Dhaka:Rights groups have urged COP31 to focus on implementing existing climate commitments rather than making new pledges. They emphasize the importance of ensuring adequate and accessible grant-based climate finance, along with dedicated long-term funding for women farmers.
According to United News of Bangladesh, these demands were highlighted during a seminar organized by EquityBD, BCJF, COAST Foundation, AVAS, Bindu, and Street Child at the CIRDAP Auditorium in Dhaka. The groups also called for fulfilling the commitment to triple adaptation finance, ensuring that loss and damage funding reaches affected people swiftly and directly, and facilitating finance and technology transfer to support a transition away from fossil fuels.
Speakers at the seminar stressed the need for recognizing women farmers as independent producers and economic actors, rather than merely as a vulnerable group. They advocated for meaningful roles for women in local adaptation planning and agricultural decision-making. The challenges faced by women farmers, such as access to safe water, security, technology, and healthcare, as well as losses in agricultural production and income, were underscored.
The groups demanded that adaptation finance be tracked to determine how much reaches women farmers and its impact on various aspects such as production, income, resource control, losses, labor, time burdens, and adaptive capacity. They also called for equal access to resources, technology, and markets, integrated action on salinity, and equal pay for women agricultural workers.
M A Hasan, head of climate change at COAST Foundation, presented the keynote paper, highlighting issues related to climate change, agriculture, and women's rights. Dr. Md Akter Hossain Khan of the Ministry of Agriculture suggested that grassroots organizations unite to present their demands, and proposed the establishment of local cold storage facilities while promoting climate-resilient seeds.
A K M Jasimuddin from the Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB) mentioned that Bangladesh's representatives at COP meetings need to be more vocal. He noted that while Bangladesh's economy is agriculture-based, development planning hasn't focused adequately on agriculture.
Professor Mohammad Ali of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University raised concerns about carbon trading potentially legitimizing continued emissions by developed countries. Rahima Sultana Kajol from AVAS highlighted the need for women farmers' participation in decision-making processes.
Imtiaz Ridoy from Street Child Bangladesh proposed a one-stop service for women farmers to access government support, while Syed Aminul Haque of EquityBD called for allocating at least 50 percent of climate finance to adaptation, backed by evidence of effective initiatives.
The seminar, moderated by Mostafa Kamal Akand of COAST Foundation, included representatives from civil society, youth groups, and the media, as well as women farmers from various regions.