Bangladesh Enabling Environment for Climate Action Needs Assessment: A Summary

Bangladesh’s Enabling Environment for Climate Action

Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change, and the Government of Bangladesh has taken significant legal, strategic, and financial actions to respond to the climate-related challenges it faces. With the launch of its new Climate Strategy in 2022, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is well positioned to support the Government of Bangladesh in these efforts, including by bolstering the enabling environment to affect long-term, transformative change.

To this end, the USAID Climate Adaptation Support Activity (CASA) conducted a needs assessment to identify opportunities for strategic investment that can support transformational change in Bangladesh. These include a host of enabling environment actions related to policy, capacity, environmental governance, and the promotion of economic and financial shifts to support green growth, disaster risk finance, shock-responsive social protection, and climate smart agriculture. The report also identifies specific interventions to generate knowledge and/or promote improved adaptation practice in education, technology, and health.

Summarizing findings across these diverse technical areas, the report highlights three systems (and leverage points within these systems) where USAID institutional and policy support is likely to lead to the kind of transformational change described in the Climate Strategy’s second strategic objective (SO2).