Dhaka //

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Advisor to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and the Ministry of Water Resources announced that USAID will provide a $15 million grant to increase climate resilience in Bangladesh.

The grant will be used under USAID’s CLIMACT project, which will support the implementation of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) in Bangladesh to pursue green and climate resilient pathways. The project will mainly focus on three areas: policy and planning, access to finance and governance of climate action.

The announcement was made after a delegation led by USAID Director Joseph Lessard met with the Environment Advisor in a meeting at the Bangladesh Secretariat today. The meeting discussed issues of increasing climate resilience and environmental sustainability through the CLIMACT project.

In the meeting, Syeda Rizwana Hasan highlighted the importance of international cooperation and said that the CLIMACT project is an important step in our fight against climate change, and this cooperation of USAID will further strengthen our efforts to protect vulnerable populations and the environment.

He added that cooperation with global partners like USAID will increase our capacity to deal with the effects of climate change, especially in flood-prone, riverine and coastal areas.

Joseph Lessard reiterated USAID’s commitment to continue working on environmental initiatives in Bangladesh and commended the country’s active role in climate action to ensure long-term climate resilience.

The meeting was attended by Ministry Secretary, Additional Secretary along with USAID Team Leader Bronwyn Llewellyn, Winrock International USA Director of Forestry and Natural Resource Management Robert Kenny, Winrock Associate Director of Environment and Energy Firas Trish and Katie Lazar.