Saleh Ahmed

Saleh Ahmed is a 2016 recipient of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Climate & Society Graduate Fellows Program. 

Project Title: Developing a Community Hub for Climate Innovations in  Southwest Coastal Bangladesh

Abstract: Bangladesh ranks as one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability and change. A majority of local farmers and fishermen, whose livelihoods are dependent on climate-sensitive sectors, do not receive adequate climate information that can help improve their adaptation decision-making and increase community resilience. However, several evidence suggest that poor and marginalized farmers can improve their adaptation decision-making if they receive the appropriate demand-driven climate information in a timely manner. This motivates to develop a stakeholder-driven and user-inspired community hub for climate innovations in southwest coastal Bangladesh, where the livelihoods of majority of people are dependent on climate-sensitive sectors, and exposed to various adverse impacts caused by climate variability and change. This community hub should play instrumental role in creating opportunities for multi-way interactions and knowledge and information exchange by coproducing climate knowledge among various stakeholders concerning climate-related issues that are directly linked to local livelihoods. Ultimately, this community hub for climate innovations should play critical role promoting various social innovations in the region. The fundamental objective of this project, with the support from CLIMAS, is to develop a stakeholders-driven & use-inspired process of needs assessment that feeds into a development proposal, which can ultimately be scaled-up by national or international development partners for larger impacts across the regions. A small farming community in southwest coastal Bangladesh is the focus of this planned project.