and this by bringing a strong regional integration and science–policy interface perspective to debates on climate resilience and human development. Under the supervision of Dr. Nidhi Nagabhatla, two early-career researchers, Wafi Ara Faruqui and Shuddha Srimoyee Das (UNU MERIT) will, present research outputs. The seminar, convened under the theme of climate risk, resilience, and justice in Bangladesh, gathered academics, practitioners, and policymakers to explore how climate change is reshaping everyday life, infrastructure, and social systems in one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. UNU-CRIS contributions highlighted how integrated, multi-scalar approaches to information, education, health suuport services and regional cooperation can strengthen climate-resilient health and social systems, in line with the broader UNU mandate on sustainable and inclusive development.
In the session on “Education and Climate Resilience in Bangladesh,” Shuddha Srimoyee Das (UNU-MERIT) and Dr. Nidhi Nagabhatla (UNU-CRIS) work on compounded vulnerabilities in flood-prone regions, showing how climate impacts on schools, infrastructure, water and sanitation, and household livelihoods reinforce a feedback loop between disrupted education and reduced resilience. Their mixed-methods study combines documentary and stakeholder analysis with geospatial mapping of student–teacher ratios to demonstrate how educational disruption, child marriage, child labor, and displacement interact, and how improved education can, in turn, enhance awareness, livelihood options, and community-based adaptation.
Complementing this systems view of education, Wafi Ara Faruqui and Nidhi. Nagabhatla and team will present collaboratively on “Mapping Critical Information Voids in Heatwave Risk Communication across Bangladesh,” which directly speaks to climate–health and risk communication agendas. Drawing on a nationwide online survey, their research identifies gaps not in the existence of information, but in the match between information quantity and quality and the channels and sources people actually use and trust, revealing low information self-sufficiency and misaligned messaging as key obstacles to effective heatwave response. The study calls for investments in public education and risk literacy, aligned with the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 and National Adaptation Plan, to support climate-resilient health systems.
Together, these contributions will underscore UNU-CRIS’s role in advancing evidence-based, people-centered climate and development strategies that link education, health, communication, and governance. By mentoring and co-producing knowledge with early-career researchers, UNU-CRIS is strengthening the next generation of scholars and practitioners working at the frontlines of climate resilience in Bangladesh and beyond. The seminar provided a strategic platform to position our insights within broader regional debates on loss and damage, migration, gender, and urban inclusion, reaffirming the importance of regional integration and science diplomacy for climate-just futures