The State of Locally-led Adaptation (LLA) in Climate Vulnerable Communities in Selected Coastal Districts of Bangladesh

Climate change is one of the most serious environmental concerns that humankind is now facing. It significantly impacts various sectors, including food security, natural ecosystems, freshwater supply, and human health. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries regarding climate change's consequences. Floods, droughts, cyclones, riverbank erosion, salt intrusion, and water logging are all prevalent in the country. These all affected food, water, health, energy security, and people's livelihoods. Bangladesh's government and non governmental organizations-initiated attempts to tackle the climate change disaster via community-based adaptation, which has certain limitations in making the community more resilient. Locally driven adaptation has risen to the top of the global and local agendas, intending to implement adaptation measures through local authorities. However, development community has for many years CBA was being practiced, but LLA is more exhaustive and more politically challenging. Therefore, this thesis looks into the understanding of LLA and the difference between LLA and CBA, participation and decision-making under LLA, roles of community leaders, and the community’s encountered challenges and expectations broadly. This study relies mainly on qualitative research methods, with very few quantitative approaches used. Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with government and non-governmental organization (NGO) workers were used to collect information about locally led adaptation (LLA). Focus Group Discussions were also used to gather community people's perspectives on LLA initiatives, including their utilization, effectiveness, and prospects. Overall characteristics of LLA were calculated for the projects of NGOs and GOBs; the results showed that both types of organizations fell within the moderate level of LLA features. Most of the respondents could not clearly define the term, but their attempts to define LLA were significant, and their thoughts were linked to their experience and knowledge. Participation in the project design and planning phase is low among the communities due to the complex procedures of organizations. Local actors advocate on behalf of the people in the community to receive benefits from NGOs. NGOs invite the community to MEL activities to a limited extent, whereas GoB has no scope for communities; besides, communities have limited access to the project's progress and financial information. NGO initiatives collaborate better with CSO and CBOs at the community level than GOB projects. They are implementing LLA projects or initiatives affected mainly by the power dynamics at the local level and limited or no access to financial resources. Besides, local political influence also causes the problem of implementing the LLA process. Lack of transparency in the implementation process and lack of accountability of community people are critical governance challenges at the grassroots level. Communities and local actors lack of capacity to implement the LLA initiatives to make their communities resilient in most cases. The policy provision necessary for locally-led adaptation requires the government to launch a one-of-a-kind effort to establish particular policy choices for LLA and to incorporate LLA into all climate change plans and strategies. Besides, a local-level MEL system should be in place to track progress and ensure accountability and learning mechanisms.