GOBESHONA
CLIMATE change is a major problem that both Bangladesh and the rest of the world will have to face for many decades to come. It is based on knowledge from the scientific community both about the problem as well as the solutions to those problems. At the global level the collection and assessment of knowledge is very well organised under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which produces periodic assessment reports on the state of knowledge from the research community as published in the international peer reviewed scientific literature.
Similar efforts to harness the scientific knowledge from the research community are also needed at national level in every country. In Bangladesh, there is a significant amount of research being conducted on various aspects of the climate change issue. We have identified nearly a hundred institutions carrying out research on climate change in Bangladesh, including public and private universities, national and international research institutes, NGOs and private sector. Over twenty of these institutions have come together under an initiative called Gobeshona (Bangla for research). This initiative aims to do three things:
Improve quality of research in Bangladesh:
We postulate that although a lot of 'research' is done in Bangladesh, much of it is of very poor quality. One indicator for this is to look at the fifth assessment report of the IPCC which came out in 2014 based on an assessment of global scientific peer reviewed literature. We analysed the citations in the IPCC report and found that of over hundred papers cited on Bangladesh over 75% were by foreign researchers or Bangladeshi researchers resident abroad, and less than 25% were from Bangladeshi researchers based in Bangladesh.
The Gobeshona initiative aims to help young Bangladeshi researchers improve their chances of publishing in international peer reviewed scientific journals. The ambition is to ensure that the ratio of papers from Bangladesh based researchers is reversed when the sixth IPCC Report comes out in a few years.
Enhance sharing of research amongst research community:
We also found that although much research is being done by many different researchers the work is not well shared amongst the research community. Hence we set up the Gobeshona web portal (www.Gobeshona.net) where we upload information on published papers on climate change and Bangladesh (the portal already has over 650 publications listed) as well as ongoing research being conducted by different researchers.
We also hold a monthly Gobeshona Seminar which is hosted in rotation by the consortium member organisations where results of research are presented by the researchers.
Ensure better uptake of research by policy makers:
One of the aspects of the climate change research in Bangladesh we have found is the lack of uptake of the research by both policy makers as well as by the practitioners. This is due to lack of outreach of communication in appropriate ways to the potential users of research. Hence the Gobeshona initiative has started an annual Conference on Climate Change and Research where over 300 researchers (including many from abroad) were able to share their research, and a one day Science-Policy dialogue was also held with relevant officials from the government. This event is now going to be an annual affair and the next one will be held from January 8 to 11, 2016.
Reaching the public:
With regard to reaching practitioners, different ways of reaching them need to be explored. The most important way to reach them is through the media, both print as well as electronic. This is an area that is also being explored further. The Amrai Pari television reality show produced by BBC media Action and shown on BTV regularly is a good example.
What needs to be done next:
The Gobeshona conference came out with a number of recommendations, of which I will share a few only.
Data availability: There is a great deal of data collected in Bangladesh which is relevant for researchers. Some are available, such as from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, but many others are not freely available. One good action would be for the government and agencies with data to come together and enable everyone access to the data that is available.
Urbanisation and migration: Of the many different aspects of climate change in Bangladesh the combination of urbanisation and migration was highlighted as one that needs more concerted research efforts as this will determine how well Bangladesh is able to tackle climate change impacts over the coming decades.
Learning lessons: It was generally well recognised that, in Bangladesh, both the government as well as other actors have been doing some pioneering activities to tackle climate change. However, it was felt that there had been insufficient investment in evaluating the work done and learning lessons for those investments. One important aspect of lesson-learning for a new problem like tackling climate change is that initially mistakes are inevitable and should be acknowledged and learned from. It is not a waste of money to make mistakes as long as we acknowledge and learn from them and do not repeat them. It is a waste of money only if we do not acknowledge mistakes and keep on repeating them.
Finally, as tackling climate change is a learning-by-doing process, it is important for Bangladesh as a nation to periodically take stock of what we have learnt from what we have done so far, in order to do things differently and better in the next round. We aim to make the annual Gobeshona Climate Change Research Conference such an annual collective national learning event to take stock and learn lessons to improve the next set of actions to be taken.
The writer is Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh. E-mail: [email protected]
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