Zero Hunger - Zero Emissions: Enabling the debate on how to feed the world whilst mitigating climate change
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Geography - SoGE
Abstract
There is an urgent need to find means by which societies can engage in difficult debates about how to ensure food security in a world threatened by dangerous levels of climate change, at the same time as making drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. There will be conflicts, trade-offs but also potential co-benefits between these twin objectives depending very much on the pathways chosen. Decision-making though is often highly technical and top-down and omits sections of society, especially the poorest.
Food systems and the people in them are at the intersection of hunger, poverty and environmental goals. Creating resilient food systems is central to climate change adaptation, but changing agriculture, land use and food systems to contribute to GHG mitigation will likely assume much greater importance particularly in light of the commitments in the Paris Agreement.
Bangladesh is an example of a country that has made great strides in food security whilst facing enormous challenges from climate change. The country made various emission reductions commitments but its current policies and future development trajectories contain contradictions that might endanger these goals. Agriculture - which provides the livelihoods for the majority of people - is responsible for 40% of overall emissions and may come under increasing pressure to deliver reductions. The planned revision of the country's Nationally Determined Contribution to GHG emissions reduction offers an opportunity for debate on choices and their implications.
This research aims to design and test an inclusive and replicable process based on participatory scenario methodology to enable those debates to take place in ways that involve broad swathes of society, including people at the sharp end who often have least voice.
Food systems and the people in them are at the intersection of hunger, poverty and environmental goals. Creating resilient food systems is central to climate change adaptation, but changing agriculture, land use and food systems to contribute to GHG mitigation will likely assume much greater importance particularly in light of the commitments in the Paris Agreement.
Bangladesh is an example of a country that has made great strides in food security whilst facing enormous challenges from climate change. The country made various emission reductions commitments but its current policies and future development trajectories contain contradictions that might endanger these goals. Agriculture - which provides the livelihoods for the majority of people - is responsible for 40% of overall emissions and may come under increasing pressure to deliver reductions. The planned revision of the country's Nationally Determined Contribution to GHG emissions reduction offers an opportunity for debate on choices and their implications.
This research aims to design and test an inclusive and replicable process based on participatory scenario methodology to enable those debates to take place in ways that involve broad swathes of society, including people at the sharp end who often have least voice.
Planned Impact
People everywhere will be affected by the choices made about how to pursue climate change mitigation and the Sustainable Development Goals, notably SDG2 to end hunger. If decisions made are better informed by, and respectful of, the perspectives of all sections of society then societies as a whole will ultimately benefit. The poorest people stand to gain most by good and equitable decision taking: they are largely dependent on agriculture and most affected by economic shocks and climate impacts but their perspectives are often least taken into account in debates. The project aims to create an inclusive process that will bring various stakeholder perspectives on development choices into the debate. Thus the project will engage both with the academic food and climate communities in Bangladesh but more so with stakeholder groups from government, policy implementation, the private sector and civil society groups working on food or climate change issues. The research will involve key informant interviews, holding of three large stakeholder workshops creating in-depth immersion in scenario development, and subsequent follow-up both in-country including media work, and via dissemination of the methodology to other researchers and other countries.
In Bangladesh the insights and networks created through the scenario process will be taken forward after the research has ended to help reformulate national greenhouse gas emission reduction plans and agricultural development plans as well as informing business choices in the energy and food business sectors.
In Bangladesh the insights and networks created through the scenario process will be taken forward after the research has ended to help reformulate national greenhouse gas emission reduction plans and agricultural development plans as well as informing business choices in the energy and food business sectors.
Publications
Saeed Moghayer
(2023)
A low-carbon and hunger-free future for Bangladesh: An ex- ante assessment of synergies and trade-offs in different transition pathways
in Frontiers in Environmental Sciences
| Description | The ZHZE project was able to create a meaningful dialogue across communities to develop and analyse four qualitative scenarios on the future of Bangladesh, its food system and implications for climate actions. This included a controversial debate on the need for low carbon development to happen also in a developing country context and the role of food systems for this, especially as in Bangladesh food security is the key political goal. The country is also moving towards Middle Income Country status and taking a leadership role among LDCs in the UNFCCC negotiations (Co-Investigator Dr Saleemul Huq: 'no country has the right to pollute'). In order to bring various players and voices together it was very helpful that the project team encompassed two partners (ICCCAD and Oxfam Bangladesh) that were deeply rooted in the Bangladeshi context, debates and differing arenas. The scenarios process explored the different views on the most important yet uncertain driving forces for food system and climate action development through a set of key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Then in two workshops agriculture, food, climate change and energy experts from government, NGOs, private sector, youth groups and academia came together with differing views on the two SDGs, the priority and options for achieving the current development goals and targets. The two following factors emerged as crucial: the type of governance mechanism prevalent in Bangladesh in the future (authoritarian versus inclusive and transparent) and how environmental degradation would be managed (proactively seeking to reduce environmental degradation, including climate change, versus mainly reacting to environmental problems). Based on these key drivers four plausible storylines were developed (Green Road, Middle Road, Rocky Road and Divided Road, see scenario write up in the Climate Tribune of the Dhaka Times) and discussed not just with the workshop participants but also in separate workshops with rural communities in the North and the South of Bangladesh and youth and student groups. Their views were then brought back into the stories and the analysis of the implications of the scenarios. The project finally discussed these in a Learning Hub event with the Bangladeshi Planning Commission which develops the country's Five-Year Plans. The work is now taken forward by another project run by the CCAFS (Climate Change and Food Systems Initiative of the CGIAR) in terms of modelling and quantifying the qualitative scenarios. The discussions and the participatory scenario development process revealed various important findings. There is not much appetite at this moment to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture and food sector despite the fact that they contribute substantially to the countries emissions profile and are also mentioned in Bangladesh's NDC to the Paris Agreement. Several factors contribute to this situation: Historically food security (SDG 2) is seen as the key goal for the country and, though the country has made huge progress in this area, this will remain the priority into the future. There is currently also a lack of awareness of emissions from the agriculture and food sector and reliable data is scarce. The prevailing perception is that emissions reduction interventions are expensive and often labour intensive and at the moment there are not many incentives available for GHG emission reduction from the food sector. This is despite the fact that a number of current agriculture policies are not taking their implications for the sector's emission profile into account and are likely to contribute to a possible growth in GHG emissions. As for the energy sector, the long-term power and energy supply projections are based on fossil fuels and it is not clear how the benefits of a low carbon economy will reach the farmers. Currently there is no platform for dialogue between the sectors power, energy, environment, food and agriculture as to how these sectors can collaborate to move towards a low carbon economy. However, while economic development is a priority for many decision and policy makers in particular, within Bangladeshi rural youth and the University students, there is considerable interest in changing the status quo regarding environmental degradation and low carbon development and for moving towards an economy which supports and promotes environmental quality and inclusive governance. There is much concern over e.g. pollution of waterways by fertilisers, food contamination through overuse of pesticides and air pollution from traffic fumes. There is also keen awareness of climate change impacts. This may serve as justifications as to why there is a need to reframe the debate around fossil fuels and low carbon development pathways in the context of the LDCs. The scenarios reveal a number of possible development pathways for Bangladesh with two of the plausible futures including options for more low carbon futures. It is also important to highlight that while technological interventions and improvements will be key towards moving to low emission pathways, these interventions should not ignore social justice issues. In fact sustainability of a low carbon economy and scaling up of emission friendly interventions in the agriculture and food sector cannot be ensured unless their benefits reach the grass root level farmers. These farmers, and rural youth, have benefited from government policies notably social credit and Digital Bangladesh, nevertheless they complain still of being marginalised and subject to corrupt practices and unfair prices. These particularly anger women, and it is women who increasingly run the rural economy with men away working abroad. In the existing context, a paradigm shift in how policy makers think about emissions in Bangladesh is necessary. In fact it is important to enter the discussion in Bangladesh around emission reductions from the agriculture sector by firstly and primarily highlighting sustainable development benefits (such as cost reduction, health benefits, creation of employment) and then subsequently indicate the emissions reductions benefits. There needs to be a policy network or platform for forwarding the low carbon agenda and policy makers should set realistic plans for achieving emissions reductions considering on-the-ground realities. Raising awareness, enhancing capacity and investing in the development of the appropriate low cost technologies would be important steps while financial and technical support from the developed nations would be necessary to support this process. The project was able to engage with a wide range of stakeholders on the interactions of food security, climate action and low carbon development. In the workshops these communities included both agricultural and food experts, academics and decision makers from government (including from the agricultural, livestock and energy ministries as well as the powerful Planning Commission), NGOs working on renewable energy, some private sector players from the agricultural sector and academics working on food, energy and low carbon development. The project experimented with broadening the input into the scenarios and the discussion of their implications by discussing draft scenarios with community groups in the North and the South of Bangladesh, brick kiln workers and youth groups. The ensuing discussions could contribute to the debate about development pathways for Bangladesh that might entail various trade-offs across societal goals. In addition the project brought the issues to the attention of the wider public as ICCCAD runs a supplement called the Climate Tribune once a month in the Dhaka Times, the main English speaking newspaper in Bangladesh, and one of the supplements was devoted completely to the project and there were articles in others. In addition, ICCCAD also run a course on scenario developments and the ZHZE scenarios for students from a number of universities that received a huge amount of interest. That said, given the short 15 months timeframe of the project, this process was not as extensive as needed for such a complex topic. Overall the project was able to meet its two objectives of developing and analysing alternative development pathways for achieving the Zero Hunger Zero Emissions challenge and using participatory scenario development to bring in different perspectives into the debate thus testing the effectiveness of this technique. However it was not in as much depth, detail and with as much input from a wide range of voices as the complex topic of achieving the Zero Hunger Zero Emissions goals might need. The team realised the process has many and intriguing possibilities to a) enable greater interaction across groups and new bases for interaction and b) open up new ways of thinking/perspective and imagination. Young people in particular responded with enthusiasm and in creative and imaginative ways. It also provided the beginning, at least, of a new set of skills for participating people and institutions. Overall, this 15 months pilot has demonstrated the value of the approach but also what might be necessary to make it work to maximum potential, one being that it does need to be a multi-year process for maximum effect. The team felt it did not have the necessary time to develop and carry out a tailored enough methodology for policy and key informant interview analysis to deeply inform the scenario process. Thus the set of proposed activities were partly over-ambitious for the time frame and thus did not reach the analytical depth to inform all parts for the analysis processes as the team would have liked. This includes the development of a truly inclusive process that could reach out far enough not just in consultation but real integration of voices outside the usual players in the policy making space. The voices of youth and rural people were largely heard in separate forums. It should be mentioned that one obstacle to expert participation was the fact of imminent elections in the country taking up the time of government people. Thus the project was able to create a set of genuine conversations between disparate groups of people from many levels of society and disciplines though not as fluidly and successfully as envisioned. The methodology was one reason for successes, the networks and contacts provided by ICCCAD and Oxfam Bangladesh and their good relationships with those partners and people, were other reasons for successes. Furthermore, the concept of zero emissions was politically sensitive and so the entry point for discussions had to be placed on food systems and food security. Thus rather than balancing the Zero Hunger and Zero Emissions ideas and focusing on the interaction of the two the project needed to focus more on the food security theme. But this we learned is also where most people are coming from and so where conversations must start. In addition the project faced a lack of data on emissions from agriculture in the country. As the project was very short various activities had to go on in parallel, and the sequencing of activities such as supporting scene setting or framing of the key issues, together with finding the right timings for the workshop turned out to be not ideal. More time for in-depth analysis at some points would have been good, especially when moving towards the analysis of interactions across the two SDGs and potential synergies and trade-offs across the different development pathways the scenarios showed. The project was nevertheless able to open the dialogue on some of the contentious issues and will finalize the analysis of policy implications also in light of the quantification work that is currently on-going. |
| Exploitation Route | The project work and findings will be taken forward in different ways. On the one side one of the project partners (ECI) was able to use its network of collaborators to attract the attention of a set of modelling groups in Wageningen University, NL, and CSIRO, Australia that have started work to quantify the four qualitative scenarios as part of the Climate Change and Food Security programme of the CGIAR (CCAFS). The modelling results were presented in a CCAFS workshop in Bangladesh in April 2019 and an integrated set of qualitative-quantitative scenarios together with the analysis of their implications for SDG 2 and SDG 13 were presented to various stakeholders, including to the Planning Commission, in August 2019. A journal article on the modelling work carried out on the ZHZE scenarios and its implications will be submitted in April 2021. Furthermore, Oxfam GB, Oxfam Bangladesh and Oxfam Philippines - who attended the final lessons learned workshop in Oxford - are bringing foresight methods into their country and stakeholder work, using the developed scenarios methodology as well as other similar approaches. Also ICCCAD has started to experiment with the scenario method already in a youth workshop in 2018 and is interested to use the methodology for analysis of other SDG interactions. At the Learning Hub event ICCCAD signed an MoU with the Planning Commission to do research on various topics and scenario methodology will be employed at times. For advancing these efforts the ECI team has provided methodology resources in a new initiative called Foresight4Food (www.foresight4food.net). |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Energy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/food/zhze.html |
| Description | Oxfam GB (project partner), Oxfam Bangladesh (project partner and Oxfam Philippines - who attended the final lessons learned workshop in Oxford (Nov 2018) - are bringing foresight methods into their country and stakeholder work, using the developed scenarios methodology as well as other similar approaches. Also project partner ICCCAD has started to experiment with the scenario method already in a youth workshop in 2018 and is interested to use the methodology for analysis of other SDG interactions. At the Learning Hub event ICCCAD signed an MoU with the Bangladeshi Planning Commission to do research on various topics and scenario methodology will be employed at times. For advancing these efforts the project team is currently working on a manual describing the method used by the project as well as similar approaches and resources for organizations wanting to use foresight methods in their development work. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Energy,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Workshop with Bangladeshi Planning Commission on ZHZE scenarios and implications for policy |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Collaboration of the project with Wageningen Economic Research Center (NL) and CSIRO (Australia) for scenario quantification via the CCFAS partnership |
| Organisation | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The ZHZE project developed four qualitative scenarios with stakeholders on how the Bangladeshi food system could develop up to 2041 under varying assumptions and what the implications of these development pathways might be for climate action, low carbon development and energy needs of the country. The Climate Change and Food Systems program (CCAFS) of the CGIAR, for which one of the project team members is a collaborator and which is also doing work in Bangladesh together with the Wageningen Economic Research Center (the NL) and CSIRO (Australia), became interested in the scenarios. They then decided to quantify the scenarios and their implications using the MAGNET model and a household model for Bangladesh. The project team therefore provided the modellers with tailor made information to inform the quantification process. And the results of the quantification work will be presented a a conference in Bangladesh in April 2019 and to the Bangladeshi Planning Commission. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The CCAFS, Wageningen University and CSIRO collaboration is quantifying the qualitative scenarios that the project developed. This will help to ground truth some of the assumptions made in the scenarios work and provide an additional analytical layer on the implications of the scenarios for food security, GHG emission reductions potential, energy needs and other development indicators. This will be valuable input for further discussions with various ministries and the Planning Commission in Bangladesh as well as for the food and energy industry. |
| Impact | First results for the quantification work of the four ZHZE scenarios have already been used in two stakeholder meetings in Dhaka, Bangladesh: • A4NH-CGIAR and Partners Consultations on Food Systems • Platforms for healthier Diets Bangladesh stakeholder workshop Model results will include a journal article (already being drafted), a number of policy briefs for a CCAFS conference in Bangladesh and for discussions with the Planing Commission that ICCCAD, the local ZHZE project partner. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary in that it involves agricultural and economic modelers as well as qualitative scenario developers and food system and environmental experts. We were invited to contribute to a paper on the collaboration results to a Special Issues in Energies (MDPI) on "Sustainable Development and Food Insecurity". We are currently finalizing the submission of the paper for this. A special dashboard on all the modelling work for the ZHZE scenarios was prepared under: https://michielvandijk.shinyapps.io/ccafs_bgd_dashb/#section-sdg-insights |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Article in the Dhaka Tribune on the project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Newspaper Article on the project in teh Dhaka Tribune |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.dhakatribune.com/tribune-supplements/tribune-climate/2018/01/11/pathways-low-carbon-hunge... |
| Description | Climate Tribune supplement of the Dkaha Tribune dedicated to ZHZE project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The ZHZE projects local partner ICCCAD can design the 'Climate Tribune' supplement in the Dhaka Tribune, the most important English speaking newspaper in Bangladesh, once a month. The November 2018 issues was dedicated completely to the projects with 10 articles describing the project and its findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.icccad.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Climate-Tribune_November_2018.pdf |
| Description | First ZHZE scenarios workshop with stakeholders |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | In a first ZHZE scenarios workshop (April 2018) stakeholders from both the food and agriculture as well as the climate change and energy communities focused on developing plausible futures of Bangladesh's food system under climate change through a scenario building process to determine the plausibility of achieving SDG2 (zero hunger) and SDG13 (in regards to zero emission) in the long term. These scenarios were later finalised and analysed in a second workshop and presented to policymakers in Bangladesh to help determine whether or not their food and climate policies currently in place or under development would be successful under an array of possible future conditions. Participants discussed the importance of achieving the Zero Hunger (SDG 2) and Zero Emissions (SDG 13, Paris Agreement) goals and the overlap between both goals based on the opening panel in addition to presentations by project members on preliminary results of key informant interviews as well as a preliminary analysis of food and climate/energy policies in Bangladesh. While Bangladesh emits less than 1% of GHG emissions worldwide the country recognises - in accordance with the Paris Agreement and the UN 2030 Agenda - that a new development pathway is needed for a sustainable future. So far the country pledged to an unconditional 5% reduction of emissions from Business as Usual (BAU) levels in the industry, transport and power sectors, and a 15% conditional reduction in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. Nonetheless, while the country has focused its efforts in reducing emissions in the industry, transport and energy sector, a major sector is excluded that in fact contributes significantly to the country's total GHG emissions, namely the Bangladeshi food system. According to a USAID factsheet published in 2016, the agriculture section made up 39% of GHG emissions in 2012, caused mostly through enteric fermentation, rice cultivation and manure left on pasture. In order to develop the Zero Hunger, Zero Emissions Scenarios participants were asked to think about the factors and issues driving the Bangladeshi food system into the future. The driving forces included factors such as agricultural and food policies, governance mechanisms, food waste, food habits, climate change, environmental change, gender issues, markets, lifestyle changes, urbanization, education, dietary change, demographics. Participants were then asked to vote on the drivers they considered to be most important in driving change in the food system. They were then asked to vote a second time, this time on the drivers they considered to be most uncertain in the future. Uncertain drivers were described as factors whose trends could develop in many different directions or as emerging issues about whose trends little is known so far. The two drivers considered to be simultaneously the most important and the most uncertain factors constituted the first building blocks of the scenarios. In the voting and discussion process the two following factors emerged: the type of governance mechanism prevalent in Bangladesh in the future and the way how environmental degradation would be managed. For each one of the two drivers the participants then considered the two most extreme states the drivers could manifest themselves in in the future. For the 'governance mechanism' participants considered the two extremes to be a very decentralized, participatory and transparent governance system on the one side and a rather top down, authoritarian, complex system on the other. For the 'environmental management' driver participants considered the two extremes to be either a more reactive management style (reacting to problems only once they manifested themselves) or a more pro-active style aiming to prevent serious environmental degradation. Two scenario axis were developed that describe four possible combinations/scenarios of the two main driving forces. These combinations of the two drivers now constituted the basis for the so-called 'scenario storylines. These scenarios were further developed for discussion in the second scenarios workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2019/02/imagining-alternative-futures/ |
| Description | Press releases on the project by all three involved organisations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Press releases on the project by all three involved organisations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/news/2017/1220.html |
| Description | Second scenarios workshop with stakeholders |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was the second of two scenario building workshops organised by the project. Building on the first workshop participants analysed in this meeting current policies related to food security and climate change in the context of the different scenarios developed during the first workshop. In light of Bangladesh's commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as its recent graduation from LDC status, the Zero Hunger, Zero Emissions Project used participatory scenario building methods to support policy-makers, as well as stakeholders from a broad range of civil society and the private sector to identify ways in which the country can create a sustainable food system that both ensures food security in terms of both calorie count and nutritional needs, and conserves water and maintains a low carbon economy. This second workshop finalised the four scenarios developed so far, analysed their implications for achieving SDG2 and SDG13 in the Bangladeshi context together with the stakeholders and discussed the implications of the findings for current government policies and the work of the private sector, civil society organisations and donors on food/agriculture and climate mitigation polices. When asked whether participants saw possibilities in the developed scenarios to achieve food security in line with low carbon development in Bangladesh, participants thought that land scarcity is a big problem and efficient land use is critical. Using the same land for solar installations and agriculture simultaneously might be an option. Proper management of land will contribute to effective emission reduction. Bio Fuels could be a good source of energy and for this further research into maximising the energy potential from biogas is needed. Management of emissions in the Food System is necessary, which requires proper planning and incentives. GHG Emissions area concern in the food sector as cattle population growth is encouraged. Thus there is the need for the reduction of GHG emission for example by better manure management. For rice production in the future, proper planning of land use is necessary with consumer's choices taken into account. The potential for waste to energy is also something that should be further explored. Water pollution is also an issue as it has a direct impact on guiding the future of food security and food safety in the country. And research and innovation is required to make positive changes. There should be a focus on spreading awareness, providing livestock management information and solutions to the farmers to improve farm and dairy management. Also, encourage officials and working groups to come up with new ideas to advance the livestock management and production. In the discussion on possible actions that different communities/societal groups could take for achieving SDG2 and SDG13, the government sector focused on documentation of the best practices, need for appropriate legal framework on climate issues and availability of resource. The group said that it is important to work with civil society groups to share knowledge and information on agricultural development options. The private sector emphasized the need for increasing green funds, minimizing the use of fertilisers and inspiring private universities to start programs on farming and agriculture. NGOs group expressed the need for extensive research and innovation to help move towards mitigation of climate change. Education, advocacy and awareness need to be promoted, and behavioural changes are needed at the organisational level for finding solutions. Youth group expressed that changes in consumer behaviour are needed; blame game or delegation of responsibility should be stopped, finding new opportunities and a platform to express ideas will be helpful, and waste management and spreading public awareness should be encouraged. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | ZHZE university student workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of the Zero Hunger, Zero Emissions University Student Workshop was to engage university students across Bangladesh about key issues related to food security, emission reduction and climate change in the country's longterm future. This allowed students to partake and think through a scenario building exercise; and provided valuable insight for the second Zero Hunger, Zero Emissions workshop. Online application forms were distributed in the first week of August 2018, and within a week more than 600 university students had applied for the program. Ultimately, 10 women and 10 men were chosen for the program, representing 12 universities across the country. Departments varied from Environmental Science, Anthropology, Law and Justice, Sociology and Agriculture. Additionally, most students were either in their third or fourth year with a few students in their second year. The program occurred over three days with each day dealing with a separate issue connected to scenario building. The first day opened with a basic introduction to climate change issues in Bangladesh, food security issues in Bangladesh, and a short introduction to scenario building where participants brainstormed their own drivers for the future of the country. The second day focussed on issues of marginalization, particularly in reference to issues of class and gender in the country, and participants were asked to think about how power dynamics may play out in each of the scenarios produced by the first Zero Hunger, Zero Emissions workshop. The third day was dedicated to the scenarios, where participants in groups were required to create a fictional timeline for their given scenario, a short skit of their scenario utilizing the various aspects of food security, climate change and power dynamics they had been introduced to on the previous days, and a letter from the future to the present explaining whether or not zero hunger and zero emissions were achieved. Some participants pointed out how food security was unlikely in any of the scenarios; and the one scenario where participants felt it could happened - the Green Road - it would only be through the use of GMOs. They noted that the exercise showed the group was cynical about whether the country could actually achieve food security by 2041, particularly in terms of meeting nutrition needs. When posed what would need to be done to ensure a world more like the Green Road scenario, the participants started discussing the need for bottom-up movements in terms of changing both behavior and the overall system.The general consensus was that a bottom-up approach would be required to change the current trajectory to ensure a more democratic, renewable energy based, food secure future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.icccad.net/zero-hunger-zero-emissions-university-student-workshop/ |