Form joint task force for climate budget implementation

Experts at a roundtable have underscored the need to form a 'joint monitoring task force' involving government, private and civil society organisations to ensure transparency and proper implementation of the climate change budget.
At the same time, more funds should be allocated for research on the climate change and disasters and knowledge management, they said.
The government has been providing climate funds for 25 ministries for the last three fiscal years.
The experts made the observations at the roundtable titled 'Bangladesh Climate Budget for 2019-20 Fiscal Year: A CSO Analysis and Reflection' in the city, jointly organised by the ActionAid Bangladesh and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in the city on Sunday.
ICCCAD Director Dr Saleemul Haq said, "As the climate budget increases every year, it is important to evaluate its impacts. Budget monitoring and research-based analysis are a must to enhance the effectiveness of the allocated budget."
"In this context, a committee can be formed at the joint initiative, which, on the basis of observation and analysis, could adopt more effective plans on how to implement the climate budget," he said.
He also called for investment in long-term development of infrastructure in order to minimise the suffering of people during disasters.
Tanjir Hossain, head of resilience and climate justice unit of ActionAid, and its programme officer Lamia Hossain presented the keynote paper at the event.
In the keynote paper, they said the cumulative budget allocated for the 25 ministries in the fiscal year (FY) for 2019-20 accounts for 58.11 per cent of the national budget.
And 7.81 per cent of the allocation for the ministries goes to the Climate change budget.
The budget allocation for the climate change has increased to Tk 237 billion in FY '20 from Tk 126 billion five years back. The current allocation accounts for only 0.8 per cent of the country's Gross domestic Product (GDP), according to the keynote paper.
It also said the highest allocation in this year's climate budget was for food security, social safety and health sectors, which is 39 per cent of the budget. And 20 per cent has been allocated for infrastructure development while 8.0 per cent for mitigation and low carbon emission technologies.
The paper also said though the government has taken many green initiatives, there are many other development projects too contributing to the climate change.
Therefore, both positive and negative investments need to be evaluated in the upcoming Climate Budget Report, it suggested.
Several organisations, including CSOs and the private sector, are investing in climate change adaptation and mitigation purposes.
"All these efforts and investments must be included in the next climate budget," the paper recommended.
Tanzir Hossain said, "In order to understand how climate allocation and spending could change people's livelihoods and others, it is important to monitor the results of each project and work.
"Therefore, a Joint Monitoring Task Force (JMTF) is required to be formed," he said.
This task force, with the participation of government officials, CSOs and the private sector, will work to strengthen coordination between different ministries and departments, assist in conducting performance audits of implementation, monitoring and evaluation departments, and could evaluate the efforts of non-governmental organisations on tackling climate change, he added.
Joint secretary of the ministry of disaster management and relief M Khalid Mahmud said the government has given priority to infrastructure development.
Last year, 11,000 residential homes were built for endangered people, which will be increased to 20,000 this year."
Program Director of ICCCAD Mizanur Rahman Khan said implementation of climate budget and plans is still a major challenge in the context of Bangladesh.
"That is why transparency and accountability need to be ensured," he added.
He also said there are two aspects of danger -- one is geographical and the other is social and economical.
"Adaptation should be viewed from both these perspectives and action must be taken to tackle climate change," he said.
Country director of Practical Action Hasin Jahan, executive director of Climate Change Network in Bangladesh Mizanur Rahman Bijoy and executive director of Centre for Participatory Research & Development Md Samsuddoha also spoke at the roundtable presided over by Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid.

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