Empowering the powerless: Investigating the sustainability of climate change adaptation through the lens of empowerment in Char Shakhahati, Bangladesh

Sammanfattning: Climate Change Impacts are a major concern for Bangladesh. The country is expected to face an increase of 11% in precipitation, drier winter periods causing droughts, extremely high temperatures, sea level rise changing the dynamics of discharge of water from rivers, etc. intensifying poverty. At the forefront of these impacts are char islands highly exposed to the socio-ecological impacts from CC and river erosion. As such the country has employed various forms of planned and spontaneous forms of adaptation with the help of national government and civil society organizations. This thesis investigates collective agency and empowerment of local communities in Char Shakhahati in adapting to extreme events in relation to the impacts of Climate Change. It explores the empowerment of locals in Char Shakhahati using a causal framework in a state society context which subsequently is utilized to investigate agency and opportunity structure at the local level to understand whether a true collaborative engagement is in place. The findings show that adaptation in Char Shakhahati is an individual endeavour; communities are fragmented and socially lack the self-organization necessary to initiate collective action. Char inhabitants are constrained due to lack of opportunities and the local government lacks the autonomy and has budgetary restraints. Communities do not have the agency nor the opportunity structure to exercise self-empowerment. Second, the policy documents do not address the specific vulnerabilities of char communities marginalizing them even further. Marginal participation in decision-making processes in NGO led projects leads communities to be beneficiaries of knowledge production rather than producers maintaining their marginalization. Finally, only by creating the space for communities to initiate adaptation planning, implementing them by collaborating with civil society can char communities attain a sustainable solution and be able to empower themselves to address them in the future.