The Sundarbans, the mangrove forest delta shared both by India and Bangladesh, is among the worst hit regions of climate change in the world. Even though food insecurities due to climate change are felt across the region, the distribution of vulnerabilities is largely uneven depending upon existing climatic and social intersections.
Within the context of socio-cultural and political dynamics, and rapid globalization, efforts to respond to, mitigate, or adapt to climate change needs to address issues of equity and social justice, posing both challenges and opportunities.
This Issues Brief identifies the following priority actions:
Identify climate change as a risk factor for food security, especially in the island pockets where resources are limited
Adopt long term community-led adaptation strategies in food production system instead of short-term emergency response
Build climate-sensitive infrastructure in climatically vulnerable pockets for uninterrupted care services
Undertake state-led innovative measures for supplying vegetables and fruits through the Public Distribution System to improve the food availability of the region
Undertake strong surveillance to monitor growth of the children, especially in the worst hit regions for prompt action on food insecurity at household level.