Enhancing Resilience of Coastal Communities (ERCC) Project

Enhancing Resilience of Coastal Communities (ERCC) Project is a three-year project located in Dacope and Koyra upazila in Khulna district. After completion of the first phase of the project, the project has just started in January 2024 phase-2 of the project and will end in December 2026. The project is covered under the climate change and disaster management theme.  The project will contribute to the reduction the poverty and empowerment of people Living in extreme poverty in the coastal region (Khulna District) by enhancing the resilience of households living in poverty and extreme poverty and communities exposed to the risks of climate change in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. Hence, this project aims to work with communities in climate change and disaster-prone areas with the ultimate goal of enhancing livelihood resilience through the improvement of agricultural productivity and climate change resilience. The project is expected to increase the income of women farmers living in extreme poverty by strengthening agricultural livelihood capacity, strengthening market competitiveness, and improving access to finance. The project also desires to secure basic living conditions for households living in extreme poverty by meeting basic living needs and improving access to drinking and farming water.

Moreover, another key component of the project is to strengthen the community’s capacity for climate change adaptation and preparedness by enhancing community disaster preparedness and enhancing local government climate change resilience capacity. A total of 3665 project beneficiaries including women farmers living in extreme poverty and households which has low access to drinking and agricultural water will be covered under the project. The project will also work with the Department of Agriculture Extension (DoAE), Department of Fisheries (DoF), Department of Livestock, Department of Youth Development, Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), Upazila Disaster Management Committee, Upazila Parishad, Union Parishad (UP), Union Disaster Management Committee and Local Traders & Big/Urban market. The project is directly linked with reducing poverty (SDG-1) through generating home-based income-generating options, eliminating hunger (SDG-2) by increasing the productivity of farmers in extreme poverty, gender equality (SDG-5) through participation of women and taking climate-resilient actions (SDG-13) through strengthening community and local government efforts. The project is carried out by the existing 2635 beneficiaries of phase-1 who were earlier entitled to livelihood support and includes 930 new beneficiaries of the project. It is expected the project will improve Women Farmer’s living status in extreme poverty and increase their income through enhanced Climate-Smart Agriculture capacity. It will also increase households living in extreme poverty and enhance their basic living conditions. Further, it will Strengthen the community climate change adaptation and preparedness system.