Empowering women as decision makers – creating new economic prospects

Promoting gender equality as part of measures for adapting to climate change in urban areas

^{As of: 02/2025}

The aim of the Climate Bridge Fund is to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable people in urban areas who have been forced to migrate due to the effects of climate change and/or are threatened by the effects of climate change or other non-climate-related disasters. To this end, a competitive mechanism is used to finance selected innovative small projects by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which, for example, improve living conditions for the affected population quickly and noticeably through improved access to housing, drinking water, basic health and education services or the creation of additional economic prospects. These projects are implemented with the participation of the target group. Particular attention is paid to promoting gender equality. Strengthening the role of women as decision-makers in local communities will ensure that the needs of girls and women are taken into account in the way measures are designed and that discriminatory gender norms are reduced.

Project title	Climate Change and Climate-related Internal Migration Facility (Climate Bridge Fund)
Commissioned by	Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country/Region	Bangladesh
Project partners	BRAC (NGO)

Current situation

Bangladesh is one of the world’s countries that is most impacted by the effects of climate change: 60% of the land area is regularly flooded and, as a result, can only be used to a limited extent or, in some cases, can no longer be used for housing or economic purposes. The current climate forecasts indicate further deterioration. As a result, a further increase in internal migration flows is expected in the future (13 to 20 million climate-related internal migrants by 2050). The rapid influx of migrants into informal settlements puts strong pressure on local infrastructure (e.g. housing, energy and water supply) as well as the availability of basic services (e.g. health services, basic education) and employment opportunities in poor urban areas.

At the same time, according to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index 2024, Bangladesh ranks 125th (out of 146) in the “Economic Participation and Opportunity” category for women and is also one of the countries worldwide with the lowest proportion of women-led companies in the formal sector (1.7%). Despite progress in numerous areas and a comparatively strong representation of women in political offices, women still suffer heavily from discriminatory patriarchal norms in the local and family context and are more vulnerable in the event of a shock such as a climate disaster.

Frauen sitzen auf dem Boden. — Meeting of women to design the measures.

Project approach

The Climate Bridge Fund is an endowment fund that was established in November 2019 by the Bangladeshi non-governmental organisation BRAC and is financed by KfW Development Bank on behalf of the German Federal Government. It is an innovative financing mechanism to support small projects carried out by registered NGOs in Bangladesh to strengthen the resilience of people who have been forced to migrate to poor urban areas due to the effects of climate change and/or who are particularly at risk from the consequences of climate change.

Many of the promoted small projects are designed to strengthen women’s role as decision-makers in the long term and create economic prospects for women. For this purpose, women-led organizations at community level are established, strengthened and empowered to engage in participatory processes to develop local action plans for measures for basic care and adapting to climate change and to support the implementation of these measures. This close involvement of women in decision-making processes enables measures to be better targeted towards women’s specific needs. The components for supporting the establishment of livelihoods are also aimed specifically at women and include financial support through grants or microloans as well as training on financial education and entrepreneurship.

Impact

On the one hand, the project can better protect the target group from further effects of climate change (risk minimisation) and, on the other hand, it can better enable the target group to deal with the (unavoidable) effects (strengthening resilience). So far, around 611,000 people have benefited from the NGO projects, over 70% of whom are women.

The measures and the close involvement of women in decision-making processes are changing the perception of women in family and public contexts. An important project component is the regular accompanying community- and budget-based awareness-raising measures on gender roles and decisions on resources. Here, men are involved as change agents in the project design, and many women report more recognition, more influence in decision-making and a changed distribution of care work (gender-transforming effect).

Economic participation measures are also of particular importance for women in order to be able to better cope financially with the consequences of climate change through built-up savings and protection mechanisms and thus to avoid falling back into absolute poverty in the event of climate disasters – which take place regularly in Bangladesh – such as cyclones or the annual monsoon-related flooding in poor districts, as well as to reduce the gender gap.

The current selection round for new projects under the Climate Bridge Fund focused on projects that specifically identify the different needs of genders and take them into account comprehensively in the project design.

The project contributes to the achievement of these following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: