Fostering Adaptation to Climate Change Among the Poor in Bangladesh

Researchers will evaluate and compare two alternative strategies to foster climate change adaptation among the rural poor. In partnership with BRAC, they are studying two new versions of BRAC's flagship Ultra Poor Graduation Initiative, which have been designed to tackle climate vulnerability, in addition to graduation from poverty. The first version of the program focuses on providing rural recipients assistance that enables them to adapt to climate change in their current location. The second version of the program focuses on providing assistance that allows recipients to build skills, financial support, and knowledge to adapt to climate change by migrating from rural to urban areas and taking up an urban occupation. The study will take place in Bangladesh, one of the countries expected to be most harshly affected by climate change. The evaluation will shed light on how to best design programs that facilitate better responses to climate change among the poor and will identify the differential impacts of two archetypal strategies that can be employed to achieve this goal.