I have just returned from Kampala, Uganda, where I attended the 11th International Conference on Community Based Adaptation (CBA11), where around 300 participants from over fifty countries came together for a week of discussions and knowledge-sharing on how the most vulnerable communities around the world are already taking action to tackle climate change at the local level. This conference series …

(Originally published here) When it comes to cooking indoors over open fires, the harmful health effects can be equal to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. This indoor air pollution plagues nearly nine out of every 10 Bangladeshi households, which use wood and other biofuels to cook inside. Over time, exposure to smoke from indoor cooking leads to deadly …

(This article was originally published here) We travel by car and speed-boat to the island of Kitubdia in the Bay of Bengal. From the ferry ghat, it is a bumpy 15-minute ride into town in the back of a jalopy. I’ve come to the island with Bangladeshi friends to research the impact of climate change on this community of fishermen …

Bangladesh has established itself as a leader in both CBA research and practice. The country now hosts a national CBA conference every two years, in support of the international CBA conference that has been occurring annually since 2006. In 2012, Bangladesh organized the first National conference on CBA where more than 8 INGOs and many research institutions were given an …

Community-based adaptation (CBA) empowers communities to take action to address climate change based on their own decision-making processes, priorities, knowledge and needs. This is particularly important in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and across Asia, where vulnerability to climate change impacts is high. Although CBA is an emerging area, many efforts are being made to develop participatory methodologies, raise awareness …

As a three-time participant in the ICCCAD short course, I consider myself as a veteran by now! The first course I attended was the 7th Short Course on Scientific Approaches to CBA, in July 2011. At that time I had just arrived in Bangladesh. I had come to conduct an initial participatory research assessment, for participatory action research on climate risk management …