Development of Gender Responsive Adaptive Livelihood Planning Toolkit

Bangladesh is considered one of the countries (in 7^th position) most at risk to the effects of climate change and its coastal area is most vulnerable. A considerable segment of Bangladesh's coastal population is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Climate-induced increases in soil salinity and freshwater aquifer salinity (due to sea level rise and cyclone-driven salt water inundations) pose a serious danger to agriculture-based livelihoods. Tropical cyclones, storm surges, floods, and droughts occur frequently in both Khulna and Satkhira of Bangladesh. In both districts, these occurrences have had a significant impact on agriculture, drinking water supply, housing, and infrastructure, putting people's lives, livelihoods, and possessions at risk. Moreover, 16 and 35 percent of people living in Khulna and Satkhira are extremely poor. Gender inequality also exists in these districts due to a variety of social and cultural norms that influence women's daily activities as well as their ability to adjust to climate change. UNDP took an initiative which is called Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation (GCA) to support an estimated 245,516 people directly from 56,264 households  including 579 Indigenous Peoples/Ethnic Minority households (0.19% of the total households) and seeks to offer targeted support to women and adolescent girls in these two coastal Districts. To better support the target beneficiaries, it has been decided to develop gender response adaptive livelihood planning toolkit by an external national consultant.

The overall objective of this assignment is to develop a Gender Responsive Adaptive Livelihood Planning Toolkit for the GCA project to implement the project activities in order to mitigate potential risks and adverse impacts on women, beneficiary households, communities, and Indigenous Peoples/Ethnic Minorities in the project areas. It also intends to build the adaptive capacities of women in coastal communities of southwest Bangladesh and enable them to take up resilient, adaptive livelihoods in the face of climate-induced salinity.

The specific objectives of the Toolkit/assignment are:

1. To design Gender-responsive climate change resilient livelihood Planning Toolkit for the project beneficiaries and communities.
2. To identify the level of gender sensitivity/responsiveness, and the climate change adaptation of the existing and planned livelihood interventions of the beneficiary households and the value chain;
3. To identify particular Gender-responsive and climate adaptive needs of the beneficiaries and communities from the perspective of the project, suitability and sustainability.
4. To help/facilitate coastal poor households and communities taking Gender-responsive and climate risk informed livelihood decisions.

To facilitate promotion of Gender-responsive and climate adaptive Knowledge Attitude and Practices (KAP) into livelihood planning of project households and communities, Dr. Md Mokhlesur Rahman has been recruited as National Consultant to work with International consultant and to support project team to develop the toolkit.