Step up govt-NGO coordination to protect climate migrants

Speakers tell policy dialogue

23 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Raising awareness among the community members and decentralising the administration are imperative to maintaining preparedness to respond to climate change, speakers said at a policy dialogue yesterday. Referring to the suffering of Aila victims, they also stressed the need for better coordination among government and non-government organisations in addressing climate change-induced migration. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Brac Development Institute organised the policy dialogue on 'Environment, climate change and migration in Bangladesh' at the Brac Centre Inn in the city to mark the first anniversary of cyclone Aila. Speaking as the chief guest, State Minister for Environment Hasan Mahmud said a huge number of population will be displaced due to long-term impacts of the global climate change. “The government has already allocated requisite resources to address the climate change issue. We also have enough food grains to support communities affected by natural disasters. But ensuring shelter for the displaced population still remains a challenge,” he said. He also stressed the need to establish an international legal regime to address climate change-induced cross-border migration. At the dialogue, national and international experts and representatives of government, non-government and international organisations stressed the need for a national survey on displaced population. Rabab Fatima, the regional representative of the IOM, said Bangladesh can address the challenges of internal displacement and possible cross-border migration on the basis of experiences of managing international migration. IOM's recent experiences in Aila-affected areas have shown that while disaster risk reduction efforts and post-disaster response have improved significantly over recent decades, there is still considerable room for improvement, she said. IOM has distributed food and non-food items to around 28,000 people severely affected by cyclone Aila in two upazilas. They also launched a website -- ccm.iom.org.bd -- to let the world know about the situation of displaced Aila victims. A report on 'Assessing the evidence: Environment, climate change and migration in Bangladesh' by Matthew Walsham was launched at the programme.