Rizwana, Lewis stress strategic actions to enhance climate resilience

Water Resources Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan and UN Resident Coordinator to Bangladesh Gwyn Lewis at a meeting emphasized strategic actions to increase climate resilience.

The high-level meeting, held at Pani Bhaban in the capital today, pledged to advance climate resilience, revive river ecosystems, and harmonize Bangladesh’s environmental priorities through cohesive governance.

“While analysis is useful, we now need to prioritise climate action, even if it begins with two or three catalytic projects,” Rizwana said, underscoring the need for moving from planning to implementation.

She proposed a dedicated day for convening key development partners to streamline coordination across ministries and accelerate water governance efforts.

“Let’s stop letting opportunities slip between ministries-we need a day where everyone comes together,” she said.

The discussion focused on leveraging the momentum of the Climate Prosperity Plan, the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) updates, and potential synergies with development partners such as ADB, the European Union, and Sweden.

Both sides emphasised the importance of activating flagship projects that could serve as scalable models for blended financing-integrating government, donor, and private sector investments.

During the meeting, Rizwana highlighted the government’s recent achievement particularly in the Ministry of Water Resources’ divisional river restoration campaigns, canal rehabilitation projects, and grassroots implementation of Delta Plan components.

She stressed transparency and citizen engagement, including the institutionalization of public hearings in all development projects.

Gwyn Lewis reiterated the United Nations’ steadfast commitment to supporting Bangladesh through integrated planning, cross-ministerial coordination, and mobilisation of technical and financial resources.

She commended the government’s leadership and emphasised the need for a renewed push to align national policies with local actions and international climate goals.

The two leaders acknowledged the challenges of fragmented institutional frameworks and the need to reinvigorate mechanisms such as the Environment Community of Practice, which has remained dormant for nearly a decade.

They called for improved infrastructure-both physical and institutional-to enable effective inter-agency collaboration.

Dr. Farhina Ahmed, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Harshard Gaikwad, Climate Change and Environment Specialist of UN Coordinator Office and senior UN officials, among others, were present at the meeting.