Call summary :

About Climate Bridge Fund (CBF)
The Climate Bridge Fund (CBF) is a trust fund established by BRAC with support from the Government of Germany through KfW. CBF supports urban adaptation measures in the context of climate-induced migration.
The Climate Bridge Fund has been set up to “bridge” the financial gap from short-term project funding to sustainable provision of services and infrastructure for climate-induced migrants. The aim is to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable people in urban areas who are either displaced or are at the risk of being displaced due to the impacts of climate change.

About the Call
Climate Change implications on migration have been pointed as an emerging risk in the entire world1. In Bangladesh, migrants and displaced people in the urban areas are critically exposed to different types of climate change related hazards including rising temperature, drought, heavy rainfall, water logging, flood/flash flood, cyclone and storm surges (particularly in the coastal zone), sea level rise, salinity intrusion and so on. These climatic hazards may result to damage of household properties, contamination of water sources, increase in climate sensitive diseases and loss of livelihoods2. The 8th Five Year Plan (8FYP) of the Government of Bangladesh clearly recognizes the outmigration patterns from rural to urban areas mainly due to climatic hazards and indicates the needs of putting greater attention to such climate affected communities3. The National Adaptation Plan (NAP), of Bangladesh sets “Develop climate-smart cities for improved urban environment and well-being” as one of the six priority national goals. The government prioritizes actions in the cities/towns to enhance resilience of the climate-induced migrants4. Partnership with different stakeholders including NGOs, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), private sectors may need to be increased to ensure implementation of effective adaptation/resilience measures at the community level in the urban areas as revealed in the above plan.

It is evident that migration inflow in slums would create pressure with additional demand on basic services including access to employment, housing, water supply and sanitation, health, education, drainage and other infrastructure/facilities in all urban centres including Khulna, Barishal, Rajshahi, Satkhira and Sirajganj. Lack of these basic services and exposure to different climatic hazards referred in National Adaptation Plan of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) 2009, 8th Five Year Plan and other climate change related national policy instruments make the life and livelihoods of urban people especially slum dwellers more vulnerable.

The purpose of this Call for Concept Note is to select projects that contribute in strengthening climate resilient services and infrastructure in selected urban areas5 in Bangladesh. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) clearly mentioned that the people of coastal urban areas would face huge loss and damages due to rapid (e.g., flash floods, cyclones and storm surges) and slow onset events (e.g., sea level rise, salinity intrusion in ground and surface water) in not only Bangladesh but across the world. The risks of the slum dwellers who are socially disadvantaged people would further suffer if climate resilient services and infrastructures are not extended effectively or adaptation actions are not taken immediately6. In addition to this the negative impact on women and people with disabilities and other more marginalised communities will even be further.

Through this call, the Climate Bridge Fund (CBF) aims to contribute in implementation of some of the key national climate change and development policy instruments including BCCSAP 2009, NAP 2022; 8FYP (2020-2025), Climate Change Gender Action Plan (ccGAP), The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979) and Perspective Plan (2021-2041) that critically recognize the need of addressing climate resilience in urban areas through improvement of services and infrastructures. The selected projects would also contribute to implementing the Paris Agreement, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bangladesh.

Funding
The total budget available for NGOs through this call is 49.34 million BDT.

Focus of the Call
The Climate Bridge Fund (CBF) invites NGOs (registered under NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh) to submit project ideas using the prescribed Concept Note Template to respond to this call. Under this Call, CBF will support gender-responsive projects that contribute to strengthening the resilience of climate induced displaced populations (men and especially women, wherever possible with a specific focus on women/ tak