Feedback on Anticipatory Action for Heatwaves - Interviews with beneficiaries and ward councillor

I recently interviewed a few beneficiaries and a ward councilor while I was in Dhaka. These beneficiaries live in the Lalbagh slums of Old Dhaka.

From my interviews with beneficiaries, I gauged that most beneficiaries end up using the unconditional cash grants given to them under this program to purchase medicines needed to cure heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, etc. At the same time, they talked about how they needed more help from developmental

organizations such as more water bottles, a portable fan, etc. to minimize the impact felt by them due to the heatwave. Some of the common coping mechanisms that they also highlighted are not staying inside their rooms as they heat up due to there being no ventilation, bathing frequently to keep their bodies cool, and not going out to work due to high levels of heat.

Interview with Mr. Musharraf Hussain, Councillor Ward No - 45, Dhaka

During my interview with Mr. Musharraf Hussain, councilor of Ward 45 (This district covers a large part of the Sutrapur area of Dhaka) I also learned that this ward is very congested which causes its residents to experience the worst impacts of heatwaves. Mr. Hussain also elaborated on how this area contains 3 major slums of Dhaka - the biggest one being the Ghuntigor slum (this was the one I visited) - where many hawkers and daily laborers reside. He then also talked about how the services provided by development entities like BDRCS are necessary while also not being enough. He talked about the issue of there being a higher demand for these services while the supply is low. Additionally, the Councillor also highlighted that the people in this area don't take heatwaves seriously and he is trying to change that perception by telling people that heatwaves can have a negative impact on their lives. During my interview, he also stated that he had provided hawkers with large umbrellas to use while working to protect themselves from the heat.

It was wonderful to see that people are benefitting a lot from the great work being done by aid agencies and NGOs. I'm glad that sustainable development is an important priority in developing countries and hope it remains so in the future too!

Forecast Based Financing for Heatwaves

Interview with Md. Ziaul Haque

I recently interviewed Md. Ziaul Haque, a unit-level field officer at BDRCS' Dhaka City Unit. In the City Unit Md. Haque manages the overall implementation of projects that this BDRCS Unit is tasked with. His role is to also visit the field often to make sure everything is being done properly.

During my interview with him, he talked about the simulation heatwave that happened in 2021 and what its results were. He highlighted how their target group then were rickshaw pullers, slum dwellers, hawkers, etc., and stated that they are still continuing with the same target group as these are the people who are the most vulnerable during a heatwave. He also explained that during this simulation beneficiaries were given cash grants - both conditional and unconditional - of 4500 BDT to minimize the impact of the heatwave and announcements were also made on loudspeakers informing people to stay at home and not venture out during the heatwave.

At the same time Md, Haque discussed the issues faced during the heatwave Early Action Protocol (EAP) simulation. He also stated that BDRCS and the Dhaka City Unit had made many efforts to address these issues while training volunteers who help them in this program so that they don't come up if the EAP has to be implemented this year during the heatwave season. Some of these issues were people's perception of heatwaves - many of them don't consider heatwaves to be a disaster and just take it to be a part of the climate, most people don't also understand that heatwaves can negatively impact their health and can cause serious issues; and the lack of resources - Md. Haque elucidated the fact that the demand from the people to be included as beneficiaries is not possible due to the low supply of cash from BDRCS, he stated that more funds are needed to increase the scope of this program. Lastly, he also talked about opportunities to improve equipment, facilities, etc. for volunteers on the ground.

Being surprised at hearing that people don't take heatwaves as seriously as other disasters such as floods and cyclones, I also interviewed a few beneficiaries of the heatwave simulation along with a few nonbeneficiaries. I later also interviewed Mr. Musharaf Hussain, Councillor of Ward 45, Dhaka City to learn more about why people are not heatwaves seriously and what the Bangladeshi Government can do to solve this issue. More on these interviews in the next post!

Interview with Hasibul Islam (ConvSDG x IFRC)

I met another expert on Geographic Indication System (GIS) mapping a few days ago too! This time it was Hasibul Islam, a consultant at the World Bank, and the members of its Capacity Building Project Implementing Unit (PIU). He's an ex-employee of the IFRC, where he analyzed geographic information on flood and cyclone risk before Early Actions were implemented.

During my interview with him, he told me about various technical aspects of how GIS works, how GIS can be improved further, the science and maths behind GIS, how he helped in the Capacity Building of BDRCS volunteers during his time with IFRC, and how to develop a vulnerability index to determine where the Early Action Protocol (EAP) should be implemented.

He highlighted that GIS was a visualization tool where geographic data is divided into 3 types: point, line, and polygon, and each location is also geotagged on a map. Post this many other tools can also be added to the GIS Software such as a vulnerability index (I was surprised that Hasibul had developed this vulnerability index himself, more on it in this post), the weather data (In this case the weather data was from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD)), etc. This helps to take into account the socioeconomic conditions of different areas while deciding where to implement the EAP once the thresholds are crossed. Finally, his role comes in where he has to calculate certain factors which are not directly given by the BMD weather data post which he analyses the impact that the disaster is going to have in each area.

After this Hasibul echoed the same issues faced while using GIS that Hassan had talked about in my interview with him. Hasibul explained how the reliance on data from other agencies along with the lack of data (the data from other agencies is not enough) are major issues faced by him. He also discussed how GIS can be improved by making sure that it has a dynamic data model (one that can easily analyze dynamic data and not only static data). Along with this he also stated the need for more people to be trained in using GIS as he believes that there is currently a lack of people who are skilled in the usage of GIS.

Lastly, he also talked about how he had trained BDRCS Volunteers on how to collect the data necessary for the implementation of the EAP before a disaster hits. He explained that he integrated digital apps such as ODK Mobile app and Kobo into this data collection to make the process more streamlined. Further, he also talked about how creating a vulnerability index was a hard task as he had to analyze multiple factors such as poverty data, The Cyclone Prepared Program (CPP is a program implemented by BDRCS that makes sure that early warnings about cyclones are disseminated to people and people are moved to shelters, and are rescued from the areas as soon as possible) Data, data on the number of shelters in that area, etc.

I found this wonderful that so many people have worked towards the development of the Forecast Based Financing (FbF) program in Bangladesh, a tool that is essential in minimizing the impact of disasters in this vulnerable country.