CARE SHOUHARDO II

In July 2013, the project team visited the CARE SHOUHARDO II program’s existing community platforms like Village Development Committees (VDCs) and Empowerment, Knowledge and Transformative Action (EKATA) groups. The latter is a platform initiated to specifically empower and built the capacity of women. The SHOUHARDO II program, (the largest USAID funded food security program in the same target area as the HIF project) implements activities to built resilience by incorporating mitigation, response to disasters, and adaptation to climate change in Cox’s Bazar Sadar and Teknaf Upazila.

Therefore by using the existing platforms in place, the HIF project will strengthen and create strong linkages with the on-going DRR and climate change adaptation efforts in place. The project will further complement activities by adopting a community based approach to monitor vessels, disseminate warning messages, and respond to SOS messages through linkages with law enforcement authorities.

At the national level, the project team met with its existing partners, i.e. AirTel Bangladesh Ltd, Oxfam/CSRL and CGC on the 28th of July 2013. The meeting was organized by AirTel to review progress and challenges and subsequently develop an action to move forward with the commitments listed under the current Memorandum of Understanding. Two main outcomes that were prioritized was a) to review the Disaster Management Act’2012 to identify clauses that would have an impact on our project and b) review the existing partnership pending outcome of (a) and approval from NGOAB. The partners agreed to work together to find a way forward.