting a highly centralised approach. In Vietnam, the Hoa Binh Relocation Program aimed to relocate over 1200 households that were subject to a high risk of climate change impacts, including flooding and associated landslides. However, given the centralised nature of implementation, the lack of institutional capacity to obtain information and poor consultation with local stakeholders, the Program experienced issues as 40% of households reported reduced incomes following relocation given their lack of access to suitable agricultural land in their new location (International Organization for Migration, 2017). The lack of effective governance which emphasis cross-collaboration, consultation and mainstreaming to enable insights from various different sectors and actors are key contributing factors which led to policy failure.
Mainstreaming internal migration and displacement in Bangladesh’s law and policy framework will create sustainable solutions for internal migrants and host secondary cities. Primarily, mainstreaming promotes integrated, rather than siloed responses, to internal migration and displacement. These responses prepare for waves of migration and then provide ongoing support to internal migrants as they develop their self-sufficiency in a new community. Reducing the vulnerability of internal migrants can be a long process. Multiple stakeholders contribute to solutions resulting in comprehensive, coordinated and cost-effective strategies (Zetter, 2014). Stakeholders can include government ministries, civil society, UN agencies and displacement-affected communities (Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement, 2020).
Policy Design: Mainstreaming Migration into Existing Climate and Development Policy in Bangladesh
The National Strategy on the Management of Disaster and Climate Induced Internal Displacement (‘NSMDCIID’) aims to establish a clear policy direction for coherent climate change action (Siddiqui et al., 2015). Specifically, the Strategy was designed to create safe environments for the integration and relocation of citizens affected by climate induced internal displacement (Siddiqui et al., 2015). The NSMDCIID also has a clear policy goal of promoting alternative livelihoods and adopting an integrated, rights-based approach that is broken into three key phases of policy implementation: pre-displacement, displacement and post-displacement.
The NSMDCIID was a ground-breaking document that started to mainstream many of the issues associated with climate induced migration. However, the NSMDCIID has been hamstrung by two key factors. Firstly, the NSMDCIID is primarily a framework document, and does not provide concrete steps and methods to achieve equitable climate induced migration. The purpose of the NSMDCIID is to provide policy goals and outcomes, rather than highlighting the tangible steps required to achieve these goals. Secondly, there has been a significant lack of political will or capability to implement or initiate progress towards achieving the goals stated under the NSMDCIID. To date, government action has been aimed towards implementing climate change adaptation programs, and significant investment has centred on building the hard infrastructure required to reduce climate change impacts. Whilst this work remains important, there have been no clear steps to undertake an integrated approach to orderly migration based on economic opportunities for recipient communities and climate induced migrants alike.
The Bangladesh National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) (Ministry of Environment and Forests, 2005) and Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) (Ministry of Environment and Forests, 2009) also play an important role in developing strategic responses to the impacts of climate change. The NAPA was developed in 2005 to guide national and international responses to climate risks and to integrate such responses into development plans and processes (Naser, 2015). It provides discussion on adaptation strategies that can be undertaken, including enhancing the resilience of urban infrastructure and industries from the impacts of climate change and preparing vulnerable communities for internal emergencies (Ministry of Environment and Forests, 2005). The BCCSAP supports the messages conveyed by the NAPA by insisting that more resources are dedicated to disaster management, building adaptation infrastructure and stressing the need to perform capacity and institution building (Ministry of Environment and Forests, 2009). Importantly, the BCCSAP supports both the autonomous and planned adaptation strategies of internal migrants, calling for more ‘support to them through capacity building for their rehabilitation in new environment’ (Ministry of Environment and Forests, 2009).
Despite these positive attempts, the NAPA does not recognise any direct connection between climate change and displacement and has failed to implement any policies dealing with climate induced internal migration. In addition, the NAPA is not widely supported, as it was developed with limited participation from affected communities. Similarly, while the BCCSAP acknowledges significant migration as a result of climate change, it does not outline any clear policy for migrants and suffers from the same lack of cooperation with affected communities. Migration is not listed as an explicit adaptation strategy in the NAPA, and a number of Projects in the Programme treat migration as an undesirable outcome of climate change (Ministry of Environment and Forests, 2005). The BCCSAP also acknowledges that millions of people ‘would have to be resettled’, however does not suggest any policies to resettle displaced persons, nor does it suggest how migrants could be provided with alternative housing or land. Further, the BCCSAP emphasises a desirability that people displaced by climate change migrate internationally rather than within Bangladesh (Displacement Solutions and Young Power in Social Action, 2014). The BCCSAP contains no implementation strategy and as such there is no mechanism to ensure that the action points are fulfilled (Displacement Solutions and Young Power in Social Action, 2014). Although the BCCSAP recognises a clear link between climate change and displacement, it understates the urgency of the problem by treating it as a future concern (Bahauddin et al., 2016). A clear vision of how the needs of climate induced internal migrants will be dealt with is absent from current law and policy. Presently, migration issues are not being effectively mainstreamed into development policies or environmental governance (Naser, 2012). Gaps in current policy reveal the need for an approach that combines climate policy with urban planning and poverty reduction policies (Martin et al., 2013).
The Outline Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021: Making Vision 2021 A Reality (‘OPP’) recognises the ‘direct linkage between poverty and intensifying climate change’ (General Economics Division, Planning Commission, 2010), and that disaster management policy needs to be ‘coordinated with different stages in the disaster management cycle’ such as early recovery and immediate rehabilitation (General Economics Division, Planning Commission, 2010). Importantly, the Bangladesh Government’s 7th Five Year Plan (‘7th FYP’) views migration as an ‘integral component of the development process in contemporary Bangladesh’ (General Economics Division, Planning Commission, 2015). The Plan recognises the economic benefits that can be derived from migration and mobility, however is restrained in its approach noting the ‘urbanisation, environmental and overall developmental challenges’ caused by increased migration (General Economics Division, Planning Commission, 2015). For this reason, the Plan seems to focus on curbing internal migration rather than facilitating the process as an effective adaptation measure (General Economics Division, Planning Commission, 2015).
The treatment of internal migration under existing policy documents is emblematic of how the issue is framed within the Bangladesh politics and the policy community. Rather than considering migration as an adaptation tool, it is generally framed in negative terms and as a symptom of climate change which requires policy action. As a result of this framing, there has been limited to no integration of using labour market or economic policy to shift populations towards secondary cities where they can find alternative livelihoods. Internal migration remains exclusively framed in terms of disaster preparedness or environmental conservation. The realisation of a fully integrated approach remains outstanding, and this places significant stress on limited policy communities, rather than the whole-of-government, to tackle this problem.
Characterising internal migrants simply as victims does not help resolve the issue. Rather, decision makers have a clear responsibility to establish and implement the capacity and infrastructure to address this issue. This requires reform throughout all levels of government; however, local decision-makers are strategically placed to identify and respond to the specific challenges associated with climate induced internal migration. International and national institutions must leverage their capacity to either mitigate the threat of climate change or put in place the economic policies and infrastructure to allow local communities to adapt.
The above policy instruments should be amended to mainstream migration as a tool to alleviate vulnerable communities from the risks of climate change. Shifting discussion towards migration as an adaptation strategy will assist in generating the political will necessary to encourage migration and to fulfil economic opportunities. An integrated approach that adopts migration as a mandatory consideration in policy design for other agencies will help tackle the different dimensions that are presented from this ‘wicked’ policy problem. Embracing labour market reforms, identifying how education can be harnessed to upskill or provide relevant vocational training and using planning law to create new land tenure rights are examples of integrated policy design for internal migration.
Summary of Strengths and Weaknesses of Bangladeshi Law and Policy.
Planning and Urban Policy in Bangladesh: Identifying New Areas with a Low Climate Risk Profile
With over 2000 people arriving in Dhaka each day (Castellano et al., 2021), climate change is exacerbating existing migratory patterns as the standard of living in rural communities is declining. With more and more households needing to migrate to urban centres to look for work and top up their household income, places such as Dhaka are experiencing extreme urbanisation at an unprecedented scale. Internal migrants endure significant hardships when migrating to cities which include lack of housing resulting from high population density, infrastructure deficits and inadequate access to basic facilities such as water, electricity and sanitation (Siddiqui et al., 2020). In addition to this, unsustainable migration patterns are also contributing to other systemic social, cultural and economic issues in a continual feedback loop. Whilst poverty, traditions and lack of education are lead determinates of child labour (Shahjahan et al., 2016), unsustainable migration that continually place a load on education services reinforce these issues. When reviewing Bangladesh’s social safety net programmes and poverty reduction strategies, no specific social protection measures extend to internal migrants who have migrated to urban areas (Lucci & Mansour-Ille, 2016). For instance, programmes require an official place of residence and since internal migrants often reside in slums, they are ineligible for this form of support (Lucci & Mansour-Ille, 2016). Thus, internal migrants who have migrated to urban areas have had their vulnerability significantly exacerbated.
The Bangladesh Constitution provides legislative authority to its national government to create plans to improve the living conditions of Bangladeshis through planned development (Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1972). To achieve this objective, the Bangladesh Planning Commission, operating under the Planning Division of the Ministry of Planning, provides periodic strategic plans which outline the direction to address urbanisation (see, for instance, Perspective Plans, Five Year Plans and Annual Development Programmes). These plans are further supported by policies at regional and upazilla levels, including Structure Plans, Urban Area Plans and Community Ward Action Plans that are reviewed at 5–10 year intervals.
To tackle urban development, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives has the primary legislative responsibility for creating policies such as the Rural Development Strategy (1984), the National Rural Development Policy (2001) and the National Urban Sector Policy (2011). Although these policies recognise the importance of decentralised urbanisation (Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, 2011), they do not provide any concrete steps on how to achieve this policy objective. For instance, the National Urban Sector Policy does not provide any indication on how it can generate the sufficient pull factors to entice internal migrants away from Dhaka as their first choice of destination; for example, by providing sufficient employment opportunities and the necessary infrastructure to support seasonal migration. As mentioned previously, the BCCSAP acknowledges that millions of people ‘would have to be resettled’; however, it does not suggest any policies to resettle displaced persons, nor does it suggest how they can be provided with alternative housing or land. Where policy does recognise the scale of the problem, there have been no active steps to mainstream and implement action across the different departments and agencies, or local government bodies. As noted by Ahsan et al., planning policy in practice remains significantly fragmented and serious efforts are required to increase vertical integration with national, regional and local planning bodies Bangladesh (Ahsan et al., 2011).
In addition, a significant amount of policy and research has centred on Dhaka rather than investigating and identifying the individual needs of secondary cities in (Alam et al., 2018). Dhaka presents its own unique spatial issues and faces significant stress as migration pushes the city beyond its carrying capacity. However, there have been no serious efforts to investigate the role of secondary cities and other regional centres to alleviate the pressures of internal migration on Dhaka. Secondary cities are uniquely placed to become cities that are able to pull in internal migrants and are well situated to take transitory or seasonal migration as rural households return to their places of origin during favourable growing seasons. This issue requires an extensive bottom-up participatory approach (Alam et al., 2018). To date, there has been a severe lack of coordination with regional and local planning authorities to identify the carrying capacity constraints of each potential secondary city. Investigating potential climate change-friendly cities not only requires political will, but a sound understanding of the profiles of potential migrants. This is necessary in order to allow new urban transformation projects to be purpose-built and reflect the skills and lifestyles of new migrants, especially where there is significant capital investment to build homes and dwellings.
Effective planning law requires a supporting structure of legal rights and access to the justice system to enforce such rights. This requires a realisation of rights that are stated in key legislative instruments such as the Urban and Regional Planning Act 2017 and building the capacity to ensure rights are recorded and registered (e.g. digital land rights management) (Roy et al., 2018). This is particularly important as new migration patterns may conflict with the expectations held by native populations of receiving communities and decision-making bodies require external scrutiny to ensure that their decisions are consistent with the planning laws and policies established under the planning framework. Ensuring that there are reduced cost barriers and efficient, timely outcomes is paramount – however this requires significant investment into judicial institutions, specialised planning and environmental courts to ensure that these outcomes are realised.
In terms of resettlement and developing new land for resettlement, improved and more rapid urban planning and development of alternative towns has been recommended to rehabilitate migrants (Roy et al., 2018). Further, secondary cities or peri-urban areas could be developed to reduce the pressure on large cities such as Dhaka in dealing with slums and squatter settlements, whilst improving sanitation and health more generally (Roy et al., 2018). An example of this can be found in the satellite town of Gurgaon outside of Delhi in India which houses migrant workers. However, site selection must be evidence-driven, fit-for-purpose and must possess sufficient carrying capacity to take on the proposed residential and economic needs of new migrant populations. Selecting sites based on political expedience or economic considerations alone will only result in significant long-term costs and will not be sustainable for migrant populations. In order to improve resilience and adaptive capacity, local governments need to be working with low-income citizens. This can be achieved through initiatives such as ‘slum and squatter upgrading’, whereby local governments collaborate with slum inhabitants to provide them with improved services and infrastructure in a manner that is less costly and more effective than other non-collaborative measures (Dodman & Satterthwaite, 2008). Measures to reduce urban poverty can function to improve the adaptive capacity of citizens to deal with natural disasters; however, such capital investment must identify and respond to the specific lifestyle choices and needs of incoming climate migrants so that it is fit-for-purpose.
Rehabilitation and relocation measures need to be properly formulated to ensure that they are not perpetuating further displacement and that adequate water, sanitation, shelter and other essential services are provided (Begum, 2017). With regard to shelter, policy instruments should focus on improving the support available to displaced persons. For example, the distribution of state owned ‘khas’ land should be effective, transparent and just (Begum, 2017). As such, domestic land solutions should be streamlined and implemented to assist displaced persons (Barua, Shahjahan, Rahman & Molla, 2017), and urbanisation should not be seen as a threat where it is done with regard for effective land use and proper planning (Bahauddin et al., 2016). Relocation programs such as the Climate Victims Rehabilitation Project (‘Gucchagram’), a 3-year project to settle displaced persons on ‘khas’ land (Martin et al., 2013), should continue to ensure that migration is seen as a positive adaptation strategy. This way, internal migrants may effectively establish alternative livelihoods.
The use of community land trusts could be a vital strategy to ensure that there are adequate land available to accommodate the relocation of displaced persons. The government should begin to review public land holdings and reserves as potential land to be set aside for resettlement sites (Displacement Solutions, 2012). In doing so, domestic legislation governing the compulsory acquisition of land in the public interest should be reviewed to ensure the future viability of such measures as they become increasingly required (Displacement Solutions, 2012). Action also needs to be taken by the Government to identify appropriate land for the relocation and resettlement of climate displaced persons, in addition to existing land holdings (Displacement Solutions, 2012). This must be supported by significant investment in regional judicial institutions, such as environment and planning law courts, to ensure that there are no barriers to justice in enforcing such rights.
Maintaining or accommodating new livelihoods is also a highly relevant consideration. Different policy tools (including economic or welfare policies) and adopting an interdisciplinary approach are the first steps in effectively responding to internal migration. Internal migrants must be able to re-engage in their primary method of earning income or be provided with new skills to engage in alternative livelihoods through training and education. The first step is to develop a sufficient evidence base to determine where local and national comparative advantages lie. Engagement with local business communities, commerce chambers and government, as well as universities is vital to: (a) determine what industries are experiencing a labour shortage and (b) building the necessary infrastructure and stable regulatory environment to provide migrants with the sufficient pull factors to entice voluntary migration. In addition, economic policy must be cognisant that the movements of many internal migrants are transitory in nature and may be subject to seasonal influxes as heads of households are seeking to top up their incomes to support their families back in rural and regional areas. This means extensive efforts need to be made to create entry level jobs, whilst also promoting policies which allow permanent urban residents to upskill or specialise. An interdisciplinary approach will engage in different policy and regulatory tools, such as mainstreaming, to achieve this. Tax policy, rebates or subsidised education and industrial policy that creates more value-added employment will assist to achieve these outcomes.
Economic Policy and Education in Bangladesh
Although there has been an emphasis on creating new forms of employment that are not linked to agriculture, the sector still remains a significant employer in Bangladesh. To date, agriculture still contributes to the household incomes of over 87% of rural households (The World Bank, 2016), despite significant growth in other sectors including the services and manufacturing sectors in recent years. Pushing for certain industries such as services or manufacturing industries without taking due regard for the specific economic circumstances of each secondary city is fatal. Central governments are better placed to identify the natural comparative advantages of each city, identify whether there are any shortages in labour market supplies, and most importantly, identify the opportunities to lengthen the production chain by creating incentives to promote value-adding jobs. Alternative strategies must be harnessed and may require investigation into activities such as packaging, food processing, or other transformative processes to raw agricultural products. Investment into these industries can create significant local employment opportunities and new comparative advantages for Bangladesh’s economy. These strategies must be integrated with efforts to improve on trade facilitation to allow secondary cities to become sites for regional and international trade.
Education remains highly centralised in Bangladesh, with the Bangladeshi Government providing the funds to regional and local authorities to execute and implement national education policies. For this reason, there has been criticism that local and regional authorities lack the sufficient autonomy to make education policy (Panday, 2017). This is certainly true, with local governments only being able to create policy relating to monitoring or maintaining educational infrastructure, with no clear upward links that can inform national policy making. A failure to provide either upskilling programs to supplement existing skills, or new vocational training projects to allow migrants to perform entirely new economic activities that meet local labour market demands leads to unsustainable migratory patterns. Local and regional governments are best placed to identify the labour market constraints that can be fulfilled and in turn are better able to roll out education and upskilling programs relevant to key local industries.
Existing Finance Arrangements for Climate Induced Internal Migrants
Bangladesh is increasingly susceptible to natural disasters, and as such, the financial risks of climate change are significant for the government. The present levels of government spending on climate change adaptation are inadequate (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherland, 2018). Roughly USD $1 billion per year is spent on climate change adaptation, constituting approximately 6–7% of the total annual budget (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherland, 2018; Hedger, 2011). As a result, the Bangladesh Government will need to increase spending by five or six times if it hopes to address all climate change adaptation costs until 2050 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherland, 2018; Hedger, 2011).
Bangladesh has two national climate change trust funds, both of which are managed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests through its role in promoting the BCCSAP. The Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund is funded by the national government and was allocated approximately USD $400 million between 2009 and 2017. Of this amount, 66% has been allocated to projects, and the remaining 34% remains a fixed deposit within the Fund (Huq et al., 2019). The Ministry of Environment and Forests also established the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust, which is tasked with managing the fund and monitoring project delivery (Yasmin, 2018). The second trust fund, namely the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund, is a multi-donor trust fund which allows development partners to support the implementation of the BCCSAP. Bangladesh also receives multilateral funding for climate change adaptation, with the largest contributions coming from the World Bank’s Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience through which Bangladesh receives USD $110 million (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, 2018).
Notably, while the Disaster Management Act 2012 (Bangladesh) attempts to clarify the coordination between state actors and enhance transparency of the disaster risk reduction system (Bangladesh National Parliament, 2012), the financial accountability mechanisms within the Act are weak, as corruption and fund mismanagement are not addressed (Huq et al., 2019). Further, existing budget and resource allocation frameworks lack the flexibility required to ensure their enduring effectiveness in accommodating the increasing levels of displacement due to climate change.
Evidently Bangladesh, being a developing country, suffers from an extensive lack of financial capacity to undertake ambitious investment into capital infrastructure. It is therefore incumbent on the government to use alternative levers for budget and finance change, including through regulatory responses or by pooling finance to mitigate risk. It is important, in order to ensure the future viability of policy efforts, that the development of finance policy builds upon existing policies as opposed to creating ‘parallel and uncoordinated systems’ (Huq et al., 2019). It has further been recommended that existing public lands should be acquired to alleviate internal migration (Burkett et al., 2017). These lands can be acquired through a range of lawful avenues, including by generating revenues to purchase land, entering tribal lands into a public trust for the benefit of tribal communities impacted by climate change, using legislative avenues, or utilising estate planning mechanisms (e.g. wills and probates) (Burkett et al., 2017). These avenues can assist in reducing the cost burden of undertaking the necessary capital investment to directly build new cities and supporting infrastructure development in those secondary cities. The Ministry of Land is the government agency that handles land acquisition, delegating some of its authority to the Commissioner at Divisional level and to the Deputy Commissioner at the District level.
It is important that issues of financial accountability are adequately addressed to ensure that funds allocated to assist internal migrants are managed transparently (Huq et al., 2019). Introducing external audit oversight and reporting requirements will address issues such as unnecessary delays in implementation resulting from unplanned financial constraints and poor budget planning (Internation Organization for International Organization for Migration, 2017). Finally, it is recommended that Bangladesh consider a sovereign insurance fund to assist climate change mitigation and urban renewal strategies. Sovereign insurance funds pool money and can assist vulnerable communities which can enable access to a rapid deployment of funds in the event of a climate disaster (World Food Programme, 2021). Payouts can occur from deviations to baseline, long-term trends, with funds being obtained by investigating regional development banks or issuing government bond or related financial products.
Governance – Need For a Coordinated Response to Implement a Rights-Based Approach
Transparency, accountability and participation are key features of good governance that institutional overlap and inefficiency threatens to jeopardise (Bhuiyan, 2015). There is an extensive body of research which recognises that effective internal migration occurs when there is a supportive structure of rights that provide effective governance and oversight. Given that the choice of where to live and when to leave is a matter of individual agency that differs between each household, forced migration policies have traditionally resulted in disastrous policy outcomes (International Organization for Migration, 2017). Any policy to encourage migration away from high risk areas must reflect this element of human agency. Adopting a rights-based approach which is supported by oversight from external bodies (such as the civil sector) is not only consistent with international law but allows self-sustaining migration to occur. There is currently a lack of coordination between the different ministries of government, as well as a lack of monitoring and evaluation processes incorporated into the policies that address internal displacement (Martin et al., 2013). Further mainstreaming is required for collaborative responses. While many policies addressing internal displacement exist within the regulatory framework of Bangladesh, implementation of these policies is significantly affected by issues of ineffective governance, lack of accountability mechanisms and limited cooperation between government agencies. These problems are exacerbated when considering the ‘complex socio-political context’ of Bangladesh, and the corruption often present among implementing agencies and personnel (Huq et al., 2019).
For example, the Standing Orders on Disaster (2010), provide a set of guidelines for the organisation of government agencies and other non-government organisations which include committees at the national level such as: the National Disaster Management Council (‘NDMC’), the Inter-Ministerial Disaster Management Coordination Committee and the National Disaster Management Advisory Committee. These bodies are tasked with providing policy and management guidance and also coordinate activities relating to disaster relief and rehabilitation (Khan & Rahman, 2007). Despite this, however, there is inadequate supervision and regulation of the committee meetings. For example, while the NDMC is required to hold meetings at least once a year, yet no regular meetings take place and when meetings are not held, there is no overarching mechanism to enforce compliance with the required meeting timeframes, therefore limiting the effectiveness of any policy implementation (Huq et al., 2019; Khan & Rahman, 2007). The Standing Orders have been criticised for lacking specificity and being ‘discretionary, malleable and unenforceable’ (McAdam & Saul, 2010). For example, despite authorities having rehabilitated groups of displaced persons through the allocation of khas land and various rehabilitation projects, ‘these measures provide little detail regarding either the rights that are guaranteed or the timeframes and processes by which protection and assistance will take place’ (Naser, 2015).
Similarly, the National Plan for Disaster Management (Bangladesh) was conceived in 2010 and is now in its Second Stage (2016–20). The objective and priority of the National Plan for Disaster Management is to invest in disaster risk reduction projects. Although the Plan acknowledges the development of alternative livelihoods as a resilience strategy (Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, 2017), the Plan does not provide any detail on how the economy can be harnessed to attract internal migration towards places of reduced climate change risk. On top of concerns regarding the capacity to implement the Plan’s recommendations (Ahmed, 2019), the Plan mirrors the previous approach to frame internal migration as responses to sudden, catastrophic weather events.
Governance is further hindered by the centralised nature of decision-making in Bangladesh. The numerous and multifaceted problems faced by disaster affected communities cannot be solved by a single, centralised source. Presently, there is no direct line of communication between communities experiencing climate displacement and government agencies (Displacement Solutions, 2012). Communication is also hindered by the complex government bureaucracy in Bangladesh which consists of multiple agencies with often conflicting or overlapping responsibilities. Communities need coherent policy to support local and regional decision-making. Limited coordination between authorities and agencies further complicates governance challenges and limits the effective implementation of law and policy (Doust, Swan, Zhang, Sultana, Wajs, Braneon, Lütz., Casset & Fatorić, 2021). Due to the fact that multiple government bodies are often involved in the governance of a city, this can cause conflict and overlap, which in turn wastes valuable resources (Panday, 2006). As such, where multiple government departments and agencies are involved in implementing disaster management policy, inter organisational coordination is required to ensure policy implementation and management is successful (Panday, 2006). Mainstreaming internal displacement and migration into Bangladesh’s law and policy framework would increase coordination and build relationships between different authorities and agencies.
Many of the existing sudden-onset disaster resettlement policies in the Bangladesh regulatory framework are detailed and considered; however, they often encounter difficulties with implementation because governments lack adequate funding and implementation mechanisms (Begum, 2017). For example, the Department of Disaster Management, is responsible for implementing the objectives of the Disaster Management Act 2012 (Bangladesh) (Bangladesh National Parliament, 2012). These include: reducing vulnerability to impacts of disasters by undertaking DRR activities, enhancing the capacity of poor and disadvantaged people and strengthening programs related to DRR and emergency response (Displacement Solutions and Young Power in Social Action, 2014). Under the Act, assistance is required to be provided for persons affected by and vulnerable to disaster for ‘proper rehabilitation or to reduce the risk…due to disaster’ (Bangladesh National Parliament, 2012). However, while the Disaster Management Act creates mandatory obligations and responsibilities for Ministries in order to enhance the transparency of the disaster risk reduction system, it suffers similar difficulties with regards to effective implementation. There is no similarly detailed policy or legislation for slow-onset internal migration.
In consideration of the above, and particularly in terms of the present political and democratic functioning of Bangladesh, attempts should be made to address issues of coordination and urban management. The decentralisation of decision making should be encouraged as it increases the likelihood that affected communities are being adequately engaged with (Displacement Solutions, 2012). Local and municipal governments are key stakeholders in terms of their responsibility for providing and managing infrastructure and services. Their ability to intervene in these areas is vital for reducing vulnerabilities to environmental disasters and improving living standards and livelihoods (Dodman & Satterthwaite, 2008). A Bangladesh law and policy framework, where the rights and opportunities of internal migrants are integrated, can hold decentralised decision-makers to account.
Local authorities also need to cooperate with community-based organisations in order to gain an understanding of the needs of urban residents. Cooperation can also act as a vehicle to implement more effective disaster reduction measures and adaptation strategies. Regional experience has shown that where local governments partner with water and sanitation utilities and civil society groups, there is an improvement in the quality of infrastructure and services provided to low-income citizens (Arora, 2020). Adaptation measures that are approached with the active participation of local communities and the private sector, as opposed to a top-down, centralised approach are to be preferred (Huq et al., 2019). Such an approach can be better achieved by ensuring that displaced persons are able to identify the government institutions and agencies with specific responsibilities to assist them, such as those that provide financial and resettlement support or those that are able to enforce land and property rights (Displacement Solutions, 2012). However, as observed by Bhuiyan (2015), ‘citizen participation in actual policymaking through the “bottom-up approach” is still only rarely observed in Bangladesh’. Further, some attempts to do so have not enabled vulnerable communities to ‘contribute meaningfully’ to the process (Bhuiyan, 2015; Ayers, 2011).
Government will lack effectiveness if it is not supported by mechanisms that promote accountability and coordination between government and non-governmental organisations (Panday, 2006). Appropriate systems should be introduced to ensure that policies are adequately and effectively implemented, and a feedback mechanism should be introduced to enable citizens to assess the effectiveness of local elected representatives (Huq et al., 2019). Accountable and coordinated processes are essential for the effective implementation of any legal framework. In addition to this, the implementation of existing policies addressing environmental concerns ought to be reassessed so that current challenges can be better addressed (International Organization for Migration, 2010). This can occur through the improvement and development of local government engineering departments, and further engagement with the civil society, including NGOs and universities, to increase the capacity of government agencies to develop data-driven insights into new areas of risk, posed by climate change. The regulations surrounding the monitoring and implementation of existing policy require close examination (Begum, 2017). Programs need to be implemented transparently to ensure that they are free from corruption, and financial mechanisms should be adapted to better address internal migration (Begum, 2017; Siddiqui et al., 2015).
Conclusion
Bangladesh faces a large challenge ahead in order to effectively adapt to the effects of climate change in relation to internal migration. The failure to adopt a rights-based approach has a multitude of negative ramifications on internal migration, the most severe one being that it exacerbates the vulnerability of migrants. If a rights-based approach is not embraced, issues including poverty, social inequity and insecurity could become deeply entrenched into their already low livelihoods. However, if an integrated, rights-based approach is strategised that focuses on the multiple stages of pre-displacement, displacement and post-displacement, Bangladesh can create opportunities for these migrants in the areas of improved education, economic opportunities and better living standards. Mainstreaming is one policy strategy Bangladesh could employ to reframe and reprioritise experience of climate migrants.
Yet when examining existing Bangladeshi law and policy to evaluate its performance of addressing internal migration resulting from slow-onset climate change, there remains several issues. Whilst there is a broad policy recognising the impacts of internal migration, the NSMDCIID, this policy lacks sufficient detail and does not translate its broad objectives into tangible policy action. Other, more detailed, policies still lack sufficient integration of internal migration issues into their policy platforms, including the Five Year Plans, BCCSAP and NAPA. On the urban policy front, existing policies often fail to consider how it can create sufficient pull factors (such as through economic opportunities and education) to promote internal migration towards secondary cities and existing policy research remains heavily focussed on Dhaka. This is further reinforced by a lack of mainstreaming of this issue in domestic economic and education policies, as well as finance strategies, as well.
To address these issues, there are opportunities for several areas for reform. Although the NSMDCIID is a framework document, an additional policy which provides detail in how climate induced displacement is critical. This detail must consider how other key policy documents, such as economic and development plans, will mainstream climate induced displacement into decision making and promote further development of Bangladesh’s secondary cities. This will require a multi-sectoral approach that can provide further economic, environmental, social and cultural opportunities for households migrating to these areas. In doing so, this will enable migrants to these areas to realise their economic and social rights whilst improving their resilience to the impacts associated with climate change. In other key development policies, including the NAPA and the BCCSAP, the issue of internal migration must be mainstreamed and framed as an adaptation strategy. In addition, the Five Year Plan and Perspective Plans have an opportunity to frame migration as an opportunity for secondary cities, rather than a policy problem.
Finally, Bangladesh suffers from existing governance capacity constraints which continue to hamper implementation should a detailed and mainstreamed internal migration strategy be developed. Currently, there is a lack of digital land right management systems which record land rights provided under the Urban and Regional Planning Act 2017, making Bangladeshi communities vulnerable to land grabbing and unable to scrutinise planning law decisions. The lack of external oversight is also impacting the ability to allocate scarce financial resources from the Climate Change Trust Fund and Resilience Fund transparently and for legitimate purposes. In addition, the absence of agency cooperation and collaboration has resulted in other sectors and policy communities, such as finance and education, to fail to take into consideration the issue of climate induced migration. This is vital to ensure that policy and implementation remains evidence-based and grows organically from the communities that are most impacted by internal migratory patterns. When internal migration and displacement is centred in the Bangladesh law and policy framework, and a supportive governance structure is in place, a holistic and integrated solution will result in more sustainable communities.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
