The main objective of this paper is to measure the level of household resilience to cyclone and storm surges in the coastal area of Bangladesh. We draw on four general disaster frameworks in terms of addressing household-level resilience to cyclones and storm surges. We use a composite indicator approach organized around four components: (1) household infrastructure (HI); (2) household economic capacity (HEC); (3) household self-organization and learning (HSoL), and; (4) social safety nets (SSN). Drawing on a household survey (N = 1188) in nine coastal union parishads in coastal Bangladesh purposively selected as among the most vulnerable places in the world, we use principal components analysis applied to a standardized form of the survey data that identifies key household resilience features. These household index scores can be used for the assessment and monitoring of household capacities, training, and other efforts to improve household cyclone resilience. Our innovative methodological approach allows us to (a) identify patterns and reveal the underlying factors that accurately describe the variation in the data; (b) reduce a large number of variables to a much smaller number of core dimensions of household resilience, and (c) to detect spatial variations in resilience among communities. Aggregated to the community level, our new index reveals significant differences in community cyclone resilience in different areas of the coastal region. In this way, we can show that shoreline and island communities, in particular, have significant deficits in terms of household resilience, which seem to be mutually reinforcing one another and making for lower resilience.
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to extreme climate events. With over 60% of its population living in rural areas, over a third of which lives under the poverty line and depends on agriculture, these climate stresses constitute a major challenge. The traditional financial instruments, e.g., microcredit and relief programs, continue today. However, how climate risk can be tackled through innovative financial instruments focusing on agriculture farms and farmers is crucial. Considering this issue, the Sadharan Bima Corporation and the Bangladesh Meteorological Department joined forces in 2014 to launch a $2.5 million three-year pilot project on weather-index-based crop insurance (WIBCI) executed by the Financial Institutions Division of the Bangladesh government’s Ministry of Finance. This study examined the basic strategy of this pilot project, the major challenges confronted, and possible solutions for creating a successful weather-index-based crop insurance scheme in Bangladesh. We relied on key informant interviews, informal discussions, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews with the major stakeholders of the WIBCI pilot. These showed the WIBCI pilot to be a promising initiative that still faces problems from limited weather data, a costly business operations system, farmer insurance illiteracy, and fatalism, as well as problems with designing insurance products and recruiting qualified personnel. We compared this WIBCI pilot against the challenges of other projects, recommending best practices for a viable weather-index-based crop insurance system. The insurance mechanism of this study may apply to other vegetation sectors of Bangladesh, e.g., forest plantation or agroforestry for protecting natural resources from natural disasters.
In Bangladesh, rural–urban migration is widespread. Many earlier studies discussed the factors, patterns, causes, and consequences and the socio-economic and environmental impact of migration from the general perspective. However, rural–urban migration with a particular focus on particular communities or migrants’ employment profiles, for instance, farmers, is poorly described. In contrast, many farmers move from rural to urban areas every year in Bangladesh. However, the factors that affect farmers’ rural-to-urban migration are a primary concern to academia and key actors, as the country’s economy mainly depends on agriculture and farming. This paper, therefore, aimed to identify the underlying factors of the rural–urban (R–U) migration of farmers in Bangladesh. Data for this study came from phone interviews conducted with 254 migrant farmers living in city districts in Bangladesh. We adopted a three-step approach to select and identify factors that impacted farmers’ decision to move from rural to urban settings. First, we reviewed the extant literature and compiled more than 70 variables of interest relevant to farmers’ migration. Second, 30 variables were selected for data collection after consultations with key informants (KIIs) and informal discussions (IDs) with farmers and local community leaders. Besides, the Q-methodology was used to assess the level of importance of the selected variables. Lastly, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to extract salient dimensions of farmers’ rural-to-urban migration, where 21 variables were detected that consistently exceeded a threshold value of 0.50 of communality for further analysis. Our findings show that six dimensions—i.e., individual, household, economic, attitudinal, spatial, and climate-induced extremes—significantly influence and contribute to rural urban migration decisions for farmers. Further, our results indicated that age, agricultural knowledge, household debt, seasonal famine/poverty (Monga), unemployment in rural areas, availability of anticipated job opportunities in urban areas, shortage of agricultural inputs, and river erosion significantly influenced farmers’ decision to leave their farms in Bangladesh. Findings from this study may be used as inputs in predictive models and benchmark guidelines for assessing trends and patterns of rural-to-urban migration and for the formulation of policy and programs targeting domestic migration in Bangladesh for proper urban planning and further rural development.
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