"This is an important step which will allow us to continue to develop our activities in Bangladesh," said Christoph Vogt, who will head the new ICRC delegation in Dhaka. "Currently, our main activities in the country consist in promoting international humanitarian law, providing support for the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and restoring

Written by: Laurie Goering

LONDON (AlertNet) - A promised $30 billion in "fast-start" climate change aid will go largely to emissions-curbing projects rather than efforts to help vulnerable nations adapt to more extreme weather and rising seas, new research suggests.

Only between 11 and 16 percent of the money pledged so far by wealthy countries will go to support climate adaptation actions such as building sea walls and promoting new farming practices, according to a report published on Wednesday by the London-based International

Written by: AlertNet correspondent

By Nilanjana Bhowmick

NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - When cyclone Aila hit the coastal village where Naseema lived in May last year, salt water invaded the paddy fields and fisheries, taking away her husband's work as a day labourer.

Her children contracted skin infections and severe diarrhoea after using water from a contaminated tube well in the village. Having lost their meagre income of around $1 a day, the family had no choice but to leave their home of many years.

They moved from Simulhati in the Indian

Section One: Assessing the Evidence

Section One of this report brings together as much existing evidence as possible regarding the climate change, environment and migration nexus in Bangladesh. This section of the report was presented at the IOM policy dialogue held on this topic on 23rd May 2010 and is intended to assist in building policy coherence in this area by guiding discussions on potential avenues for the inclusion of environmentally-induced migration into Bangladesh's overall migration management policy, as well mainstreaming

In brief

Programme outcome: The aim of the International Federation is to coordinate and support efforts at country and regional level to assist South Asian national societies to scale up their work to improve the lives of vulnerable people.

Programme(s) summary: The focus of the South Asia regional programmes continues to be to work towards and integrated programming approach to cross-cutting issues. In disaster management, the programme continued to scale up disaster management/disaster risk reduction

In brief

Programme outcome: To increase the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society (IFRC) capacity to assist National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reduce the number of deaths, injuries and the impact of disasters through the timely and adequate financial support for disaster response from the DREF.

Programme(s) summary: At 30 June 2010, IFRC had made 73 allocations from the DREF to support 67 different operations for a total of 11,285,280 Swiss francs bringing assistance to over 3.5

"If I do not get work tomorrow or become ill, all my family members will go hungry," said Nur Islam, a 45-year-old Dhaka resident who hauls a rickshaw around town for US$3 a day to feed his wife and three children.

About 40 percent of Bangladesh's 160 million people live on less than $1 a day and are food insecure, according

Research Officer, IPCS

e-mail: sonali@ipcs.org

Bangladesh, Cambodia and the Maldives recently signed an agreement with the European Union (EU), which is aimed at assisting developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Asia to battle the onslaught of climate change. As per the agreement, the EU will provide 13.5 million Euros to the three countries, of which the biggest chunk, 8.5 million, will be granted to Bangladesh with the remaining amount being distributed among the other two. The joint

Balance requested: US$ 461,239

Geneva, 30 June 2010

Dear Colleagues,

On 13th April 2010 at approximately 11 pm Indian local time, a severe storm struck parts of Bangladesh and Eastern India. The storm lasted for about 90 minutes, with the most intense portion spanning 30-40 minutes. The severe storm killed 134 people in India. 90 people died in the Indian state of Bihar, 40 in West Bengal state, and 4 in Assam state. Most of the deaths were women and children crushed when their huts were destroyed. Over 407,220 dwellings were destroyed in India