Capacity Assessment of Public Institutions for Climate Change Adaptation: Evidence from Coastal Districts in Bangladesh

Abstract

The government of Bangladesh has introduced a wide range of climate change adaptation programmes to reduce vulnerability and tackle the impacts of climate change on agriculture, fisheries, livestock, and health in coastal areas. It also emphasises capacity building of the relevant public institutions. Assessing the capacity of institutions to meet the challenges in terms of knowledge and perception, resource availability, coordination, and collaboration requires understanding the impacts and vulnerabilities of climate change. In this context, this research examines key sectoral impacts of climate change, especially on agricultural production in coastal areas in Bangladesh, to address climate change-induced challenges such as sea level rise, salinity intrusion, flooding, coastal erosion, temperature rise, changing precipitation, and coastal waterlogging. Furthermore, it aims to evaluate the capacity of the public institutions and the challenges for agricultural adaptation strategies in the coastal areas in terms of knowledge and perception, resource availability, coordination, and collaboration, training obtainability and information access. A number of policies exist on paper, but there is a gap in understanding how well these policies are implemented and whether institutions have the actual capacity, such as resources, coordination, and skills, to carry them out. The study has been conducted on the thirteen public institutions working under the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources, and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in two coastal districts, Cox’s Bazar and Patuakhali, due to their vulnerability to climate change and their distinct agricultural production. Drawing on the policy and document analysis, key informant interviews and focus group discussions, the research identifies both progress and limitations of the institutions' responses to climate issues. The research methodology was a mixed-methods approach, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews with officials and stakeholders from the xxi Upazila to the district level. This study draws on a range of theoretical approaches to produce a comprehensive assessment of institutional adaptive capacity. The findings indicate that the impacts of climate change are visible in coastal agricultural production. The public institutions have mandates to adapt to address the challenges of climate change in coastal production. Decrease in production, crop yield loss, insect infestation, a decrease in soil fertility, drought and excessive water logging, loss of topsoil, are identified by the respondents as significant impacts of the coastal region, directly affecting the harvest quality and production quantity. Although Bangladesh has developed adaptation practices in the coastal areas, the adaptive capacity of public institutions is constrained by limited resources, technical capacities, difficulties in accessing information and weak inter-institutional coordination. The findings of the study showed that public institutions have made significant progress in integrating climate change issues into their plans, programs, and policies, and that there is an adequate level of cooperation amongst them. However, institutional, financial, and technological limitations continue to impede their overall adaptive capacities, which are inconsistent. The study identifies fragmented coordination, insufficient machinery and technical knowledge, and limited financial resources as the main obstacles to efficient coordination. The results show that the public institutions have a moderate level of preparedness and capacities in climate change adaptation and climate risk management. In conclusion, the research findings provide a distinctive explanation of the variables used in the index assessment framework and emphasise the need for strengthening institutional capacity and improving cross-sectoral collaboration. Mainstreaming the institutional assessment for climate change adaptation in coastal agriculture may consider these research findings to explore the institutional adaptive capacity in the context of a developing country. Finally, the study highlights the necessity of bridging the gaps to enable institutions to xxii successfully deal with the implications of climate change on the agriculture sector, particularly in coastal Bangladesh.