Friendship is attending three sessions at the 20th Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change conference, to be held in Manila, Philippines, this year
by Friendship News Desk,
5 May, 2026
WHEN COMMUNITY-LED INFRASTRUCTURE LEADS PROGRESS
Construction practices such as traditional clay brick production are exacerbating the climate crisis. One tonne of brick production releases around 480 kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2003). Modern building materials and processes cause global warming, increase pollution, degrade fertile soil, and lead to frequent climate disasters.
These disasters take away lands, homes, and livelihoods from communities living on the front lines of the climate crisis. Irony is cruel. The very clay bricks used for development take away the little shot at progress from marginalised areas. This is especially true for communities in the southern coastal regions of Bangladesh, a region drastically affected by an increasing number of tropical cyclones and storms.
But communities now want to be active agents of change.
With Friendship as a facilitator, coastal communities took part in designing relatively environmentally friendly building materials, cyclone-resilient housing and climate-adaptive infrastructure to preserve their lands and homes.
They initiated and led each process with great care. Following needs assessment, site selection, and local engagement, they mobilised local resources and funds to construct roads, dykes, homes, and farms and improve infrastructure resilience. Skills and technology were transferred through a participatory approach. Capacity building of masons and carpenters, and developing green entrepreneurship skills ensured long-term maintenance and management of each infrastructure. Communities ensured the best use of their abilities, indigenous knowledge, and resilience.
From Bricks to Blocks
Community leadership ensured enhanced governance, equity, water and energy security, and sustainability of every intervention planned by the communities. This was visible after Friendship developed the Standard Guideline for Rural Housing in Disaster-Prone Areas of Bangladesh with the Housing and Building Research Institute (HBRI). HBRI’s ferrocement technology and locally sourced materials were used by communities jointly with Friendship to build cyclone-resilient houses. It proved to be a success as it significantly reduced carbon emissions from construction.
Each cyclone-resilient house was capable of temporarily sheltering five families and their belongings and livestock. These houses serve as quick mini-shelters, saving communities the long, perilous journey of going to the government shelters during major catastrophes. This is also easier for pregnant women, elderly people, children, and individuals with special needs who are unable to travel long distances.
Scaling Adaptation Practices
The success of building environmentally friendly cyclone-resilient housing inspired further infrastructure development among communities. They went on to build, maintain, and manage more shelters, roads, dykes, water treatment plants, farms, solar energy systems and irrigation pumps, etc., through the NABAPALLAB (Nature Based Adaptation towards Prosperous and Adept Lives & Livelihoods in Bangladesh) project with the facilitation of Friendship.
14,895 families from 36 unions in Satkhira and Khulna districts benefited from Friendship’s support, which includes more than 68,517 direct beneficiaries and 205,551 indirect beneficiaries. This resulted in improved infrastructure resilience against disasters and ease of access to shelters, community centres, and service facilities.
By training community members, including 90 masons and 54 carpenters in green entrepreneurship, Friendship embedded climate-resilient, low-carbon building practices directly within communities, benefiting over 549 families. At the same time, renewable energy training has enabled para-solar technicians to become local service providers and entrepreneurs, while solar irrigation, bio-digesters, and energy solutions are helping hundreds of households and farmers increase productivity, reduce costs, and diversify incomes. Together, these efforts are strengthening community-led systems. Knowledge, services, and economic opportunities are owned and sustained locally.
When locals are empowered, authority is decentralised, and adaptation becomes front and centre.
ENSURING WATER SECURITY AND HEALTH IN CLIMATE-VULNERABLE REGIONS
Bangladesh is a low-lying delta afflicted by cyclones almost every 3 years, with the occurrence increasing in recent times since Cyclone Sidr in 2007. This is leading to more seawater inundation and salinity intrusion in soil and water (Tsai et al., 2024), especially in the southern coastal belt of Bangladesh. Where one fourth of the population still lacks access to safe drinking water (Rahman et al., 2017), cyclones, floods, and tidal surges are worsening the water crisis. The climate and water crisis is leading to a health crisis bubbling underneath.
For women and girls, the health crisis is deeply personal. High sodium intake from saline drinking water is increasing gestational hypertension and reproductive health risks. Rampant salinity, drought, and unsafe water sources continuously shape their survival, so they spend hours travelling long distances to collect safe drinking water, losing out on essential time on education, domestic work, childcare, and livelihood opportunities.
Together with the People
For more than two decades, Friendship has encouraged the combination of community engagement, local practices, and scientific expertise to tackle climate change with innovative water and health services. The technical expertise and long experience have empowered climate-affected communities to lead solutions jointly with Friendship around the climate-water-health nexus. From planning to maintenance, each intervention is designed with the community focused on preventative measures against disasters and diseases and maximum local involvement.
Community-managed Water Services
Traditionally, coastal communities rely on the use of surface water, groundwater, and rainwater for drinking and irrigation. With salinity intrusion, the number of drinking water sources is decreasing. Keeping that in mind, Friendship and local communities established several water services to ease accessibility to drinking water, such as shallow tubewells, deep tubewells, reserve ponds for drinking water, rainwater harvesting methods, pond sand filter (PSF), reverse osmosis system (RO) and multisource water treatment plants.
Each service implementation began with the community initiating planning and site selection. After local engagement, they mobilised resources and funding and built each service with Friendship, government authorities, research institutions, and technical partners after appropriate technology and knowledge transfer. Communities took ownership of maintenance and management. They are governed by committees with at least 2 women as members.
Friendship’s water treatment plants provided safe drinking water access to more than 18,400 families in 36 communities across 10 unions. They reduced women’s water collection time by 60%. The mobile plants take drinking water to the most inaccessible regions. Women’s leadership in service management ensured their equity and empowerment. Another critical component of the climate-water-health nexus approach is the Friendship Community Medic-aide (FCM). These women are chosen by the communities and trained by Friendship, who take healthcare to the most remote households and raise awareness in water safety and nutrition.
These measures have significantly improved health among women and girls. They can now head to schools and spend more time on childcare and domestic work. Women farming fresh produce through homestead gardening and agriculture can achieve more food security. Women mangrove caretakers are earning income and fighting against the climate. With the climate crisis addressed, the water crisis is better managed, and health is better taken care of.
The crisis begins with water—and so does the solution.
Friendship’s integrated approach demonstrates that interconnecting healthcare with water, livelihoods, climate action and infrastructural solutions is the most suitable way to empower communities holistically with dignity and hope.
HEALTHCARE TOOLS THAT LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND
20% of Bangladesh’s population resides in the remote southern coastal regions and northern riverine areas. These areas face critical barriers to healthcare that cannot be addressed via traditional means. These areas are also marked by frequent climate disasters, geographical isolation, poverty, limited infrastructure, and other socioeconomic barriers. As a result, people in these regions have little access to healthcare.
Recognising these barriers, Friendship founded its trademark 3-tier healthcare system, so that no one is left behind in terms of healthcare. The first tier includes 7 floating hospitals that go to remote communities with quality healthcare services. Patients unable to access these hospitals can receive basic healthcare services at the second-tier static clinics and satellite clinics organised on small boats each month. However, the most remarkable approach that takes healthcare services to the very last mile is tier 3; the Friendship Community Medic-aides (FCMs) and their trusted mobile app Friendship mHealth.
The FCMs are women chosen by their own communities to lead primary healthcare services. They maintain referral chains and follow-ups, offer counselling sessions, raise awareness through courtyard sessions, promote health education, and become frontline responders during crisis situations. While they provide the human aspect of the healthcare support, their use of mHealth is what revolutionised and powered the 3-tier system.
Friendship’s mHealth app uses more than 80 medical algorithms in store to provide healthcare solutions to these hard-to-reach populations. FCMs can use it on their phones for on-spot symptom assessment, diagnosis support, patient data management, and remote consultation with doctors. Per WHO guidelines and a doctor’s advice, an automated prescription can be generated for over-the-counter medicines. A GPS-based referral system is used, with automated follow-up reminders every 14 days for every patient. Automated to-do lists generated by the app help the FCMs monitor and report their own activities. It also allows FCMs to conduct routine household visits to check health and hygiene status and update patient records. FCMs stay up to date with continuous training sessions and learning.
Created by in-house teams of doctors, software engineers, and community healthcare workers, the mHealth model has ensured a paperless, easy-to-use, and efficient mode of healthcare delivery since 2015. More than 15 million services have been delivered to the most remote homes since inception. Currently, Friendship has 690 FCMs serving 672,000 registered beneficiaries. With little to no travel needed, no expense or waiting periods, patients get professional healthcare services regardless of location and weather conditions.
