Local knowledge and the participation of women should be focused in any development and climate adaptation programme as women are more affected by climate change impacts and traditional methods fit for changing situations, experts said yesterday.
Speaking at the second day sessions of a three-day conference, they said women respond, understand, and cope with any socio-economic change faster; so their participation and opinions have to be taken into account in any development programme.
Shelly Feldman, professor of Cornell University and president of American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS), moderated yesterday's sessions of the conference "Water, waves and weather: Climate change and the future of South Asia" at the city's Brac Centre Inn.
Feldman said multi-disciplinary discussions in the conference about climate impacts in South Asia help to understand the gravity of problems and differentiate the ways of adaptation efforts of local people of different places.
Presenting a paper on "Gendered realities of climate change in South Asia", Farhana Sultana, assistant professor of Syracuse University, said women are particularly more vulnerable during natural calamities.
"More women died than men during the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh while 61 percent of all dead due to Tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004 were women", she said.
Women's death is higher as they stay back home during natural disasters to save their children, elderly people, and also their household properties, she said. "So if we lay emphasis on women while preparing to fight climate change, most people would be benefited".
MCM Iqbal, senior research fellow of Plant Biology of Institute of Fundamental Studies, Kandy, Sri Lanka, said traditional water preservation system in Sri Lanka is very useful as groundwater started depleting in the country.
Iqbal presented his paper on "The cascade tank system in Sri Lanka: A solution from past for adaptation to climate change in the water sector".
Dhaka University's Prof Amena Mohosin said participation of women in the development process is generally considered as views of United Nations (UN) and development partners. But their participation should be ensured considering the context of the country, she said.
Dr Saleemul Haq, the senior research fellow of International Institute of Environment and Development (iied); Naveeda Khan, assistant professor of anthropology of John Hopkins University; Syed Hashmi, director of Brac Development Institute; and SM Rashid also spoke yesterday.
Source : The Daily Star
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