 We'll start our panel 2 of the second day of IDM. Please have a seat that we can start. Our panel 2 of today's work is called Migrants Voices, Testimony of the Migrants Impacted by the Climate Change. I will be moderated by my colleague, Mr. Manuel Marqués Priera, head of the Migration Environment Climate Change and Risk Reduction Division in IOM. Manuel, floor is yours. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to be here to moderate today this incredible and significant and relevant panel as we approach to COP bringing migrant voices. A testimony of migrants impacted by climate change is an excellent opportunity to bring the voices of affected communities and individuals. I would like to highlight that climate action cannot be effective if it's not inclusive. Climate action should consider and integrate the voices and live the experiences of the people it meant to serve. Just like global crisis, climate change too exposes vulnerabilities in our societies. However, different groups of people have different levels of exposure and different levels of vulnerability to extreme climate events at the worst of its impacts. Therefore, the diversity of their testimonies further contributes to the well rounded adaptation plans and risk reduction strategies needed to address these challenges. Migrants testimonies can serve as a great tool for policymakers as they provide unique insights and diverse viewpoints that can sometimes be overlooked on policy and implementation. Despite today, the significant involvement of youth perspectives as a climate actors must not only be to ensure their inclusiveness but also to be fair and just. Involving youth in climate oriented policy is also one way to ensure that the ability of future generations to sustain their needs is not taken away. But also engaging diasporas. Diasporas are essential actors who can share their expertise, transfer knowledge and technology to address the climate crisis. But whilst the value of diaspora contributions for in cases of remittances or direct investments in skills transfers, it's also important that they work in their origin countries and in the countries of destination. They are widely recognized as a contributing to addressing climate change to support economical development and many countries face the challenge and the lack of capacity to design effective policies and implement them with a meaningful and inclusive scale. This panel will also explore the potential channels which can allow migrants to have a seat at the decision making table to ensure that migrant voices are heard but they are also part of the decision making process when it comes to national adaptation plans, national determined contributions and disaster risk reduction strategies. Allow me now to briefly introduce our panel and recall that this session will be guided by some fundamental questions to our panelists. We will have the majority or the panelists will all be online so it will be an interactive session and I would welcome all of you interventions and enabling a dialogue with our esteemed panelists. It's my pleasure to introduce you to this outstanding set of panelists for the event today. First, Ms. Rose Kobusinge, an Ugandan climate justice advocate that focus her work on driving ambition for the inclusion of marginalized African voices in climate action and building resilience of marginalized rural, urban and refugee communities. Rose is also a leader in several youth movements including Youth Go Green Uganda and African Youth for Climate and she's also the founder of People in Nature Initiative. We also have with us today Mr. Sheban Chaudhry that has been leading and delivering public sector policies and projects in Bangladesh. He's also the co-founder of the Bangladesh Shidiaspora Climate Action Group and an intervener on the implementation of climate change policies and approaches in Bangladesh. We will also count today with Ms. Rashid Begum that hails from Barishal District, one of the most climate vulnerable coastal districts in Bangladesh. Barishal is prone to many disasters including catastrophic cyclones. The village where Ms. Rashid used to live was washed away by Cyclone Sidr leaving her family homeless. Her entire family took the decision to move to an informal settlement to get the job and improve her life. We will have her live life testimony today. And finally Mr. Jerome Obreit that hails the executive director of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, BRAC, and he plays a critical role in advancing BRAC's global strategy resource mobilization and organizational development. Mr. Jerome was also the secretary general of Medecins Sans Frontières Internationale having been also the director of programs previously. It is my pleasure to have this panel with us. Allow me now before we start to guide and share with you the questions that will shape this dialogue for all of you to have that in advance. What are the needs of the communities to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change and avert and minimize displacement being perspectives of integrated policy? What measures are needed to address the links between climate change, human mobility and food security, the interlinking of crisis? What are the messages of migrants, youth diaspora displaced persons, to policymakers addressing the links between climate change, human mobility and food security? And finally, how can diasporas be more effectively engaged in mitigating the effects of food insecurity and how can barriers to remittances and other forms of support from migrants and diasporas to home communities can be removed? We would now welcome our participants to present their views. We will have around 10 minutes to each of the panelists. Allow me to start with Rose. Dear Rose, I think you are online. Can you please provide us your statement? Thank you so much. Thank you so much, moderator, and thanks to the panelists that are joining us today and the audience that is joining us today. As for the introduction, my name is Roscoe Sinaname, I'm a climate activist from Uganda. And I've also a contact point for the Yango Migration Working Group. Yango is the official youth and children constituency of the UNFCCC. And I lead the last year, at the end of last year, I established a working group on climate migration. And this year, we've had immense support from IOM and UNICEF and the Africa Climate Mobility Initiative. So today's topic is very personal and to me, but also of passion to me, talking about food security, talking about climate mobility. I mean, right now I'm studying in the UK and the reason why I left my country, Uganda to study here was because I grew up in an agricultural background about agriculture family, where my parents work in tea factory in the western part of Uganda. But then I kept seeing them being laid off from work, especially when droughts hit. And whenever I asked my mom, she would tell me she doesn't know why the droughts are increasing because she'd be laid off work at least twice a year. And that really impacted the kind of schools I went to, the kind of food we ate, impacted my siblings, impacted like everything, our health and everything. So when I reached, when I finished my levels, I went to university. I really didn't know which course to do. And I was like, because I loved wildlife when I was growing up. So I wanted to do something in relation to wildlife conservation, but I did not know which course to do. And so when I went to university, I was like, maybe I could do wildlife conservation, but I ended up doing environmental science to be closer to nature. By then I had never heard about this is 2015. I'd never heard anything about climate change. So when I did my undergraduate, then there was an elective on climate change. And most people refuse to do it because we thought like climate is all about climate science and atmospheric science. And it's very hard. But it was only like four weeks of studying about climate change, everything about climate change. So I went in for that course. And when I recognized that the welfare nations are the ones that have contributed to the climate crisis and people like my family and my community and people in Uganda, women and children are the most vulnerable. And that is the one that motivated me to want to understand more about climate change and made me, made me to apply for courses in places where they teach more about climate change, because they really wanted to understand more about this topic. And that is how I found myself living in my country. And now studying in the UK, understanding climate change, I do the masters in environmental change and management, the investor works for it. And now I'm following up on the research on energy transition, clean energy transition in refugee camps. So this topic is passionate from my experience, but also being I could be called a migrant where I am right now in the UK and I could be part of the diaspora, so it's everything for me. So and then I also did in my undergraduate after I started understanding about climate change, I did a study on food security and climate change in in some Western district Kamuenga in Uganda, and I found that I interviewed about 120 people and 95 percent of the people did know about climate change, but but they approved of the of the issues with no reducing productive agriculture productivity, the extreme droughts happening every almost every year and they frequency increasing their predictability of rainfall and planting seasons. And for the few that say that they knew about climate change, the five percent, most of them related it to, you know, the will of God. Some few of them had had about climate change from from development partners and NGOs and some have had had overhead it on the radio. And then I found some interesting, you know, reasons and thoughts about climate change where people were thinking because the the community where I was, there was no grid, there was no grid electricity. So some people had solar panels, solar home systems and people thought is because of those solar home systems, the solar panels that are attracting the droughts and causing suffering and famine in their in their country, I mean, in their community. Some thought she's the will of God, God is punishing people for for the sins, and that is why he's sending the droughts and then the floods when it's rainy season. So so all these experiences have shaped what I do and what I am. And when I think about the question on, you know, when I think about the the first question, what are the needs of communities to adapt the advanced effects of climate change and about and minimize displacements? Again, going back to the study I was talking about on food security and climate change, I found that most of the men had gone to the cities and maybe into the small towns to to work because it wasn't making more sense for both the women and men to stay in the village when productive, agricultural productivity is extremely you know, not not valid, extremely invalid. So the women were staying home to to grow food for for for consumption, but also take care of the children. And so and then when I asked also about how there was the women were adapting because I tried to find more women to talk to even though most of them didn't want to talk to me, they would wait for the man to come and I talked to them. But for those ones who I was able to talk to, they told me they have the adaptation. You don't eat you only eat one meal in a day, which is dinner. So during lunch lunch, you just drink porridge and you serve the children porridge. And then I thought when I saw this question, I was like, what is it that actually what is it that the community need? It goes back to information and knowledge. So there's a very big gap on climate education. And in talking about climate education, it's very important for for the developing world, for the global South countries to a country like Uganda and many African countries to integrate climate education, awareness and knowledge in in every sector, whether it's health sector, whether it's it's, you know, religious religious communities and whether it is, you know, food. So we need to integrate education and, of course, in the curricula in the school, I know that one is a bit political, we are still pushing to ensure that climate education is included in curricula, starting from elementary school. But I know that one is also taking some time. And that is why for many young people, for a few of us young people who have the privilege to understand climate change, we are coming out with different with different programs that take climate education and awareness rising at the grassroots level, but also online, including one of the organizations that I started recently started, which is Pippa Nature Initiative, but rebranded to Climate and Bidavis Initiative recently. So that the climate and information gap and, of course, the digital gap are a big challenge. And if that is not addressed, then it is very hard to actually support communities that are on the move or at the risk of displacements. So we need more investments from the governments, from philanthropists, from banks and from, you know, the global north in addressing the issues on information, knowledge, technology and digital. And I was also thinking on, you know, the need for data and research, but also not forgetting the indigenous knowledge. So even though I thought that people gave response regarding, you know, the solar panels attracting the droughts, I felt like, you know, we can, we can, we can bridge that knowledge gap with, you know, with research, but also not dismissing what they think, but trying to use what these people think to actually make them feel part of the solution, but also bridge that knowledge gap. And on the other hand, I also, when it again coming back to indigenous knowledge, I think we've forgotten about indigenous knowledge. There's no science without indigenous knowledge. And the combination of science and indigenous knowledge will provide the best solutions that are relevant to the context that people are in. So and it's not possible to just, you know, impact or just, you know, force solutions on people without them recognizing the challenges and the problems and coming up as co-designers and partners with their own solutions. And then thinking about the question of what measures are needed to address the links between climate change, human mobility and food security, I think I may have already touched on that. So I think there's need for safety nets because right now I've been working on a project on addressing loss and damage. It's a proposal, it's not a project on addressing loss and damage in the flat prone areas of Casesa in Uganda. And the project brings together like it's a combination of rising awareness about climate change, building hope because many young people and many, you know, rural rural citizens have lost hope because of the productivity of agriculture, because of the frequent floods, they've lost their loved ones, they've lost their property, they are homeless, some of them are in camps and are internally displaced. So they've lost hope. We're trying to come up with a project that kind of combines all this hope building and building community cohesion and in a way that represents the values but also the visions of those people. So and I was also thinking about those food safety nets, especially for the people that are in, you know, hazard prone areas. Even though I don't like all they think the governments, but yes, the governments have the role, have a very big role and our politicians and leaders and decision makers and development partners have that role. So actually, you know, provide safety nets for the people that are in risky places, but also, you know, plan relocations is a very big, is a very big option that needs to be undertaken. There are people, especially poor ones and marginalized and those who don't have access to, they're understabbed, who live in areas that are known to be flood prone or hazard prone or landslide prone. And you'll never find the rich people there. So that is why the climate issue is very first of voice of humanitarian crisis, but it's very, you know, just proportionate in terms of who it affects. So if there is safety nets in terms of food safety nets for the people at risk and people in the move, but also those planned relocations are away from people, I mean, away from hazard prone areas. But again, also the insurance, you know, insurance is one way, especially in food. People are growing food and they are growing crops and animals. They're raring animals. But then when a rapid onset happens or whether it's a lot onset, they lose their livelihood, they lose their life, they lose who they are. So insurance can be one way that can be, that could help in terms of providing resilience and alternatives. And I guess I'll conclude on speaking about, I cannot, I cannot leave without talking about the messages from the migrants and youth and diaspora. I really need to tell you that, especially in the youth perspective, the youth are worried. The youth are anxious. The youth are not sure about their future. But at the same time, the youth are hopeful. They are hopeful that we have the power to actually change everything. We just need to get together. We just need to stand together in solidarity. We just need to stop representing our political views to representing humanity. Humanities are at risk. Nature is at risk. And this is a climate, the climate crisis is a test, is a test of humanity. It's a test of our role as human beings and on this planet. So the young people believe that we can, we can, we can stand by the limits of 1.5. It's not the goal, but it's the limits. We're not supposed to hit it. We're supposed to live below 1.5 degrees Celsius. So, and the young migrants, many young migrants, especially young Africans, are perishing in the Mediterranean Sea. They're perishing as they walk through the Sahara Desert, trying to escape to Europe. Not because they want to move or they want to die, it's because they're being forced, they're pushing factors. And migration or human mobility has been for a long time has been an adaptation option to or a way to escape crisis, a way to escape conflict, a way to escape suffering. So even with the climate crisis, worsening conflicts, worsening loss of livelihoods, worsening, you know, peace issues. So it is still migration is still an option, is that still under an adaptation option that should be recognized. Because if it's not recognized, we'll continue losing many young people, especially young Africans across the Sahara Desert, the Sahel across the Mediterranean Sea. And that means we need to come together as the world, as human beings. Because, you know, if someone is running from danger and you're pushing them to stay in danger, then it doesn't make sense as a human being. But what we need to do is address the root causes that affect these young people, especially with poverty, with lack of education, if we can address those issues, but also try to be as a stand in solidarity, but also be guided by empathy and historical responsibility as human beings, but also, you know, collaboration between the global south and the global north, but also collaboration between, you know, communities across country and in country collaborations, then we protect most of the young people from the issues and protection issues and the death that they face as they try to move from from the crisis of climate change. And again, I cannot also forget so many young people are dying in in Saudi Arabia at the moment, especially from African countries. I don't know if you are aware about that, but there is labor migration that is happening, massive labor migration, and many young, it's mostly young girls, young women that are dying out there because of most of them die because of torture from from their bosses, because they work as housemaids, most of them are raped. And that is something that the world needs to come and address. It's now beyond the countries, the sending countries and receiving countries. I think we need to come together to address that challenge. Lastly, I also need to say that the diaspora and the migrants are not just victims. They have solutions. We have solutions. It's just that we just need a bit of, you know, facilitation, facilitation in terms of capacity building, facilitation in terms of meaningful inclusion of young people, communities are tourists, migrants, diaspora in decision making, not just as listeners, but as people who have solutions and can influence policy and can influence decisions. And we have solutions on the ground. Funding is a big problem. I'm sure everyone has been talking about funding, but it's time that we're that the leaders and the people involved, you know, come up with funding mechanisms that actually respond to the access to the needs of young people, the migrants at the same time, address the issues with access to funding that is available. I think our first stop here and thanks for for listening to me. I could speak about this topic like forever. Thank you, Rose. And it's always a pleasure listening to you. I think we will have further cooperation not only today, but in the weeks ahead as we get closer to COP. I would like now to invite Mr. Shehab Chaudhry to provide us his remarks. Hi, thank you, moderator. Good morning and good afternoon, all distinguished members and colleagues. Firstly, thank you so much for having me. And in particular, I'd like to put my thanks on on record for the IOM London team for inviting me to speak. So my name is Shehab Chaudhry. I've spent my entire career working in the UK public sector, including local government, including the National Health Service and now currently in central government, where I specialise on policies that address climate change and support net zero, which is the UK government's ambitions to become carbon neutral by 2050. But I'm not here representing the UK government. I'm here representing the Bangladeshi Desperate Climate Action Group based in the UK, which I helped set up earlier this year. And I think this follows on really nicely from the points Rose has just made. And you know, you know, people like Rose, people like Rashida, who we're going to hear later on there. They're at the forefront of a changing world, a changing climate and climate change is a stark reality for them. And as it is for many millions of billions around the world, what I'll be doing is shifting the discussion slightly to unpick what more can diaspora communities do to be part of this solution. And I think Rose just sort of hit the nail on the head there a little bit by saying that, you know, we've got so much more to offer. And not only with regards to food security and the issue of livelihoods, but also wider challenges that are induced by climate change, be it displacement, be it things like loss and damage. I think I'm going to ask the group, how can we support and learn from countries of origin as a diaspora group? But how can we also better channel these passions and these contributions from diaspora communities to their countries of origin? And how can we do this in a much more sustainable and meaningful way? And of course, I'll be using the lens of the UK based Bangladesh diaspora, but I'm also very, very keen to learn from others, you know, what is best practice across the globe. So what I'll do, you know, very quickly within the 10 minutes I have is give a bit of an introduction to myself, discuss some of my personal connections with Bangladesh, then discuss how the BDCA came about what our aims are and finally give a couple of recommendations to the team to discuss. They're just a bit about me. So so there's roughly 600,000 British Bangladeshis living in the UK. And that makes us one of the largest Bengali diasporas in the world. And we can contribute significantly through skills and financial resources to both Bangladesh and the UK. We have four members in parliament in the UK parliament, all of whom are women. We have leaders in British industry, in academia, in the civil service, in the charity sector, in arts and culture, et cetera. And I myself, I am a second generation British Bangladeshi, born and raised in Southeast England. And like many others of the Bangladesh diaspora in the UK, my family is from Silet, and specifically the Shunamganj district. And we've always had very strong, very strong personal ties with Bangladesh. As a family, we would go over every couple of years to visit and the floods earlier this summer, which devastated parts of Shunamganj and like surrounded districts within Silet. That was very difficult, that was very difficult and very personal for us. And like many others across the world, we raise funds to support relief efforts. And this touches upon one of the first key things I wanted to raise, which was something that the moderator already flagged, which is the issues around remittances and the benefits of diaspora communities financially contributing to the country of origin is widely recognised. Diasporas have a long history of giving back through things like remittances, through investments, through charitable giving. In terms of the UK based Bangladesh diaspora, we contribute in excess of £1.3 billion in remittances to Bangladesh every year. And this is where I and the Bangladesh diaspora action group strongly believe that we can do more. In fact, we need to do more. We need to go beyond just using this financial lens. And the speakers on this panel have been asked what are the key messages that we would like to deliver to policymakers. And if there's only one message that I would like to give to policymakers and to everyone listening here to take away, that is diaspora communities need to be more than just reactive to climate disasters. We shouldn't just be cash cows that pump money in after disaster strikes. We need to sit on that table as Rose just mentioned and be proactive and work with local agencies in the countries of origins and with the national governments and they need to work with us. I think it would be wrong of me to say that this isn't happening. I think there are examples where diaspora communities absolutely are working with their countries of origin, but there's opportunities to do much, much more, particularly when I think about the Bangladesh diaspora in the UK. And at a minimum, I think we require two things. Number one, that is diaspora communities in their countries of residence to get organized, bring like minded people together, have a collective vision and do your best to be seen. You know, stakeholders need to know you exist. And this is one of the reasons why I jumped at this opportunity when I was invited by the IOM to show that the BDCA exists. And number two, it's for the country of origin, their governments and their local agencies. Please work with us. Please, please know that we exist. If these two things happen, we can leverage resources, we can share expertise and learn from one another, but we can also develop sustainable initiatives and projects that will help support mitigation, adaptation efforts, particularly when we think about things like food security. Now, I'm going to quickly discuss some of the context behind the Bangladeshi diaspora climate action group. And I want to take us back one year. So last October, I was lucky enough to be part of the Bangladeshi diaspora leaders program, which was organized by Common Purpose British Council and Lead Bangladesh. And this brought together British Bangladeshis from across the UK, focused on one central challenge. And that was how can we as Bangladeshi diaspora leaders support young leaders of Bangladesh with information and knowledge to address the country's development challenges using the lens of sustainable development goals. So there was a really, really key climate focus here. But the program also gave us an opportunity to mentor young people from Bangladesh. And this was at a time of COP 26, which I'm sure everyone here can remember that the UK hosted. And for many of us British Bangladeshis, we were also celebrating 50 years of Bangladeshi independence. But many of us were asking that question, given that Bangladesh is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world, I think it's ranked seventh by the global risk global climate risk index. Will Bangladesh exist another 50 years? Would we see 100 years of Bangladesh independence? In fact, one British Bangladesh diaspora group called Freedom 50 wrote and hand delivered a letter to the British to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, sorry, at COP 26, outlining the need for climate justice. And I think this demonstrates the political capital of diasporas, which, you know, myself and the BDCA argue is largely untapped. So earlier this year, three of us diaspora leaders came together and discussed this need to establish a network of British Bangladeshis interested in climate change to come together and deliver sort of tangible actions to support Bangladesh. So we set one up, we set up the Bangladesh diaspora climate action group. And in terms of some of our aims and some of our purposes, this brings together professionals within the sustainability and climate change fields from British Bangladesh diasporas to work alongside individuals and agencies within Bangladesh and the UK to deliver action based solutions towards mitigating the impacts of climate change in Bangladesh. And the idea is to leverage the collective sort of groups resources, which means expertise, skills and networks to then progress solutions, which utilize key stakeholders and local pathways to deliver long time change. So we've been working with the IOM through the diaspora for climate action project. And through this, we held our first BDCA meeting in August, a couple of months ago at the IOM London office, which we're very grateful for. There are about 20 to 25 British Bangladeshi leaders from across a number of different sectors, including humanitarian aid, climate finance, sustainable land use, waste management, law, renewable energy, decarbonisation, academia, the list goes on. And although we're at a very early stage of our journey, we believe that we can add most value by acting as a strategic network to help join those dots. We can sign post relevant individuals and groups to one another. And we could also support idea generation and potentially project delivery. The second sort of key area where we think we can add value as a diaspora group is to create an evidence led cross sector lobbying group with a range and wealth of expertise to work with the Bangladeshi government to work with the UK government on climate change and wider environmental issues affecting Bangladesh. And we've had several pieces of work currently in the pipeline. As I mentioned, we're already engaging with the IOM and we'll continue to feed in and shape the diaspora for climate action programme, which is due to go live in January 2023. We're really keen to learn from other diaspora groups, the Albanian, Jamaican and Ghanaian groups. We've also attending a COP 27 side event which highlights the important roles of diasporas as global climate actors. Again, we want to learn from best practice around diaspora involvement in their countries of origin. I see we've got members from BRAC who are also engaging with BRAC as it develops its global strategy on climate change. We're speaking to the UK government's foreign common wealth and development office, who again are very keen to engage with the diaspora, Bangladeshi diaspora on climate issues. And finally, we're also working with the British Asian Trust, who are a British Asian diaspora organisation, and they're kicking off really ambitious plans on climate action in Bangladesh through their Climate Innovation Fund, and this fund will promote innovation in climate resilient agriculture and has a strong focus on supporting the most at risk communities in Bangladesh, including coastal and farming communities. So just to quickly wrap up, I know I'm going at quite a bit of pace, so I do apologise, but just to quickly wrap up to address that question on how can diaspora communities be more effectively engaged in mitigating the effects of food insecurity and other climate change induced issues? As I've mentioned, we're very, very early in our journey with the BDCA and we're establishing our roots, but we fundamentally believe that the UK-based Bangladeshi diaspora has so much untapped potential. There's many opportunities for British Bangladeshis to support climate-induced challenges, such as food security. But this goes beyond just the financial support, which we give very readily. We have expertise, we have networks, and perhaps most importantly, we have a very strong emotional and personal tie with our country of origin, and we can't underestimate how powerful that is. And now I'm sort of speaking directly to country of origin, sort of local agencies and national governments on this call, please do come and work with us. And by us, I don't mean just the BDCA, I mean the diaspora groups that exist. And if diaspora groups do exist, you and the country of residents need to identify them. And if they don't exist, you need to help facilitate their existence. Bring like-minded people together. The BDCA is a really good example of how we came together through a diaspora program, led by British Council, led by common purpose, and lead Bangladesh. And now we're growing organically. So the next step for us is around developing our proposals and engaging really meaningfully with the organizations that I've just mentioned, but also the Bangladesh and UK governments. So yeah, that's me. Thank you again for this opportunity to speak. I look forward to the discussions ahead and to learn from you all. So I'd ask back to you, moderator. Thank you, Shahab. It's been a pleasure hearing you. And it's very good to see Dynamism Initiative and Leadership at play here. I would move forward and invite Mr. Jerome Obreit to present his statement. Thank you. Thank you very much, moderator. And I would like to begin by actually thanking IOM for both inviting Brack, but more importantly for inviting the fellow members on this panel and congratulate IOM on the discussion topic. All too often the voices of those directly impacted or those that can really bring solutions to the adaptation and resilience reality are missing from the climate control rooms that are really discussing the way forward. I think what the panellists have presented links well to the need of connecting across geographies, connecting across sectors, connecting across the different diasporas that exist. And it's really of critical importance. But while we're doing this, we need to make sure that those that are really impacted under the heart of facing the hard edge of the climate impact are really sent to those discussion. Now, climate action is really part and we've heard this that what Bangladesh is facing today, but also has faced naturally over the past 50 years. And and really this has been the way Brack has grown his response in terms of an act of anti-poverty. This has really been folded into our action. And in some ways grown into what we do sometimes that us even realizing that what we are doing is really climate work from the outset. One of the largest anti-poverty NGOs, we have always approached our work from a human centric approach. And I think this is key to maintain as we look forward for solutions that these solutions will come out of communities and that what solutions may work for one community or one group will not be the right one for another. So we need to recognize that the diversity of need according to where people are from and what they're facing and how we're going to be answering the climate challenge moving forward. In view of the reality of climate change, actually the proportion of people we're working with, communities we're working with has increased in terms of the profile of those really impacted by climate change. And year on year, this is growing. We know that the record breaking floods of the past years, whether it's in June of this year where seven million over seven million people were out of their homes or 2020 where the cyclone up to some 2.5 million people. And we know that these millions of people need shelter, need the emergency response, need the first response. But they also need to rebuild their lives. And actually what we're learning at BRAC as we're moving forward is not just responding to today, but very much looking at how to ensure that we can both mitigate the consequences of this increasing climate reality as we move forward. In fact, what we need to rethink as a community and our global response and how we approach climate is that it's not a punctual crisis. It's not just a crisis. It's way beyond the crisis. The reality we face today and then the changes that we are seeing are irreversible. And I think this is where we really need to be looking at new solutions, new approaches that don't just deal on a punctual basis in terms of what we're facing, but really recognize this as an irreversible change. Even if we have the most developed mitigation measures, we will not be going back to where we were. We need adaptation and this adaptation must be locally led because it needs to be relevant for the communities and where they're from. Every single program that now we have at BRAC is really looking at resilience building. This is the core of what we do and we're integrating climate smartification, as we call it, into all of our work. BRAC is doing its best to move from what I mentioned, balancing the work of reacting to actually moving to extreme weather advance and transitioning to a much more proactive stance. Now, how we're doing this part of it will have to be how we can really connect local adaptation works and individuals and migrants impacted to the best science has to offer. And this is where we need to be working across different areas. So approaches need to connect the communities and a good example of what we're working on today is a recent program or cruise net that we started with MIT. And that combines really the technical technological strength of one of the world leading universities with BRAC's deep adaptation capabilities. But beyond that adaptation capability, it's really our role to really connect with communities and individuals. MIT is providing the state of the art super localized climate forecasting capabilities, layering on top some of the key socio economic forecasting to reality, to better understand realities and how these changes and the climate will affect people's hopes, people's ability to crow crops and ravelize stock and access to clean fresh water and more with communities. Our aim of BRAC is then to translate this information into actionable adaptation activities, allowing people to either adapt in place. For example, in areas where there is there will be so much more to do in the future where homes will not necessarily be able to need to be moved or be fully flooded, what can we do and how can we find other livelihoods or other cultural practices that can sustain people where they are. Knowing that 2000 individuals are also migrating towards DACA and that climate change is therefore having a huge impact on informal settlements in Bangladesh, which is where living conditions is a changer that is manifold from a lack of access to basic services such as health, education water logging, where there are often these informal settlements or often situations in low-lying lands with a lack of proper drainage and vector-borne diseases and so on. Through the work with cruise networks, we also aim to identify what we are calling climate-safe migrant-friendly cities and we really need to be looking beyond and finding alternatives to the main pool cities. Cities that are not forecasted to be massively, climatically impacted and still have the capacity to have an integration capacity for climate migrants and allow them into their societies and enable a sustainable livelihood to be developed. In addition to this project, we will be looking to take the learning with migrants, with host communities and develop together with MIT and use this to converse with policy makers to integrate adaptation activities at scale and see how far this can go beyond not just in Bangladesh but other parts of the globe and see how a backbone of work could then lead to further adaptation. I think another area where we can really see that local realities and technology can further support mitigation around food insecurity and greater resilience around agriculture from the get-go in view of the reality of Bangladesh, BRAC has really been working hard on looking at what alternative crops can work in certain areas and at the ground level undertaking soil testing using labs to conduct some 3,000 soil test samples a year and really identify how to address deteriorating soil fertility and erosion of biodiversity and what production and promotion of stress tolerant varieties of crops can be brought in that tolerate such conditions such as submergence, salinity, drought and so on and really looking at getting better yield at the farmers. So this is really to say that while we need to have things that are very much locally led we also need to ensure and I think it really touches to the point of both Rosemtia had to connect the bigger networks that exist out there to ensure that some of the solutions which come out of the local committees can really be connected from some of the technical solutions that are being developed elsewhere. Now beyond our own programs and really to push on recognizing and ensuring that local ideas and local solutions get visibilities but also are able to be implemented and have a pathway to program delivery. In 2017 BRAC also created a trust fund called the Climate Bridge Fund with the support of the German government. The fund supports projects designed and implemented by local NGOs in Bangladesh strengthened resilience of people displaced or at risk of being displaced by climate change. It is a model in terms of civil society setting up a trust fund with the support of donors with the ability of BRAC's the ability to connect local conditions to local civil society and it's very much an approach that gives a chance actually to many of the solutions that also Ros pointed out to actually be given a chance to actually implement. As we approach COP I think there's very, there's 27, there's really two discussion that we need to push and ensure that we get some traction on. The first one is the proportion of funds allocated between mitigation measures and adaptation measures. We shouldn't be confronting or opposing both but we need to really be looking at the proportional investments in a world where climate change is irreversible as much effort needs to be focused on how to adapt and now and tomorrow as mitigating further delegations. These themes of work need to work hand in hand but currently it's extremely difficult as global investment in climate adaptation is on the other level of a single digit percentage between four to eight percent of the dedicated global financing on climate. The second main message that we really need to push for COP is that adaptation solutions that do not include the local reality from the get go from the design will not work and this we know is actually one of the main failings of adaptation is actually imposing solutions as opposed to designing solutions with the communities and as such maladaptation is a result and we need to turn this around and ensure that local actors and representation of the very diverse reality of those that are facing the climate challenge be it gender in particular but or sexual engagements as well are part of the discussion happening in the climate control rooms. Thank you very much. Jerome thank you so much for your words and thank you for the comprehensive approach that an organization like BRAC with such a global presence and outreach in Bangladesh is doing without further ado I would like to pass to our next panelist. IOM has committed to you the member states when we implemented the migration environment and climate change strategy from 2021 to 2030 to convene and bring the voices of migrants to the voice of Ms. Khashid Begum that is habits Bangladesh and is on the forefront of climate impacts. Ms. Khashid Begum the floor is yours Donabad. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. a coastal district in the south of Bangladesh. I used to live there with my husband, my son, my daughter, and my only brother. My husband used to, I had a home and a small piece of land where my husband used to grow vegetables and different crops. And that was enough to meet the need of the five of us. But everything changed in 2007 when the cyclone cedar hit the south of Bangladesh. So I was sleeping when the cyclone hit our village. I, when I woke up when my whole house, home was inundated. I just took my brother, my son, my daughter, and my husband and started running towards the only cyclone center I knew. But the water took my, washed away my brother and I couldn't find him. I was able to take my son, my daughter, and my husband and take him to the cyclone center and stayed there for two months. So after two months, I didn't know where to go because I lost my home and also my land. So one of my neighbors told me to go to Dhaka, where maybe I could find a job. So when I took his advice and came here, I was here, I was able to find a place to stay. But for two days, there was nothing to eat. So that's when one of the neighbors came forward and provided food for us. And she also helped finding a job for me as a domestic worker. My husband also was able to find a job and he soon became a day laborer. So we are here since 2007. But I'm getting old now and I have many, my health is deteriorating. It's the reason that many people don't want to give me a job anymore. And also my husband, he had a heart failure and was paralyzed. One of his hands is paralyzed and can't work anymore. I had a son, but he has his own family to feed now. So it's all me, my husband and my daughter. I couldn't marry my daughter off because she has some physical problems and people don't want to marry her without any worry. So right now, there's two of us who work. My daughter works in a garment and she gets around 6000 taka in a month. And that's what that's feeding us for. There are days that we don't get to eat. And I don't know where things are going to be for us because these are the people that are and we get no help. If there was any way I would have gone back to the place I came from, but there's nothing there. So that's all from me. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Pegun and the colleagues that presented. I think this is a very powerful testimony of the existing today impacts of climate change and combining crisis of issues around social inequality, poverty, and the importance of moving forward with the agenda 2030 and sustainable development, bringing opportunities, but also bringing partnerships and integrating communities at risk, communities of origin, communities of detonation, migrants, refugees, and IDPs. I think now we would open the floor for interventions. Thank you so much. I would now like to just ask our panelists starting again with Miss Pegun and her translator on one final message to the group of people convening here and to the COP discussions, if you may. Thank you. If our colleagues are not yet ready, I will follow up the same question to Jerome. Thank you, Miss Pegun. I would like to ask the translator to provide us that feedback. So right now I have no voice and there is nothing I can do to go back to my village. So if there was any way where we could be provided support with, maybe through a place to stay or some means that could give us some means of livelihood, that would have been really nice. Thank you, Don, about Miss Pegun for your perspective and points on the importance of immediate action. Can I ask Jerome to take his last remarks? Yes, I think it's recognizing the irreversible reality that we're facing today and in view of that irreversible reality, adaptation and in particular locally led adaptation to really be able to provide answers to Miss Pegun's reality has to be proportionally invested. This is not just about future commitments, but already meeting past commitments and ensuring that the proportion, and I think as the Secretary General, pointed to, needs to be much greater than it is today. Thank you. Thank you, Jerome. Shabab, please. Yes, I think if it was just one message that I can give to policy makers and everyone in this virtual room, it's that diaspora communities can do more and need to do more, and I would really encourage local agencies and national governments from countries of origin to really utilize and tap into the power of diaspora communities across the globe. Thank you. Thank you. Shabab Rose. Yes, thanks. I think I'll start by answering a question that is in the chat box, or I can see Georgia asks, how can young people from the Global North collaborate with young people from Global South to act together and find solutions for the more vulnerable? Yeah, thanks, Georgia. I think that is already a commitment of wanting to work with young people from the Global South. There are very many ways we can work together from knowledge exchange, especially hearing stories from the Global North and from the Global South, and together finding solutions. You could volunteer with some youth organizations that are best in the Global South and support them in terms of their research needs and implementation needs and communication needs. And we can also continue standing in solidarity and calling for climate justice each time you meet or get in touch with your leader or online or in, you know, join, for example, Friday for futures strikes, school climate strikes. Resource mobilization is also the other parts that as young people from the Global North can embark on, but of course, also convincing your governments in the Global North to treat the climate crisis as a crisis rather than as a political stance. And then, yeah, to go to my closing remark on what I think the policymakers could do, one thing that I want to emphasize is voices like Rashida's voice, voices for the young people, for the communities at risk, for the women, for the Indigenous communities, for the youth and children should be, in fact, must be parts of every decision that you make, whether you are making decisions, whether you're in those rooms, while you're, you know, lobbying for funds, while you're developing policies, those are the voices that should be in your mind. And not only voices, but these people with the young people, the women and the vulnerable groups should be in the rooms with you as collaborators and co-designers. If you ask someone like Rashida, she has solutions to her problems, but if a policymakers is just going to think about what Rashida wants, he or she will probably come up with very different solutions. So we need to work with decision makers and policymakers, as co-designers, as collaborators and as partners to address the existential threats of climate change. Thank you, Rose. And thank you to the remaining panelists. Allow me now to do a few concluding remarks on what our panelists have brought today, so that we can bring to an end the session of today. I think the personal experience of Rose, as she presented on the beginning, represents the aspirations of countless other generations across the globe that have and must have a role and a participating seat on the decisions that will impact today, but also their future is significantly important. The raising awareness and sharing of information to vulnerable communities so that their needs can de facto become a reality in terms of policies and programs. Climate education and technological investments without forgetting Indigenous knowledge are powerful tools to move us forward. She has brought also to us the importance of the diaspora, how to channel diaspora contributions to policy and implementation, focusing and highlighting that diaspora in the countries of residence has to become more visible, more participative, more inclusive, but also working with countries of origin and foster learning and impact at origin and with governments and communities far, far away from their current residences. The wide range of engagement of BDCA is an example of diaspora engagement and participation and something that we see a value on fostering, replicating and scaling. And Jerome has brought to us the importance of a human-centric approach based on context. It's also an explanation of how at core BRAC works on resilience and on being proactive before tragedy strikes. The challenges of climate change and urbanization in countries such as Bangladesh on the forefront of climate change and others like the Philippines and most recently in Pakistan are growing. Action must be prioritized and must be swift. And finally, the testimony of Ms. Begun, one of the many millions of people that today already struggle, suffer and try to have their lives at the most normal level possible on the forefront of climate with crises multiplying and combining, impacting their daily lives, forcing them to choices instead of giving them the opportunity to choose about their mobility. IOM is very focused in continue to contributing, allowing the right to choose in relation to human mobility in the context of climate change disasters and environmental degradation. I thank you all for your presence today and for the reflections made by our panel that once again I thank for being with us today. And the chair has asked me to convene that we will reconvene at three. Thank you so much.