National Policy Dialogue brings smallholder farmers’ voices to the centre of climate adaptation policy

A National Policy Dialogue on smallholder farmers’ perspectives on Locally Led Adaptation (LLA) in agriculture, and on the challenges of implementing it, was held at the AS Mahmud Seminar Hall of The Daily Star, Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Dhaka on Tuesday, said a press release.

The dialogue brought together senior representatives of the Government, the European Union and other development partners, UN agencies, INGOs and NGOs, research and policy institutions, civil society organizations, and farmer organization’s and networks working on climate change, agriculture and rural livelihoods.

Shaikh Faridul Islam, State Minister, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, attended as Chief Guest. The Special Guests were Tobias Biermann, First Counsellor and Team Leader for the Green Economy & Public Sector Investments team at the European Union Delegation to Bangladesh, and Nurun Nahar, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. The Guests of Honour were Atiq Rahman, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), and Alice Oyaro, Chief Executive Officer of Transform Trade. Fahmida Khatun, Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), chaired the session.

Bangladesh has placed climate adaptation and resilience at the center of its national development agenda, recognizing that farming communities and smallholder farmers are especially vulnerable to climate-induced risks.

The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) of Bangladesh (2023–2050) sets out a long-term framework for building climate resilience across sectors, including agriculture, food security and livelihoods.

Delivering on these national priorities depends on stronger links between national policy, local government institutions and community-level adaptation practices.

Locally Led Adaptation supports this by giving affected communities a central role in decision-making: identifying climate risks, prioritizing solutions, carrying out adaptation measures and monitoring results.

The dialogue drew on the study “Document and Promote Locally Led Climate Adaptation Measures,” conducted by Traidcraft Exchange Bangladesh (TXBD) in collaboration with CPD. The study documents community-driven adaptation practices in agriculture. It highlights community ownership, access to appropriate finance and technical support, institutional capacity, and effective coordination with local government as key conditions for scaling up locally led adaptation.

TXBD implements the EU-funded SWABOL project with six partner NGOs across 33 upazilas in 13 districts. The project works with approximately 50,000 marginalized farmers and producers to strengthen farmer-led organization’s and their participation in sustainable development and local governance.

The dialogue aimed to achieve the following:

• Present and validate evidence on locally led adaptation practices and the challenges smallholder farmers face;

• Bring together Government, farmers, development partners, civil society, research institutions and climate actors to discuss stronger implementation of climate adaptation priorities;

• Identify practical ways to strengthen local institutions, farmer-led organization’s and community participation in adaptation planning and implementation;

• Explore how local knowledge, community-generated evidence and farmer perspectives can be better built into climate policy and programs;

• Support implementation of the National Adaptation Plan, particularly for climate-resilient agriculture, rural livelihoods and vulnerable communities;

Participants emphasized that smallholder farmers and grassroots organizations are active partners in building climate resilience, and discussed practical pathways for turning national climate commitments into inclusive adaptation actions that work locally.