Governance Perspective for Climate Change Adaptation: Conceptualizing Policy-Community Interface in Bangladesh

Climate change adaptation is currently an important community concern in the developing countries like Bangladesh. The conceptualization of adaptation in the government system matters to develop its canon in promoting activities such as employment generation important for local communities. The lesser the gap between government policy and the local community’s needs for adaptation results in more effective outcomes to ensure policy success and to promote sustainable community livelihood or vice versa. This interface between policy and community is important for climate change adaptation which is explored in this paper along with the findings of the research project, DEltas, vulnerability and climate change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA) conducted during 2014–2018 in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, and the United Kingdom. The data from Bangladesh was collected from 1,384 survey respondents, 19 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), 3 workshops, and 43 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs). The findings of the paper argue that the adaptation activities mainly focus on the perspective of the Reactive Approach of Limited Action (RALA) rather than the Proactive Approach To Adaptation (PATA). RALA perspective has been characterized by the two major factors: piecemeal and top-down approach in adaptation perspective which fails to recognize the community conceptualization of climate change, policy perspectives in coping with local concerns, and governance approaches for effective adaptation. The government needs to focus on the PATA in policy, programs, and projects with the governance approach from the bottom-up or, in other words, from the local perspective. Community participation in decision-making processes is characteristic of the bottom-up governance model. One good example of bottom-up or community participatory decision-making is Indigenous governance systems in Canada. Local community participation, consultation, and representation are essential parts of PATA in adaptation policy formulating and execution.