Progress and challenges 

Spurred by an average 6.5 percent economic growth over the past decade, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress towards the achievement of the SDGs, by reducing poverty, which dropped from 44.2 percent in 1991 to 14.8 percent in 2016-17, as well as significantly increasing life expectancy, literacy and per capita food production. 

Yet, despite these advances, Bangladesh is facing significant challenges. The country has experienced a rise in rural depopulation, an increase in natural shocks, and the adverse effects of climate change, which have led to a significant degradation of natural resources, and air and water pollution. The Government of Bangladesh worked with FAO, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other partners to address these issues, seeking to identify and implement a fair, effective and sustainable action plan.

FAO’s role

Working with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and USAID, FAO identified a number of significant obstacles to the effective management of the country’s environmental challenges. 

They included: inadequate interagency coordination in the area of project identification and implementation; weak linkages between policies, plans and implementation of projects; limited results’ monitoring; a lack of certainty in the area of financing.

Leveraging FAO’s expertise and knowledge of the country’s specificities, matured over the Organisation’s long-standing collaboration with Bangladesh, FAO and the MoEFCC laid out a set of objectives, including:

• Develop a 5-year (2016-2021) roadmap and strategic framework for a whole-of-government action plan on environment, forestry and climate change issues;
• Facilitate coherence and coordination of projects that are cross-sectoral in nature;
• Estimate the financing needs to be provided by the Government and development partners;
• Establish institutional mechanisms to monitor investments and assess their adequacy and effectiveness.

A comprehensive, participatory process facilitated by FAO was undertaken. A team of experts evaluated hundreds of documents, including laws, policies, plans, studies and scientific literature, with the aim of identifying existing trends and opportunities in the EFCC sector. Data on sectoral trends were collected and analysed, while stakeholder consultations were conducted, engaging over 2 000 people, with representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations, the private sector and a wide range of other development partners, at the national, regional and local levels.

Outcomes and results

The joint efforts of the MoEFCC, FAO and other development partners led to the production of what is now a cornerstone in the country’s strategy to achieve the SDGs: the Bangladesh Country Investment Plan for Environment, Forestry and Climate Change 2016-2021 (EFCC CIP).

The aim of the EFCC CIP is, as described in the plan itself, to “increase the contribution of the EFCC sectors to national sustainable development through the enhanced provision of ecosystem services, thereby helping to reduce poverty, improve environmental and human health benefits, and increase resilience to climate change.”