In this blog, the author highlights learning from Sightwaver’s projects on climate-resilient education. He writes:
“For millions of learners with disabilities living in particularly climate-vulnerable regions, a single extreme weather event – a flood, a cyclone or a prolonged heatwave – frequently marks the permanent end of their education. As governments, the INGO sector and the wider international community strive to build “climate-resilient” education systems, we must ask a critical, often overlooked question: resilient for whom? Sightsavers is piloting operational models to demonstrate how inclusive climate action functions in practice. This builds on our previous work under Inclusive Futures (the UK aid-funded flagship disability inclusion initiative) which successfully integrated inclusive policies across 2,444 schools to reach 490,000 students across Narsingdi and Sirajganj in Bangladesh. Following on from this, we have launched a targeted pilot initiative in another part of the country: Sarankhola Upazila.”