Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
The Future of Small Islands: Unveiling the Potential of Sustainable Tourism and Informal Economy in Small Islands in Bangladesh
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
EXPLORATORY
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is that our country has many small islands which potential remained untapped and unexplored over the time. Agriculture and livestock rearing are major livelihood activities in the islands. The coastal islands confront almost all climate-induced disasters common to sea-facing locations. The islands are one of the eleventh climate stress areas of Bangladesh and high impact climate stresses are river flood, sea level rise, salinity, that creates immense threat to the lives and property of the islanders. Major part of the island is living under poverty without exploring any alternative livelihood options.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
According to the National Statistics Office (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics), the poverty rate among the Char and island people is 32.4% while the national average is 24.3%. Data from Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016 says 24.1% of households in the river char areas and 26% of households in the coastal charlands earn less than USD 64 monthly, while the national figure stands at 22.6%. People of the island generally remains underprivileged as they lack alternative livelihoods and fall under extreme poverty due to sudden natural calamities. But the islands have untold natural beauties that can attract the tourist and open up ways for alternative income for the informal workers as well as become the earning source for the unemployed youth. The unemployed youth and informal workers and the households are suffering from undesirable state of poverty as the climate and socio-economic environment refraining them from becoming self-reliant and self-sufficient.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
There are 12 coastal islands in 5 districts of Bangladesh which fall under the purview of coastal areas of Bangladesh. Although islands account for only 5% of the earth’s surface, they host 20% of terrestrial plants and vertebrates and 600 million people depend on island ecosystem services for their sustainable development. [1] With a small area having scarce population, the small islands hold huge potential as sites for leisure tourism, eco-tourism, wildlife sanctuary, riverine tourism, cruise tourism, rural tourism etc. According to National Char Alliance, about 10 million people in Bangladesh are living in 109 charlands in different coastal and river chars. The charlands cover around 10% of 32 districts across the country.[2]
However, it is a common phenomenon that the char dwellers always fight with the hunger, poverty, illiteracy, less farm productivity, climatic disaster, etc. Island people are poor, illiterate and deprived of employment opportunities and health facilities. According to World Bank, nearly 12 million people live in poverty in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. The existing fearful living of char dwellers and livelihood conditions, for instance, vulnerabilities arising from natural disasters such as flood, erosion, storm, cyclone, tidal surge; poverty, which is 2.7 times higher than the national average, and its consequent malnutrition; illiteracy; inadequate education, health and sanitation services; and limited rights to, if not absence of, land and livelihood resources, leave them in a never ending fight for survival. The means for improving upon them still remains ambiguous.[4]
Sources:
1. https://islandinnovation.co/articles/small-islands-do-matter-here-is-why/
2. https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/living-fringe-life-char-difficult-it-gets-280009
3. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/06/24/climate-change-poses-urgent-threat-to-poor-of-coastal-bangladesh
4. https://www.thedailystar.net/daily-star-books/news/invaluable-resource-char-dwellers-deltaic-bangladesh-3014251
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
In the context of the small islands, the country is enriched with unbeatable scenic beauty and the natural wildlife sanctuary. But it is unexpected that the potentials of these islands are still under hide and the islanders are not getting any benefit from it. Their lives are in stake because of the unprecedented natural shock and least opportunity for alternative livelihoods. Except from agriculture and fishing they don't have any particular business to run their families. They usually live from hand to mouth. Moreover, the small island areas having numerous problems do not allow them to enroll them in the global development progress because of isolation and the lack of enough facilities leaves their economies in the dark. Considering the depth of these challenges, it is utmost important to create some alternative livelihood options for them. Sustainable tourism activities and informal works can be some sort of possible solutions to this problem.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344873864_Potentiality_of_Islands_Based_Tourism_in_Bangladesh_A_Qualitative_View_from_Existing_Literature
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
The AccLab has robust affiliation with both governmental bodies and the private sectors, as well as other UNDP projects who are actively engaged in the field of sustainable development of small islands. This unique positioning enables the lab to serve as a bridge, fostering connections between these organizations by establishing of a multi-layered coordination framework. However, the Lab has previously worked on sustainable tourism and informal economy amalgaming blue tourism of coastal areas in Bangladesh. So, the experiences will go a long meet to our needs to apply the learnings in small islands.
Supporting our collaborative approach in small islands demonstrates a commitment to sustainable development and poverty reduction, promoting blue tourism, building capacity and fostering local ownership and responsible governance for the region's long-term prosperity. As our lab has sufficient manpower and technical expertise to collaborate with relevant stakeholders and connecting the community with their willingness, it is undoubtedly a positive advantage for the lab to work on this challenge.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
State of Development in Small Islands: How to Blend Sustainable Tourism and Informal Employment for Sustainability in Bangladesh
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
1. Bangladesh Tourism Board
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
1. Bangladesh Tourism Board - Being one of the top collaborators of UNDP BTB providing technical and logistic support to our interventions.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
2. Upazilla Parishad of Hatiya
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
2. Upazilla Parishad of Hatiya - Main actor in implementing the intervention and leading the connections for sustainable tourism and creating informal employment by engaging all other relevant stakeholders.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
3. Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh
What sector does our partner belong to?
Private Sector
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
3. Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) - As TOAB works for tourist management and tourist services they will collaborate with us on sustainable tourism development.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
4. Mangrove Conservation Committee
What sector does our partner belong to?
Civil Society
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
4. Mangrove Conservation Committee: This committee will work as an agent to conserve biodiversity and protect the forestland of the island while promoting sustainable tourism.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
5. Noakhali Science and Technology University
What sector does our partner belong to?
Academia
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
5. Noakhali Science and Technology University: UNDP AccLab would collaborate with them for resources and integrating ideas for the development of small island.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
1. How can sustainable tourism generate alternative livelihood opportunities for the island people?
2. How to engage in consultations with various stakeholders, including government bodies, local government authorities, non-governmental organizations, and community representatives, in order to identify the challenges of the small islands?
3. How can the islanders be included in the informal economy through sustainable tourism approach?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense, Explore, Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
These tools will be used to understand both the qualitative and quantitative context, challenges, partners demand, and inclusive solutions to the problem identified. These tools will add value to our learning questions by identifying the need of the local people, their culture, the partners, their nature, sources of resources, making connections and analyzing the current context.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Currently we don't have the exact data of the existing diversified committees prevailing at small islands for various purposes. We also have data gaps in identifying the exact number of unemployed youth and the tourism options and their potentiality to bring changes to the islanders' fate. In addition, we need particular tourist data from various sources provides deviation which create challenges to map efficient solutions. Thus, the related data choices will accommodate us with appropriate data at the first hand.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
If we can connect the relevant partners and local communities of the island through this leaning cycle with our UNDP projects and interventions, there are possibility of scaling and growth of this challenge by bringing sustainable solutions which are beneficial to the vulnerable community and the climate affected people. Through this growth phase the stockholders including local government, community people, informal workers, tourism service providers, youth community, and poorest women might be the champions in our country.
END OF ACTION LEARNING PLAN: Thank you! The form saves automatically and your submission has been recorded. You may now exit this window.
1No poverty
8Decent work and economic growth
9Industry, innovation and infrastructure
10Reduced innequalities
11Sustainable cities and communities
13Climate action
