Climate Migrants: Development of marketable skills needed: experts
Marketable skills development is the key to employment and improving living conditions of the climate migrants and urban poor, said experts and high officials at a seminar in the capital yesterday.
Bangladesh, one of the worst victims of the impacts of climate change, has witnessed a relentless flow of people from rural areas into the urban centres -- in search of better life, they said.
With little or no skills that are marketable in urban areas, they find themselves in appalling situation in the squalid slums with no access to basic amenities.
Manfred Fernholz, first secretary, delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh, said the climate change impacts are causing a rise in poverty and displacement.
The ever-increasing urban population and climate migrants are going to mount added demands on available environmental assets and civic amenities, he said.
The German development partner GIZ Bangladesh organised the seminar to share findings of “Urban Management of Internal Migration due to Climate Change” (UMIMCC) project at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.
GIZ Bangladesh is implementing a five-year project -- worth 15 million euros -- funded by the German government and European Union to improve living conditions of climate migrants and urban poor in five selected cities of Rajshahi, Barishal, Khulna, Sirajganj and Satkhira.
Citing survey findings, Guntram Glasbrenner, acting team leader of the UMIMCC and Urban Management of Migration and Livelihood projects, in a presentation said over 56 percent of random respondents in the targeted areas were climate migrants.
Of the total 17,070 households targeted in the five-year project, 6,000 will receive skills development training for employment.
While Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in development indicators, migrants coming to urban areas toil for a livelihood source with skills that do not match the urban setting, said the speakers.
Satkhira municipality Mayor Tazkin Ahmed said in view of climate change disaster, measures must be taken to safeguard the Sundarbans that “as a true friend” has always protected the coastal community.
Shibani Bhattacharjee, additional secretary of the social welfare ministry; Caren Blume, deputy head of development cooperation at the German embassy in Dhaka; and Dr Angelika Fleddermann, country director of GIZ Bangladesh, among others, spoke at the event.
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