Name of the project: “Women Led Climate Resilience (WLCR)”

Programme Area: Climate resilience, Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health

Duration: July 2022 to July 2023  

Funded by: Pathfinder International

Supported by: Pathfinder International

Implementation area of PHD: Mollar Char, Kamarjani & Gidari of Sadar Upazila, Holdia, Ghuridaho, Vorodkhali of Saghata Upazila and Gojaria, Fazlupur, Fulchori of Fulchori Upazila

Target audience: Pregnant women and adolescent girls

Purpose: The purpose of this program is to provide solutions to the problems caused by climate change which has caused repetitive flooding and erosion which has adversely affected the livelihoods of women and girls in Gaibandha.

Project brief:

Gaibandha, the northern district of Bangladesh, which is one of the districts most severely affected by flooding and erosion. Gaibandha belongs to the mainland region where more than 80 percent of people here are directly or indirectly involved with agricultural production and their livelihoods are adversely affected by a concentration of various. Repetitive floods and riverbank erosion increase the vulnerability of the natural resource bases of the area and affect the livelihood of the communities. There have been many initiatives on emergency response and building community resilience in the Gaibandha district, but few have focused on health and SRH needs. The sustainable community information and support mechanism has not to be seen as a major solution model for building a climate-resilient community that addresses women’s health issues and supports to access quality health services. PHD has been working on strengthening such a community support mechanism in its MNCHN interventions across the country and its experience.

Through the project, PHD would like to address the issue problem by;

1. “Women-led Community Support System” that will work on empowering women and developing them as change agents and resilient leaders in the community support system structure.  Women UP members, CHWs, and other women group/ CBO leaders will be included as part of gender transformation initiatives.
2. “Harmonizing Local Level Effort” will focus on local level partnership with other development actors to access the women group, CBOs, and ongoing supports. This block will facilitate the local government and local actors to coordinate and harmonize their effort to avoid overlapping and reach more vulnerable women.
3. “Strengthening Local Health System” will focus on the capacity building of CHWs in delivering health, SRH, and GBV services during emergency responses and disasters. The project will mobilize the local health system towards more responsive service mechanism by revitalizing community support system and strengthening tracking and referral mechanism.
4. “The local Government Led Sustaining Model” will mainly work on the sustainability of all the best practices under three building blocks. PHD’s expertise in local government sensitization will contribute to mobilizing the local government institutions from the inception phase of the project.