BDPC along with NC4 (NGO Coordination Council for Climate Change) are organising a very important, unique and interesting event scheduled in Dhaka on 10 September 2009. It is the National Workshop on “Community Voice for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction”, supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
As the title indicates, the main objective of the Workshop is to bring the voice from the people, 'who know where the shoe pinches', to the national level. Carefully selected senior level participants from the government, development partners and the media will get the stories from the ‘horse’s mouth’. BDPC believe in community empowerment for appropriate and sustainable risk reduction because the poor vulnerable communities have been living with disasters for ages, and any durable solution has to come from within. No amount of external help or top down assistance would be able to pull these vulnerable communities out of their risks. Hence the formation of NC4, that BDPC is nurturing: a group of almost 200 NGOs working in the vulnerable areas of the country to consolidate and bring forth the voices from the field.
The national workshop is an attempt to bring the voices of the vulnerable communities living in the remote corners of the country where they are fighting with the adversaries of the changing climate on day to day basis, to the national level. It will become evident that the impact of climate change at the community level is not a matter of tomorrow, but a present day crisis.
The approach of the workshop would be non-traditional and unique in the sense that it will start with a ‘climate change café’ of farmers, fishermen and women from cyclone and flood prone areas of Bangladesh . The café would allow the participants, along with the chief guest and the special guests, to directly chat with the vulnerable communities and get the stories of their plight, resilience, and innovation. The café will have interpreters to facilitate the discussions and rapporteurs to report on the highlights of the discussions to the formal plenary session to follow.
Dr. Md. Abdur Razzaque, the honorable Minister for the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, will be present as the Chief Guest, while the Secretary of the Ministry and the Ambassador of Switzerland will be the Special Guests. Director Generals of Department of Environment, and Disaster Management Bureau along with a senior community representative from Sidr and Aila affected areas will be present as special invitees.
This will provide an unique opportunity to the policy makers to get the first hand story of climate change impact and adaptation without having to travel all the way to the vulnerable areas, and get the ‘real’ issues from the ‘real’ people.
