What more are to focus beyond Climate Fund?

Tasfi Sal-Sabil and M Mizanur Rahman It is really a matter of pride that the UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon has praised Bangladesh for its initiatives regarding disaster preparedness and management mentioning as 'world leader'. This sort of proclamation and appraisal from this high official is inspiring but at the same time eye-opening. It is really good that this recognition will help the country in getting more support. On the other hand, this is important that how much capacitated and how much sincere we are to use this fund. It is an old story that ours is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Moreover, scientists say that they are "virtually certain"-99 per cent-that the world will have more extreme spells of heat and fewer of cold. Media reports say heat waves could peak as much as 5.0 degrees hotter by mid-century and even 9.0 degrees hotter by the end of the century. With it, we will be the most victim of glacier melting and rise in sea level in deed. With this adversity of nature, the coastal poor people and those living in disaster prone areas will suffer the most. But to what extent these poor people can be benefited from these funds is a big question now if we cannot ensure the proper management of the fund. In recent times, appropriate management for climate fund has become an issue of wide discussion and it is more crucial for the country like Bangladesh. Huge amount of development fund for internal development is misused owing to lack of transparency and efficiency in proper management. When we talk about efficiency, it includes all about the fund management with proper allocation and prioritisation of sectors. And then second concern comes as efficiency of the authority concerned who will utilise the money and the third one comes as transparency. As climate change is a cross cutting issue, it affects almost every sector directly or indirectly; but a noteworthy assessment has been made of the impact of climate change on the Annual Development Programme (ADP) of Bangladesh. This shows that in a typical year, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) spends nearly $4.7 billion dollars in development projects in its eight sectors (including the block allocation for local governments). Of them, it has been estimated that about $2.7 billion of investment is now at risk due to climate change. This is only the formal investment of the government but this assessment could not capture the amount of investment of the poor marginal farmers on agriculture, which is, in term, spoiled or damaged due to the adversity of climate change. The impact of climate change on agriculture is very alarming and drastic in Bangladesh. Approximately 70 per cent of the people are dependent on agriculture directly or indirectly for their livelihood and 45 per cent of the labour force is directly dependent on agriculture. This sector has great impact on our macro-economic situation like employment generation, food security and poverty alleviation. Any impede in this sector imbalance the whole macro-economic chain. All sectors are individually hampered by this. So, while prioritising the sectors for fund allocation, it should get importance so that we can adopt climate resilient crops and crop pattern. Few days earlier in Solution Exchange, an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangladesh for sharing expertise on different developmental issues, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP posted an argument regarding the capacity building of the concerned government officials for the proper and effective utilisation of climate fund. He asked, 'what can and should be done immediately and in the shortmedium term to enhance the capacity of GoB to ensure adequate usage of the climate funds?' It is really a very needful concern now when we are fighting to avail the climate compensation. And it is also a good sign for the country that the government came to realise that they need to be capacitated for the proper utilisation of the fund. The Government has been allocating and spending significant amount of money from its own coffer over the past couple of years by creating the Climate Change Trust Fund, allocating $100 million per annum. In the pipeline are the World Bank administered Resilience Fund, First Track Fund, and the Green Funds and so on. We are sure that the total allocation with these lines will excel at least the visible economic losses due to climate change but the invisible losses will remain unaddressed undoubtedly. However, this goodwill has been dented to some extent, mainly due to delays in decision making in funding allocations. The global financial mechanisms have international watchdog groups who are keeping a close eye on how countries are performing, including how they are handling their funds. It is not that we will get a bunch of allocation at a time and change or compensate the situation at a time; rather it is a gradual process which needs a continuous support. So, for ensuring this support, we need to show some effective initiatives that have to be taken by the government itself. According to climate expert Dr Atiq Rahman, the Resilience Fund is yet to take off properly. There have been accusations on lack of transparency in decision making, selection process and fund management procedures. These processes are now threatening the Fund's future. Greater transparency, greater anticipation of key government and civil society actors and rapid action would help this situation. At the same time, greater and coordinated participation of other institutions are equally important. Under the circumstances, government's capacity building is an extremely crucial issue, not only to retain but also to increase the inflow of climate funds to the country, since we need huge funds to cope with the continuously deteriorating climate change impacts on the country. Creating our own human resources for fighting the adversity or for managing the fund has another implication too -- it will save a huge amount of money that we are supposed to spend for the consultancy fee to the foreign experts. If we can build our own resource pool with some talented people having patriotic zeal in themselves, it will be a great asset for the country and it will also protect the money drainage and ultimately we will be able to reach more people intended. With all these things, ensuring transparency in development projects is a must now. It is frustrating that we are not with a good name in the international arena. This is not only an issue of prestige but also a heinous act of deprivation. If government cannot ensure transparency in this fund management, it will of course threat the flow of fund and ultimately the suffering people will be deprived. Above all, now we need to focus not only on monetary support, but also some other supports like capacity building of the professionals so that the programmes can be implemented smoothly and this expertise does not remain confined in a few people. Increased awareness, more expert professionals, sincerity of the government and the sufficient flow of fund need to be ensured and balanced otherwise the entire agenda will be fruitless. Tasfi Sal-Sabil is a student of Department of Development Studies at Dhaka University. He can be reached at email: tasfi.salsabil@yahoo.com and M Mizanur Rahman is a development researcher and can be reached at email: mithunmds07@gmail.com