Literacy and adaptation to climate change in urban Bangladesh

An alternative approach to the study of the role of education in building chronic poors resilience
By Piera Freccero
eople living in urban centers in low and middle-income countries are, worldwide, the most exposed to climate related hazards. Urbanization is a key feature of the recent history of Bangladesh. Within this generation the country will probably witness the tipping point whereby urban poor will outnumber rural poor. In addition to that, the peculiar nature of the Bengali natural territory puts these people at high risk of climate related hazards. Dhaka has been already signaled as the most vulnerable Asian city by the WWF, and it is already believed to become the world second largest city by 2020. The investments and efforts aimed at development are therefore strongly hindered by the challenges posed by climate variations. Promoting pro-poor adaptation strategies is crucial if we want to pursue development and justice. Literacy is still a global unresolved issue and, as climate change, is characterized by inequality in its distribution. In 2004 the 17% of the world adult population, around 770 million people, was considered to be illiterate. The situation in Bangladesh is far from positive. Significantly even if, as it might be expected, literacy rates are higher in urban environments, the constant increase in the number of urban population, together with the scarce attention to service provision to poor living in slum areas, has provoked a worsening in adult literacy rates in urban areas. In most cases chronic poor are characterized by both high vulnerability to climate change and variability and by low levels of literacy. The mainstream literature on climate change and disaster risk reduction widely recognizes that a lack of education is a determinant of vulnerability to climate hazards. However, despite the fact that low literacy levels are very often used as proxy of education and an indicator of vulnerability, very rarely the promotion of literacy is utilized as a tool to improve peoples ability to cope with changes. Therefore a question arises:

are chronic poors adaptation strategies influenced by their command over certain literacy practices? The objective of this research is to provide the theoretical foundations to the argument that the promotion of literacy, in a context of lifelong learning education, might represents an effective no-regret strategy to improve chronic poor adaptation practices in urban Bangladesh. The understanding of literacy The starting point of the analysis is the acknowledgment of the complexity of the theoretical understanding of literacy. Literacy is far more than a skill or a technology; it is instead a social practice that can powerfully shape the outcome of other social practices. Trying to avoid to present literacy as an autonomous entity, I nevertheless pinpoint its potential value in shaping adaptation processes. In order to do that, my investigation is informed by situated perspectives on literacy, focusing on concepts such as literacy practices, the centrality of the materiality of texts, literacy mediation and the nexuses between literacy and global inequalities. The analysis An adaptation practices framework is utilized to describe how various factors, such as the nature of the climate hazard; the community social and environmental vulnerability; the role of institutions and the state of the household and individuals assets; all influence the nature and the effectiveness of the adaptation practice performed. Then a number of adaptation practices available to the chronic poor are selected. These are: livelihoods diversification, access to market exchange, benefits from social protection measures, governance modification and transformation of gender inequalities. Lastly, a literacy-adaptation analytical tool is developed. This tool analyzes the role that literacy can play within each adaptation practice and suggests relevant pedagogies and policies.

The literacy-adaptation analytical tool

Different forms of literacy showed to be crucial in shaping the following adaptation practices areas: Livelihoods and market exchange. On one side, peoples livelihoods tend to be greatly affected by climate variability and change. On the other, diversifying livelihoods and access to markets can be a very effective autonomous adaptation practice. Diversification is however hardly available to chronic poor given the scarcity of assets that they have access to. Mastering livelihoods-related literacy practices does not only allow the access to certain economic activities, but it also empowers peoples resilience allowing them to have a direct control over processes. These located literacy practices are particularly interesting as their promotion can be easily be associated with programs promoting livelihoods diversification . Inequalities in power relations and control over assets within the households and the community. The evident inequalities in literacy distribution and the high correlation between non-literacy and dependency rates make this field particularly important in the elaboration of pro-poor strategies. Literacy, when promoted through appropriate and transformative pedagogies, can contribute to the modification of gender and social inequalities. Balancing gender powers and posing the focus over other areas of discrimination is a powerful way to build community, households and individual resilience to climatic stresses. Policy-driven adaptation opportunities (post disaster relief and social protection measures). How literacy practices are involved in the access to these opportunities? These processes are often mediated by texts and accessed through literacy mediators. Therefore peoples agency in these contexts strongly relies on the mediators and their positioning within these practices that are characterized by imbalanced power relations. Processes of institutional modification. Issues of bad governance and limited participation in the public sphere have to be considered as underlying causes of vulnerability to climate change. These issues, even if scarcely researched, are crucial when targeting the chronic poor. Chronic poor are generally characterized by lack of citizenship when they are not openly experiencing hostile policies developed by authorities. Issues of voice within the public sphere raise the problem of the transferability of literacy practices and texts, and especially the problem of global scale inequalities exercised through the imposition of hegemonic languages, genres and means of communication. In conclusion, the wideness of the adaptation categories that can be positively influenced by various literacy practices and the marked pro-poor vocation of these solutions, confirm the initial hypothesis: the promotion of literacy can be an effective no regrets tool for the reduction of chronic poors vulnerability to climate change.

The analysis shows that literacy has tangible influences over peoples ability to perform adaptation practices, which can have significant impacts on chronic poors resilience to climate change and variations. These findings also inform an important policy recommendation: literacy has to be promoted within a framework of lifelong learning education rather than only through a narrow focus on primary education. Piera Freccero is an Italian development worker with over seven years professional experience in International development, including in post-conflict and post-disaster areas (Kosovo and Sri Lanka), through progressively responsible positions in the field of education, vocational training, water and sanitation (Tanzania) and public health (Vietnam). She started researching on the role of literacy in climate change adaptation practices during her Master of Arts in Education and Development at the University of East Anglia. Piera can be contacted at: pierafreccero@yahoo.it You can find a full version of her work at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/68093260