Accounting for Agency of Marginalised Communities in Adaptation
This policy brief highlights the urgency of recognising and empowering agency within marginalised communities in climate-vulnerable regions. It further builds upon the notion that adaptation efforts cannot succeed without addressing the intersecting challenges of caste, class inequalities, and climate risks. Dalit communities, facing exclusion, limited education, and generational poverty, are often excluded from decision-making, making generalised strategies ineffective. To address this, the brief recommends a bottom-up approach that develops local leaders, institutionalises vision-building, uses quantitative methods to capture context-specific inequalities, and reduces bureaucratic barriers, ultimately fostering more equitable and effective climate resilience for one of Bangladesh’s most at-risk populations.