Resilience-building and women's leadership in Bangladesh
This case study describes the Resilience through Economic Empowerment, Climate Adaptation, Leadership and Learning (REE-CALL) programme in Bangladesh and evaluates the way the programme enhances women's leadership.
The REE-CALL programme aims to strengthen community resilience to climate change by fostering economic empowerment and inclusive leadership. The programme targets highly vulnerable people: 225,000 households in 14 of the worst-affected districts of the three most vulnerable agro-ecological regions of the country – Haor, Char and the south-west and south-central coastal regions.
The programme recognizes the complex, interrelated issues of poverty and lack of agency that make women and men more vulnerable to climate change and less able to build resilience. It helps communities anticipate and cope with climate and disaster-related challenges better, recognizing the need for a holistic and integrated approach that tackles economic empowerment, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA), rights and entitlements, and women’s leadership.