Bangladesh is set to get its first health national adaptation plan considering climate change, with the final validation on the draft of the national document held on Monday.
Climate change and health promotion unit of the Health Services Division organised the event titled ‘Comprehensive climate change and health national adaptation plan validation workshop’.
Health and climate change experts, academics and researchers attended the workshop held at a hotel in the capital Dhaka.
CCHPU director and coordinator Iqbal Kabir said that earlier there were three discussions on the policy document.
After this final validation, they will incorporate all the issues raised, he said.
‘The HNAP will be finalised by January,’ he said.
Bangladesh first started preparing the HNAP in 2018, but the effort did not succeed.
In 2022, a fresh initiative was taken and it is expected to be finalised soon.
Climate change expert and emeritus professor Ainun Nishat said that the HNAP should be finalised soon.
If there are more things to add that could be done later, he said.
He said that a national adaptation plan was prepared for 10 years and if needed, it was upgraded in five years.
So, if needed, the HNAP could be modified based on expert opinions and public expectation, he said.
He said that the expenditure of most of the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund allocations was politically motivated.
He said that about climate change there were so much discussions, but little actions.
‘There is yet no coordination among the agencies in responding to climate change,’ he said, adding that though so many wings were formed in this connection.
Pathfinder’s country director in Bangladesh Mahbub Alam said that infertility and reproductive health were connected to climate change issues.
He said that family planning became vulnerable for the people living in disaster-prone area.
He suggested different designs of health infrastructures in disaster-prone areas for ensuring services.
International Union for Conservation of Nature Asia’s science and strategy group programme management head Raquibul Amin said that due to climate change, the risks of zoonotic diseases increased.
Among others, Dhaka University treasurer Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, public health wing joint secretary Md Shibbir Ahmed Osmani, icddr’b excutive director Tahmeed Ahmed, British high commission health adviser Rashid Zaman and UNFPA’s representative Vibhavendra Raghuvsnshi spoke at the event chaired by health services wing additional secretary ATM Saiful Islam.