 Good morning, your Excellencies Robert Gibson British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Her Excellency Mary Robinson, Mary Robinson Foundation And Dr. Selimo Hock, Dr. Ati Kraman, Ms. Camila Thomin and all of you distinguished Participants, I'm very honored at the same time very humbled to be part of this Closing panel In the two months that I have been in Bangladesh, I have come to quickly understand the value of strong national leadership both by government and civil society together on calling for a global response to climate change In all measures, it clarifies the point why Bangladesh has been the host country for this CBA event And as I understand it's been the host of this community-based adaptation event for the past five times And this is the fifth time that that is being hosted here in this country Let me begin by congratulating the organizers the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies the International Institute of Environment and Development and The Ministry of Environment and Forest for this progressive and remarkable achievement This conference on community-based adaptation to climate change has become the leading platform That speaks for the millions of climate change victims How they cope and how they survive This platform provides a powerful voice for the rights of the vulnerable and Mobilizes collective will and creative thinking to shape an equitable and sustainable future for vulnerable populations Unlike in the West climate change in the developing world is not about emissions It's not about emissions carbon sinks energy efficient cars and technology Rather climate change here in the global South is about people and Communities and how their lives and livelihoods are increasingly vulnerable the extreme weather changes or even slow onset disasters Their right to survive is now being threatened and we UNDP in Bangladesh are now responding to the face the human face of climate change Excellencies ladies and gentlemen Safeguarding lives and livelihoods of disaster and climate vulnerable people has remained at the core of UNDP's mandate Both in Bangladesh and across our program countries Beginning in the 1970s with a provision of support for improved early warning systems UNDP has assisted Bangladesh through a fundamental transformation in its approach approach to disaster management The results of this journey over several decades are readily apparent in the steady reduction of Numbers of lives and livelihoods destroyed and in the way the nation has built back better each time Today Bangladesh stands as a global leader and innovator in the field of disaster and climate risk management Offering lessons to other countries in how to build community liens Building resilience Helping countries and communities sustain their development gains in the face of increasing climate and disaster risks is one of UNDP's priority areas of support We understand and define resilience as an inherent and or acquired condition Achieve by managing risks over time at individual household Community and societal levels in ways that minimize costs build capacity to manage and sustain future momentum and maximize transformative potential Building resilience does requires a proactive systems driven approach that helps communities anticipate absorb and recover from inevitable crisis and turn them into opportunities for innovation learning and adaptation And I believe this conference has raised many of these learnings and innovation From those participating from around the world Mainstreaming community-based adaptation at national and local levels is the need of this time We cannot continue to pursue two separate and parallel tracks of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation These two parallel tracks raise the risks of gaps and overlaps to build community resilience. I Understand that this conference provided a great opportunity to share and learn about mainstreaming experiences on climate change resilience into development planning I take this opportunity to express our solidarity with the issues and challenges as well as the recommendations of this important event In particular this conference flag some of the issues which are very close to UNDP's own goals such as challenges centered on Inequality and social justice The need to address the underlying causes of vulnerability to improve resilience How to improve gender equality and create women as agents of change? issues of climate finance and Providing the necessary financial buffer to allow communities to innovate and try out new options I believe these are just a few of the challenges raised in this forum Although funding is increasingly available to support adaptation in developing countries Simply giving more money does not mean that it will reach the poor and those who are most vulnerable to climate change In fact such communities are often marginalized being located in remote areas and receive limited service services to begin with Reaching these hundreds of millions of people and supporting their genuine participation in any decision-making about resource allocation For community-based adaptation will be an immense challenge for any international or national program or any funding mechanism focusing on adaptation The big question we are all faced today is will the actions to date be enough in This global meeting. I think we can all agree more action is needed The consequences of climate change is getting more threatening over time The challenges we face are common We all have to save this planet We have to save human lives and we have to protect our future and I'm confident that discussions from this conference Will help us take forward our collective collective agenda. Thank you for your attention