Climate change leader with 19+ years of experience addressing major challenges of global environmental change and sustainable development across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific with international non-governmental organisations, multilateral and bilateral development agencies, policy research institutes, and academic institutions.
Climate change is likely to exacerbate gendered vulnerabilities and compound intersecting forms o... more Climate change is likely to exacerbate gendered vulnerabilities and compound intersecting forms of discrimination against women. International donors and policymakers are increasingly interested in strengthening social protection programmes to address such adverse impacts, but there is a lack of evidence about how this can be achieved. Addressing this gap, this paper examines the potential of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to reduce women’s vulnerability to climate risks in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in India. It provides lessons on priority action areas for integrating gender within the planning, implementation, and monitoring of the programme to better meet women’s needs in the face of climate risk.
Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 2020
This paper reflects on my experience of using personal stories to
create a Pot Gan performance ex... more This paper reflects on my experience of using personal stories to create a Pot Gan performance exploring the complexity of how lives are lived, how the experience of climate change is shaped by poverty and struggle, but also strength in facing adversity. Bringing real stories to the stage had more meaning, emotion and personal connection for audiences, while also challenging them to work through a solution to the problems the characters onstage faced. It calls on us to treat their stories with an ethics of care, recognising that each person’s story belongs to that person alone.
Microcredit has become a component of global development. Recently, the climate change and disast... more Microcredit has become a component of global development. Recently, the climate change and disaster community have proposed that it may be able to facilitate climate change adaptation, but whether this is the case remains under-researched. Addressing this gap, this paper examines the question in relation to microcredit's ability to support adaptation strategies that effectively address vulnerability to climate shocks in three villages in the Bagerhat and Chattogram districts of coastal Bangladesh. The findings provide qualitative evidence that at-risk people often use microcredit as a response to climate shocks. However, the case study only finds evidence that microcredit supports coping and incremental adaptation. Findings suggest shocks (some climate-related and some not) can result in reduction in food consumption, erosion of assets, depletion of savings, increased debt, and debt default, 'trapping' at-risk people in indebtedness through a process of cumulative vulnerability. Lack of outreach of microcredit, erosion of assets, supply barriers, and lack of credit alternatives reduce microcredit's potential to address the persistent determinants of vulnerability.
This report evaluates the impact of a project that examined the ‘everyday’ realities and impact o... more This report evaluates the impact of a project that examined the ‘everyday’ realities and impact of climate change on the lives of low-income people in Dhaka, Bangladesh. For my research looking at urban climate resilience and how land tenure affects adaptation to climate change, I spent months in Duaripara informal settlement talking to over 600 people in their homes, workplaces, local teashops, and on street corners to understand how climate change affects their ‘everyday’ lives and what solutions they employ.
The engagement and impact focus of this research project centred on a strong partnership approach to building awareness and action on the ‘everyday’ realities and impact of climate change on the lives of low-income people in Dhaka, through interactive theatre performances, documentary film, educational programmes, and public events aimed at a wide range of publics with varying levels of knowledge on climate change. Central to this project is the focus on learning from those living on the frontlines of climate change to ensure that people are better informed of the priorities and needs of low-income people.
I teamed up with the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Dhaka to explore my research findings through an accessible and engaging Pot Gan; a traditional folk medium that combines melody, drama, pictures, and dancing. The stories and script were all based on the direct testimonies and experiences of the people gathered though my research. The Pot Gan is not a static piece of theatre; it is an interactive, immersive, and local medium that challenges the audience to actively engage with the personal experiences of low-income people affected by climate change.
The Pot Gan has proven to be an inclusive theatrical medium that can deepen engagement and understanding of the ‘everyday’ realities of climate change with an extremely diverse range of audiences. The three live Pot Gan performances in Dhaka were attended by an audience of 634 people, made-up of informal dwellers (research participants and the wider community), academics, policy makers, practitioners, and other key publics. 100% of respondents that attended the live Pot Gan performances said that it is a useful way to build awareness of climate change issues. 76% of those surveyed were not fluent in Bengali, however, only 5% indicated language as a significant barrier to their understanding of the Pot Gan despite it being performed in Bengali. 92% of those surveyed agreed that focusing on the ‘everyday’ experiences of those impacted by climate change was an effective way of communicating the issue.
The Pot Gan has even influenced audiences with existing climate change expertise. While 89% of respondents reported expertise in climate change and/or development, the survey found that 83% had learned something new or that the Pot Gan changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. 89% of respondents stated that the Pot Gan made them think differently about how to communicate their own work.
Central to the project is its focus on building awareness and action on climate change through film, with thirteen videos produced as part of the project. To bring the stories from the Dhaka informal dwellers to an even larger international and national audience, the Pot Gan performances were filmed to produce a documentary exploring my findings on the ‘everyday’ realities of climate change. At least 126,873 people have viewed the project documentary, trailer and video of the Pot Gan performance, mostly on Facebook. In a survey of the varied audiences who viewed the documentary and/or the video of the Pot Gan performance online, 100% said that it was a useful way to build awareness on climate change. 100% of those surveyed agreed that focusing on the ‘everyday’ experiences of those impacted by climate change was an effective way of communicating the issue. Despite 86% of respondents having expertise in climate change and/or development, the survey found that 82% reported learning something new as a result of watching the video(s) or that it changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh.
To accompany the documentary, a mini film series was recently launched, where informal dwellers from the project field site directly convey their own stories and experiences in the series ‘Living on the Frontlines of Climate Change’. The film series covers how Rohima Akter, Nasrul Islam, and Sufia Begum have been affected by climate change. We hear about their lives, their struggles, and their hopes for their children’s and grandchildren’s future. The project also engages with leading researchers and practitioners, sharing their insights on climate change via video interviews in ‘Expert Viewpoints’.
The documentary was showcased at two sold out, high-profile events in the UK with an audience of 301 people. It was premiered at the UK's largest university museum as part of Manchester Museum’s award-winning Climate Control exhibition. A separate public event was held at Rich Mix London, in collaboration with a Bangladeshi community group, Brick Lane Circle and the International Institute for Environment and Development. True to the premise of the Pot Gan performances in Dhaka, I worked with Theatre of Debate, Tie-Dye Drama and Regent’s High School to develop an event that engaged the audience in informed debate around scientific research. The event posed a similar challenge to the live Pot Gan performances, audience members were invited to move from being passive viewers to active participants engaging with the personal experiences of low-income people affected by climate change.
79% of respondents that attended the public event at Rich Mix thought it was a useful way to build awareness of climate change issues, compared to 88% of respondents that attended the documentary screening at Manchester Museum. 97% of Rich Mix attendees surveyed agreed that focusing on the 'everyday' experiences of those impacted by climate change is an effective way of communicating the issue, compared to 100% of Manchester Museum attendees surveyed. Despite 66% of respondents at Rich Mix and 20% at Manchester Museum having expertise in climate change and/or development, and 75% of the audience at Rich Mix reporting that they think they have directly experienced climate change, a total of 69% of respondents at Rich Mix and 87.5% at Manchester Museum reported learning something new as a result of the event or that it changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. 64% of the audience that attended the Rich Mix London event said that they care more about climate change as a result of attending the event. 69% of respondents at Rich Mix stated that the event made them think differently about how to communicate their own work, compared to 50% of respondents at Manchester Museum.
Via educational programmes, the project engaged with students based in Bangladesh, the UK, and Ireland. The project worked with the University of Dhaka to integrate the performance theatre project into their MA programme and helped Bangladeshi students learn about the impacts of climate change on low-income people in Dhaka. In the longer term, involvement with the project will also enhance the students’ employability in a variety of ways. The students gained valuable experience of working on a real academic research project with involvement in all stages of theatre performance, production, and documentray film. The project has recently developed teaching resources to give secondary school teachers in the UK and Ireland support to teach pupils about climate change, and help young people develop the knowledge and skills to think critically about climate change in an urbanising world. The resources are designed as an intervention to achieve impacts on learning outcomes, attitudinal shifts, and behaviour change. Project materials have been used as teaching resources at the University of Manchester with, almost 250 MSc students engaging with the research material through digital media. This aimed to help students to develop their understanding of the diverse, multi-faceted, and complex ways that low-income people experience climate change.
Social media has been critical to driving the project’s potential research reach and impact, including sharing videos, blog posts, and newspaper and magazine articles to a variety of audiences across Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with the documentary videos and live Pot Gan performance video having reached 126,873 viewers and the 6 newspaper or magazine articles and 17 blog posts published on the project having a readership of at least 29,226. Facebook has been critical for reaching a Bangladesh audience, with almost 90% of the project Facebook page followers from Bangladesh. The project Facebook page has over 4,600 followers and 4,600 likes, has published 99 posts, with a total reach of 399,432 users, with 62,852 of these being engaged users. There have been at least 366 tweets on the project, by 93 different Twitter users, with a total of 68 comments, 808 retweets, and 794 likes mostly from the UK and from an academic or development expertise background.
There has been increasing examination of resilience as a concept applicable to climate adaptation... more There has been increasing examination of resilience as a concept applicable to climate adaptation. In this paper, resilience is used to explore the layers of responses to past and present climate stress. It examines the factors and circumstances that may hinder or enhance resilience, providing insights into past and present adaptation processes that may be relevant for adaptation to future climate change. Specifically, this paper tests the value of social capital in influencing resilience to climate stress. While there are many examples where social capital influences resilience to climate stress, this paper aims to determine the relative importance of different types of social capital for enhancing resilience, by exploring how relationships of exchange and reciprocity influence responses to climate stress. This study involved case studies of specific communities in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh. This case study highlights a complex rather than a uniformly positive relationship between social capital and enhancing resilience to climate stress. Specifically, it identifies four types of social capital-based support (with monetary support as a subset) and the interlinkages among the types (and processes) of social capital with diverse effects on resilience. It emphasizes the moral and ethical importance of reconceptualizing resilience with an emphasis on the most vulnerable, as resilience approaches that fail to recognize the differentiated nature of resilience, risk reinforcing vulnerability. Westernized concepts have 2 important benefits, but crucial limitations when applied to the particular conditions, value sets and modes of community working in the south. The uncritical importation of social capital needs to be treated with caution, especially in the context of climate adaptation.
Perceptions of climate change play a critical role in determining how at-risk people are. The sig... more Perceptions of climate change play a critical role in determining how at-risk people are. The significance of culture for understanding why people perceive and respond to climate change in particular ways is largely ignored in mainstream climate change adaptation. This paper applies a critical realist approach to examine the socio-cultural structures and causal mechanisms for inaction or (in)effective action between at-risk people and the organisations responsible for dealing with climate change. Findings show that there are varying context-specific sub-narratives among heterogeneous groups of people at risk and organisations that lead to inaction or (in)effective action in response to climate change, often independent of risk perceptions and with unforeseen consequences for at-risk people's vulnerabilities. Specifically, sub-narratives may create parallel and/or conflicting climate perceptions and respective responses, legitimise unequal resource distribution, and justify the suppression and/or capitalisation of sub-cultural and/or individual risk perceptions.
Resilience is increasingly becoming the new buzz word. This paper examines the utility of the con... more Resilience is increasingly becoming the new buzz word. This paper examines the utility of the concept of resilience for understanding the gendered experiences of women to climate stress, through case study research in Southwest Bangladesh. It provides evidence that resilience, as commonly understood, is inadequate for understanding the intersecting vulnerabilities that women face because of embedded socio-cultural norms and practices. These vulnerabilities culminate in a gendered experience of climate stress, where some groups of women are more likely go without education, food and access to good quality water. Such circuits of control highlight the importance of a more radical, transformational, gendered and power sensitive frame for moving beyond coping mechanisms to strategies that deal with the fundamental root causes of vulnerability to climate stress. A failure to do so risks further reinforcing gender inequalities due to the reality of social difference and inequities within local power structures.
This paper aims to understand how environmental stressors influence people's livelihood options i... more This paper aims to understand how environmental stressors influence people's livelihood options in the coastal belt of Bangladesh. We argue that environmental stressors such as cyclones, riverbank erosion, salinity intrusion, and floods have negative impacts on people's lives by reducing their livelihood options. Twelve in-depth interviews (Livelihood Histories) and twelve Focus Group Discussions (FGD) based on two Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools (Village Timeline and Contextual Change) were carried out in three different sites in coastal Bangladesh were conducted under the study. Our study finds that when there are insufficient adaptation strategies to environmental stressors, many people turn to livelihoods banned by the government. These 'illegal livelihoods' include using fine mesh nets to collect shrimp fry in the rivers as well as logging in the Sundarbans. These people are often the poorestand vulnerable, and law enforcement only exacerbate their vulnerability. We end by concluding those that have turned to 'illegal livelihoods' as a result of detrimental environmental stressors should be viewed as a special category of vulnerable people by policymakers, and steps need to be taken to ensure resilience to different environmental stressors.
Climate change is likely to exacerbate gendered vulnerabilities and compound intersecting forms o... more Climate change is likely to exacerbate gendered vulnerabilities and compound intersecting forms of discrimination against women. International donors and policymakers are increasingly interested in strengthening social protection programmes to address such adverse impacts, but there is a lack of evidence about how this can be achieved. Addressing this gap, this paper examines the potential of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to reduce women’s vulnerability to climate risks in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in India. It provides lessons on priority action areas for integrating gender within the planning, implementation, and monitoring of the programme to better meet women’s needs in the face of climate risk.
Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 2020
This paper reflects on my experience of using personal stories to
create a Pot Gan performance ex... more This paper reflects on my experience of using personal stories to create a Pot Gan performance exploring the complexity of how lives are lived, how the experience of climate change is shaped by poverty and struggle, but also strength in facing adversity. Bringing real stories to the stage had more meaning, emotion and personal connection for audiences, while also challenging them to work through a solution to the problems the characters onstage faced. It calls on us to treat their stories with an ethics of care, recognising that each person’s story belongs to that person alone.
Microcredit has become a component of global development. Recently, the climate change and disast... more Microcredit has become a component of global development. Recently, the climate change and disaster community have proposed that it may be able to facilitate climate change adaptation, but whether this is the case remains under-researched. Addressing this gap, this paper examines the question in relation to microcredit's ability to support adaptation strategies that effectively address vulnerability to climate shocks in three villages in the Bagerhat and Chattogram districts of coastal Bangladesh. The findings provide qualitative evidence that at-risk people often use microcredit as a response to climate shocks. However, the case study only finds evidence that microcredit supports coping and incremental adaptation. Findings suggest shocks (some climate-related and some not) can result in reduction in food consumption, erosion of assets, depletion of savings, increased debt, and debt default, 'trapping' at-risk people in indebtedness through a process of cumulative vulnerability. Lack of outreach of microcredit, erosion of assets, supply barriers, and lack of credit alternatives reduce microcredit's potential to address the persistent determinants of vulnerability.
This report evaluates the impact of a project that examined the ‘everyday’ realities and impact o... more This report evaluates the impact of a project that examined the ‘everyday’ realities and impact of climate change on the lives of low-income people in Dhaka, Bangladesh. For my research looking at urban climate resilience and how land tenure affects adaptation to climate change, I spent months in Duaripara informal settlement talking to over 600 people in their homes, workplaces, local teashops, and on street corners to understand how climate change affects their ‘everyday’ lives and what solutions they employ.
The engagement and impact focus of this research project centred on a strong partnership approach to building awareness and action on the ‘everyday’ realities and impact of climate change on the lives of low-income people in Dhaka, through interactive theatre performances, documentary film, educational programmes, and public events aimed at a wide range of publics with varying levels of knowledge on climate change. Central to this project is the focus on learning from those living on the frontlines of climate change to ensure that people are better informed of the priorities and needs of low-income people.
I teamed up with the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Dhaka to explore my research findings through an accessible and engaging Pot Gan; a traditional folk medium that combines melody, drama, pictures, and dancing. The stories and script were all based on the direct testimonies and experiences of the people gathered though my research. The Pot Gan is not a static piece of theatre; it is an interactive, immersive, and local medium that challenges the audience to actively engage with the personal experiences of low-income people affected by climate change.
The Pot Gan has proven to be an inclusive theatrical medium that can deepen engagement and understanding of the ‘everyday’ realities of climate change with an extremely diverse range of audiences. The three live Pot Gan performances in Dhaka were attended by an audience of 634 people, made-up of informal dwellers (research participants and the wider community), academics, policy makers, practitioners, and other key publics. 100% of respondents that attended the live Pot Gan performances said that it is a useful way to build awareness of climate change issues. 76% of those surveyed were not fluent in Bengali, however, only 5% indicated language as a significant barrier to their understanding of the Pot Gan despite it being performed in Bengali. 92% of those surveyed agreed that focusing on the ‘everyday’ experiences of those impacted by climate change was an effective way of communicating the issue.
The Pot Gan has even influenced audiences with existing climate change expertise. While 89% of respondents reported expertise in climate change and/or development, the survey found that 83% had learned something new or that the Pot Gan changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. 89% of respondents stated that the Pot Gan made them think differently about how to communicate their own work.
Central to the project is its focus on building awareness and action on climate change through film, with thirteen videos produced as part of the project. To bring the stories from the Dhaka informal dwellers to an even larger international and national audience, the Pot Gan performances were filmed to produce a documentary exploring my findings on the ‘everyday’ realities of climate change. At least 126,873 people have viewed the project documentary, trailer and video of the Pot Gan performance, mostly on Facebook. In a survey of the varied audiences who viewed the documentary and/or the video of the Pot Gan performance online, 100% said that it was a useful way to build awareness on climate change. 100% of those surveyed agreed that focusing on the ‘everyday’ experiences of those impacted by climate change was an effective way of communicating the issue. Despite 86% of respondents having expertise in climate change and/or development, the survey found that 82% reported learning something new as a result of watching the video(s) or that it changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh.
To accompany the documentary, a mini film series was recently launched, where informal dwellers from the project field site directly convey their own stories and experiences in the series ‘Living on the Frontlines of Climate Change’. The film series covers how Rohima Akter, Nasrul Islam, and Sufia Begum have been affected by climate change. We hear about their lives, their struggles, and their hopes for their children’s and grandchildren’s future. The project also engages with leading researchers and practitioners, sharing their insights on climate change via video interviews in ‘Expert Viewpoints’.
The documentary was showcased at two sold out, high-profile events in the UK with an audience of 301 people. It was premiered at the UK's largest university museum as part of Manchester Museum’s award-winning Climate Control exhibition. A separate public event was held at Rich Mix London, in collaboration with a Bangladeshi community group, Brick Lane Circle and the International Institute for Environment and Development. True to the premise of the Pot Gan performances in Dhaka, I worked with Theatre of Debate, Tie-Dye Drama and Regent’s High School to develop an event that engaged the audience in informed debate around scientific research. The event posed a similar challenge to the live Pot Gan performances, audience members were invited to move from being passive viewers to active participants engaging with the personal experiences of low-income people affected by climate change.
79% of respondents that attended the public event at Rich Mix thought it was a useful way to build awareness of climate change issues, compared to 88% of respondents that attended the documentary screening at Manchester Museum. 97% of Rich Mix attendees surveyed agreed that focusing on the 'everyday' experiences of those impacted by climate change is an effective way of communicating the issue, compared to 100% of Manchester Museum attendees surveyed. Despite 66% of respondents at Rich Mix and 20% at Manchester Museum having expertise in climate change and/or development, and 75% of the audience at Rich Mix reporting that they think they have directly experienced climate change, a total of 69% of respondents at Rich Mix and 87.5% at Manchester Museum reported learning something new as a result of the event or that it changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. 64% of the audience that attended the Rich Mix London event said that they care more about climate change as a result of attending the event. 69% of respondents at Rich Mix stated that the event made them think differently about how to communicate their own work, compared to 50% of respondents at Manchester Museum.
Via educational programmes, the project engaged with students based in Bangladesh, the UK, and Ireland. The project worked with the University of Dhaka to integrate the performance theatre project into their MA programme and helped Bangladeshi students learn about the impacts of climate change on low-income people in Dhaka. In the longer term, involvement with the project will also enhance the students’ employability in a variety of ways. The students gained valuable experience of working on a real academic research project with involvement in all stages of theatre performance, production, and documentray film. The project has recently developed teaching resources to give secondary school teachers in the UK and Ireland support to teach pupils about climate change, and help young people develop the knowledge and skills to think critically about climate change in an urbanising world. The resources are designed as an intervention to achieve impacts on learning outcomes, attitudinal shifts, and behaviour change. Project materials have been used as teaching resources at the University of Manchester with, almost 250 MSc students engaging with the research material through digital media. This aimed to help students to develop their understanding of the diverse, multi-faceted, and complex ways that low-income people experience climate change.
Social media has been critical to driving the project’s potential research reach and impact, including sharing videos, blog posts, and newspaper and magazine articles to a variety of audiences across Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with the documentary videos and live Pot Gan performance video having reached 126,873 viewers and the 6 newspaper or magazine articles and 17 blog posts published on the project having a readership of at least 29,226. Facebook has been critical for reaching a Bangladesh audience, with almost 90% of the project Facebook page followers from Bangladesh. The project Facebook page has over 4,600 followers and 4,600 likes, has published 99 posts, with a total reach of 399,432 users, with 62,852 of these being engaged users. There have been at least 366 tweets on the project, by 93 different Twitter users, with a total of 68 comments, 808 retweets, and 794 likes mostly from the UK and from an academic or development expertise background.
There has been increasing examination of resilience as a concept applicable to climate adaptation... more There has been increasing examination of resilience as a concept applicable to climate adaptation. In this paper, resilience is used to explore the layers of responses to past and present climate stress. It examines the factors and circumstances that may hinder or enhance resilience, providing insights into past and present adaptation processes that may be relevant for adaptation to future climate change. Specifically, this paper tests the value of social capital in influencing resilience to climate stress. While there are many examples where social capital influences resilience to climate stress, this paper aims to determine the relative importance of different types of social capital for enhancing resilience, by exploring how relationships of exchange and reciprocity influence responses to climate stress. This study involved case studies of specific communities in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh. This case study highlights a complex rather than a uniformly positive relationship between social capital and enhancing resilience to climate stress. Specifically, it identifies four types of social capital-based support (with monetary support as a subset) and the interlinkages among the types (and processes) of social capital with diverse effects on resilience. It emphasizes the moral and ethical importance of reconceptualizing resilience with an emphasis on the most vulnerable, as resilience approaches that fail to recognize the differentiated nature of resilience, risk reinforcing vulnerability. Westernized concepts have 2 important benefits, but crucial limitations when applied to the particular conditions, value sets and modes of community working in the south. The uncritical importation of social capital needs to be treated with caution, especially in the context of climate adaptation.
Perceptions of climate change play a critical role in determining how at-risk people are. The sig... more Perceptions of climate change play a critical role in determining how at-risk people are. The significance of culture for understanding why people perceive and respond to climate change in particular ways is largely ignored in mainstream climate change adaptation. This paper applies a critical realist approach to examine the socio-cultural structures and causal mechanisms for inaction or (in)effective action between at-risk people and the organisations responsible for dealing with climate change. Findings show that there are varying context-specific sub-narratives among heterogeneous groups of people at risk and organisations that lead to inaction or (in)effective action in response to climate change, often independent of risk perceptions and with unforeseen consequences for at-risk people's vulnerabilities. Specifically, sub-narratives may create parallel and/or conflicting climate perceptions and respective responses, legitimise unequal resource distribution, and justify the suppression and/or capitalisation of sub-cultural and/or individual risk perceptions.
Resilience is increasingly becoming the new buzz word. This paper examines the utility of the con... more Resilience is increasingly becoming the new buzz word. This paper examines the utility of the concept of resilience for understanding the gendered experiences of women to climate stress, through case study research in Southwest Bangladesh. It provides evidence that resilience, as commonly understood, is inadequate for understanding the intersecting vulnerabilities that women face because of embedded socio-cultural norms and practices. These vulnerabilities culminate in a gendered experience of climate stress, where some groups of women are more likely go without education, food and access to good quality water. Such circuits of control highlight the importance of a more radical, transformational, gendered and power sensitive frame for moving beyond coping mechanisms to strategies that deal with the fundamental root causes of vulnerability to climate stress. A failure to do so risks further reinforcing gender inequalities due to the reality of social difference and inequities within local power structures.
This paper aims to understand how environmental stressors influence people's livelihood options i... more This paper aims to understand how environmental stressors influence people's livelihood options in the coastal belt of Bangladesh. We argue that environmental stressors such as cyclones, riverbank erosion, salinity intrusion, and floods have negative impacts on people's lives by reducing their livelihood options. Twelve in-depth interviews (Livelihood Histories) and twelve Focus Group Discussions (FGD) based on two Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools (Village Timeline and Contextual Change) were carried out in three different sites in coastal Bangladesh were conducted under the study. Our study finds that when there are insufficient adaptation strategies to environmental stressors, many people turn to livelihoods banned by the government. These 'illegal livelihoods' include using fine mesh nets to collect shrimp fry in the rivers as well as logging in the Sundarbans. These people are often the poorestand vulnerable, and law enforcement only exacerbate their vulnerability. We end by concluding those that have turned to 'illegal livelihoods' as a result of detrimental environmental stressors should be viewed as a special category of vulnerable people by policymakers, and steps need to be taken to ensure resilience to different environmental stressors.
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Papers by Joanne Jordan
create a Pot Gan performance exploring the complexity of how
lives are lived, how the experience of climate change is shaped by
poverty and struggle, but also strength in facing adversity.
Bringing real stories to the stage had more meaning, emotion and
personal connection for audiences, while also challenging them to
work through a solution to the problems the characters onstage
faced. It calls on us to treat their stories with an ethics of care,
recognising that each person’s story belongs to that person alone.
The engagement and impact focus of this research project centred on a strong partnership approach to building awareness and action on the ‘everyday’ realities and impact of climate change on the lives of low-income people in Dhaka, through interactive theatre performances, documentary film, educational programmes, and public events aimed at a wide range of publics with varying levels of knowledge on climate change. Central to this project is the focus on learning from those living on the frontlines of climate change to ensure that people are better informed of the priorities and needs of low-income people.
I teamed up with the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Dhaka to explore my research findings through an accessible and engaging Pot Gan; a traditional folk medium that combines melody, drama, pictures, and dancing. The stories and script were all based on the direct testimonies and experiences of the people gathered though my research. The Pot Gan is not a static piece of theatre; it is an interactive, immersive, and local medium that challenges the audience to actively engage with the personal experiences of low-income people affected by climate change.
The Pot Gan has proven to be an inclusive theatrical medium that can deepen engagement and understanding of the ‘everyday’ realities of climate change with an extremely diverse range of audiences. The three live Pot Gan performances in Dhaka were attended by an audience of 634 people, made-up of informal dwellers (research participants and the wider community), academics, policy makers, practitioners, and other key publics. 100% of respondents that attended the live Pot Gan performances said that it is a useful way to build awareness of climate change issues. 76% of those surveyed were not fluent in Bengali, however, only 5% indicated language as a significant barrier to their understanding of the Pot Gan despite it being performed in Bengali. 92% of those surveyed agreed that focusing on the ‘everyday’ experiences of those impacted by climate change was an effective way of communicating the issue.
The Pot Gan has even influenced audiences with existing climate change expertise. While 89% of respondents reported expertise in climate change and/or development, the survey found that 83% had learned something new or that the Pot Gan changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. 89% of respondents stated that the Pot Gan made them think differently about how to communicate their own work.
Central to the project is its focus on building awareness and action on climate change through film, with thirteen videos produced as part of the project. To bring the stories from the Dhaka informal dwellers to an even larger international and national audience, the Pot Gan performances were filmed to produce a documentary exploring my findings on the ‘everyday’ realities of climate change. At least 126,873 people have viewed the project documentary, trailer and video of the Pot Gan performance, mostly on Facebook. In a survey of the varied audiences who viewed the documentary and/or the video of the Pot Gan performance online, 100% said that it was a useful way to build awareness on climate change. 100% of those surveyed agreed that focusing on the ‘everyday’ experiences of those impacted by climate change was an effective way of communicating the issue. Despite 86% of respondents having expertise in climate change and/or development, the survey found that 82% reported learning something new as a result of watching the video(s) or that it changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh.
To accompany the documentary, a mini film series was recently launched, where informal dwellers from the project field site directly convey their own stories and experiences in the series ‘Living on the Frontlines of Climate Change’. The film series covers how Rohima Akter, Nasrul Islam, and Sufia Begum have been affected by climate change. We hear about their lives, their struggles, and their hopes for their children’s and grandchildren’s future. The project also engages with leading researchers and practitioners, sharing their insights on climate change via video interviews in ‘Expert Viewpoints’.
The documentary was showcased at two sold out, high-profile events in the UK with an audience of 301 people. It was premiered at the UK's largest university museum as part of Manchester Museum’s award-winning Climate Control exhibition. A separate public event was held at Rich Mix London, in collaboration with a Bangladeshi community group, Brick Lane Circle and the International Institute for Environment and Development. True to the premise of the Pot Gan performances in Dhaka, I worked with Theatre of Debate, Tie-Dye Drama and Regent’s High School to develop an event that engaged the audience in informed debate around scientific research. The event posed a similar challenge to the live Pot Gan performances, audience members were invited to move from being passive viewers to active participants engaging with the personal experiences of low-income people affected by climate change.
79% of respondents that attended the public event at Rich Mix thought it was a useful way to build awareness of climate change issues, compared to 88% of respondents that attended the documentary screening at Manchester Museum. 97% of Rich Mix attendees surveyed agreed that focusing on the 'everyday' experiences of those impacted by climate change is an effective way of communicating the issue, compared to 100% of Manchester Museum attendees surveyed. Despite 66% of respondents at Rich Mix and 20% at Manchester Museum having expertise in climate change and/or development, and 75% of the audience at Rich Mix reporting that they think they have directly experienced climate change, a total of 69% of respondents at Rich Mix and 87.5% at Manchester Museum reported learning something new as a result of the event or that it changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. 64% of the audience that attended the Rich Mix London event said that they care more about climate change as a result of attending the event. 69% of respondents at Rich Mix stated that the event made them think differently about how to communicate their own work, compared to 50% of respondents at Manchester Museum.
Via educational programmes, the project engaged with students based in Bangladesh, the UK, and Ireland. The project worked with the University of Dhaka to integrate the performance theatre project into their MA programme and helped Bangladeshi students learn about the impacts of climate change on low-income people in Dhaka. In the longer term, involvement with the project will also enhance the students’ employability in a variety of ways. The students gained valuable experience of working on a real academic research project with involvement in all stages of theatre performance, production, and documentray film. The project has recently developed teaching resources to give secondary school teachers in the UK and Ireland support to teach pupils about climate change, and help young people develop the knowledge and skills to think critically about climate change in an urbanising world. The resources are designed as an intervention to achieve impacts on learning outcomes, attitudinal shifts, and behaviour change. Project materials have been used as teaching resources at the University of Manchester with, almost 250 MSc students engaging with the research material through digital media. This aimed to help students to develop their understanding of the diverse, multi-faceted, and complex ways that low-income people experience climate change.
Social media has been critical to driving the project’s potential research reach and impact, including sharing videos, blog posts, and newspaper and magazine articles to a variety of audiences across Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with the documentary videos and live Pot Gan performance video having reached 126,873 viewers and the 6 newspaper or magazine articles and 17 blog posts published on the project having a readership of at least 29,226. Facebook has been critical for reaching a Bangladesh audience, with almost 90% of the project Facebook page followers from Bangladesh. The project Facebook page has over 4,600 followers and 4,600 likes, has published 99 posts, with a total reach of 399,432 users, with 62,852 of these being engaged users. There have been at least 366 tweets on the project, by 93 different Twitter users, with a total of 68 comments, 808 retweets, and 794 likes mostly from the UK and from an academic or development expertise background.
create a Pot Gan performance exploring the complexity of how
lives are lived, how the experience of climate change is shaped by
poverty and struggle, but also strength in facing adversity.
Bringing real stories to the stage had more meaning, emotion and
personal connection for audiences, while also challenging them to
work through a solution to the problems the characters onstage
faced. It calls on us to treat their stories with an ethics of care,
recognising that each person’s story belongs to that person alone.
The engagement and impact focus of this research project centred on a strong partnership approach to building awareness and action on the ‘everyday’ realities and impact of climate change on the lives of low-income people in Dhaka, through interactive theatre performances, documentary film, educational programmes, and public events aimed at a wide range of publics with varying levels of knowledge on climate change. Central to this project is the focus on learning from those living on the frontlines of climate change to ensure that people are better informed of the priorities and needs of low-income people.
I teamed up with the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Dhaka to explore my research findings through an accessible and engaging Pot Gan; a traditional folk medium that combines melody, drama, pictures, and dancing. The stories and script were all based on the direct testimonies and experiences of the people gathered though my research. The Pot Gan is not a static piece of theatre; it is an interactive, immersive, and local medium that challenges the audience to actively engage with the personal experiences of low-income people affected by climate change.
The Pot Gan has proven to be an inclusive theatrical medium that can deepen engagement and understanding of the ‘everyday’ realities of climate change with an extremely diverse range of audiences. The three live Pot Gan performances in Dhaka were attended by an audience of 634 people, made-up of informal dwellers (research participants and the wider community), academics, policy makers, practitioners, and other key publics. 100% of respondents that attended the live Pot Gan performances said that it is a useful way to build awareness of climate change issues. 76% of those surveyed were not fluent in Bengali, however, only 5% indicated language as a significant barrier to their understanding of the Pot Gan despite it being performed in Bengali. 92% of those surveyed agreed that focusing on the ‘everyday’ experiences of those impacted by climate change was an effective way of communicating the issue.
The Pot Gan has even influenced audiences with existing climate change expertise. While 89% of respondents reported expertise in climate change and/or development, the survey found that 83% had learned something new or that the Pot Gan changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. 89% of respondents stated that the Pot Gan made them think differently about how to communicate their own work.
Central to the project is its focus on building awareness and action on climate change through film, with thirteen videos produced as part of the project. To bring the stories from the Dhaka informal dwellers to an even larger international and national audience, the Pot Gan performances were filmed to produce a documentary exploring my findings on the ‘everyday’ realities of climate change. At least 126,873 people have viewed the project documentary, trailer and video of the Pot Gan performance, mostly on Facebook. In a survey of the varied audiences who viewed the documentary and/or the video of the Pot Gan performance online, 100% said that it was a useful way to build awareness on climate change. 100% of those surveyed agreed that focusing on the ‘everyday’ experiences of those impacted by climate change was an effective way of communicating the issue. Despite 86% of respondents having expertise in climate change and/or development, the survey found that 82% reported learning something new as a result of watching the video(s) or that it changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh.
To accompany the documentary, a mini film series was recently launched, where informal dwellers from the project field site directly convey their own stories and experiences in the series ‘Living on the Frontlines of Climate Change’. The film series covers how Rohima Akter, Nasrul Islam, and Sufia Begum have been affected by climate change. We hear about their lives, their struggles, and their hopes for their children’s and grandchildren’s future. The project also engages with leading researchers and practitioners, sharing their insights on climate change via video interviews in ‘Expert Viewpoints’.
The documentary was showcased at two sold out, high-profile events in the UK with an audience of 301 people. It was premiered at the UK's largest university museum as part of Manchester Museum’s award-winning Climate Control exhibition. A separate public event was held at Rich Mix London, in collaboration with a Bangladeshi community group, Brick Lane Circle and the International Institute for Environment and Development. True to the premise of the Pot Gan performances in Dhaka, I worked with Theatre of Debate, Tie-Dye Drama and Regent’s High School to develop an event that engaged the audience in informed debate around scientific research. The event posed a similar challenge to the live Pot Gan performances, audience members were invited to move from being passive viewers to active participants engaging with the personal experiences of low-income people affected by climate change.
79% of respondents that attended the public event at Rich Mix thought it was a useful way to build awareness of climate change issues, compared to 88% of respondents that attended the documentary screening at Manchester Museum. 97% of Rich Mix attendees surveyed agreed that focusing on the 'everyday' experiences of those impacted by climate change is an effective way of communicating the issue, compared to 100% of Manchester Museum attendees surveyed. Despite 66% of respondents at Rich Mix and 20% at Manchester Museum having expertise in climate change and/or development, and 75% of the audience at Rich Mix reporting that they think they have directly experienced climate change, a total of 69% of respondents at Rich Mix and 87.5% at Manchester Museum reported learning something new as a result of the event or that it changed the way that they think about climate change, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. 64% of the audience that attended the Rich Mix London event said that they care more about climate change as a result of attending the event. 69% of respondents at Rich Mix stated that the event made them think differently about how to communicate their own work, compared to 50% of respondents at Manchester Museum.
Via educational programmes, the project engaged with students based in Bangladesh, the UK, and Ireland. The project worked with the University of Dhaka to integrate the performance theatre project into their MA programme and helped Bangladeshi students learn about the impacts of climate change on low-income people in Dhaka. In the longer term, involvement with the project will also enhance the students’ employability in a variety of ways. The students gained valuable experience of working on a real academic research project with involvement in all stages of theatre performance, production, and documentray film. The project has recently developed teaching resources to give secondary school teachers in the UK and Ireland support to teach pupils about climate change, and help young people develop the knowledge and skills to think critically about climate change in an urbanising world. The resources are designed as an intervention to achieve impacts on learning outcomes, attitudinal shifts, and behaviour change. Project materials have been used as teaching resources at the University of Manchester with, almost 250 MSc students engaging with the research material through digital media. This aimed to help students to develop their understanding of the diverse, multi-faceted, and complex ways that low-income people experience climate change.
Social media has been critical to driving the project’s potential research reach and impact, including sharing videos, blog posts, and newspaper and magazine articles to a variety of audiences across Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with the documentary videos and live Pot Gan performance video having reached 126,873 viewers and the 6 newspaper or magazine articles and 17 blog posts published on the project having a readership of at least 29,226. Facebook has been critical for reaching a Bangladesh audience, with almost 90% of the project Facebook page followers from Bangladesh. The project Facebook page has over 4,600 followers and 4,600 likes, has published 99 posts, with a total reach of 399,432 users, with 62,852 of these being engaged users. There have been at least 366 tweets on the project, by 93 different Twitter users, with a total of 68 comments, 808 retweets, and 794 likes mostly from the UK and from an academic or development expertise background.