An Innovative Model for Engagement of Rural Citizens/Community of Bangladesh with Climate Change

Citizens/community engagement (CE) is a “two-way interaction between the citizens and government(s) or the private sector that give citizens a stake in decision making, with the objective of improving development outcomes”. CE is about human development/human welfare with respect to education, food and health security, sustainability and climate change. This article proposes a new model encompassing some innovative programmes and projects with the aim of engaging rural community of Bangladesh (referred to here as CE) with climate change adaptation and mitigation, climate risks management (CRM) and climate resilient development (CRD) and low-carbon development (LCD). The proposed CE programme includes: (a) education of rural citizens; (b)-training of rural farmers on sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, climate-smart aquaculture practices and disaster management; and (c) generation of new job opportunities via climate-smart agriculture, aquaculture/fisheries, clean/green energy and carbon sink projects. The proposed CE has relevance with the newly globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The CE programmes will be coordinated by the Upazila (Sub-district) Administration and relevant departments within the Upazila. It is envisaged that CE programmes and projects would reduce poverty, hunger and enhance economic, social and environmental growth and development in rural Bangladesh in a most sustainable way. To implement CE, five levels of engagement strategies would be adopted (inform, consult, involve, collaborate and empower citizens/community). The success of CE on targeted objectives/goals will be evaluated based on costs and time spent, benefits achieved, feedback received from participants via satisfactory survey results etc.