Bangladesh’s allocation for climate-related health programmes has fallen below 2 per cent of the Health Services Division budget despite mounting climate-linked health risks, prompting experts to call for stronger financing in the FY2026-27 budget.
At a policy dialogue in Dhaka on Saturday, researchers and policymakers said climate-health spending within the Health Services Division declined to 1.97 per cent in FY2025-26 from 2.74 per cent in FY2021-22. Health’s share of the national climate budget also fell to 1.5 per cent from about 2.5 per cent over the same period.
The concerns were raised at a dialogue titled “Climate Resilient Health System and Health Financing in Bangladesh”, organised by the Centre for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD) with HEKS/EPER and Shushilan.
CPRD presented two studies showing rising climate-health vulnerabilities alongside a widening gap between policy commitments and budget allocations.
A study on coastal women and adolescent girls found extensive reproductive and maternal health challenges linked to poverty, water scarcity and climate stress. Nearly half of respondents reported menstrual disorders, while miscarriage, pre-eclampsia, infections, postpartum haemorrhage and chronic pain were also common.
Limited access to clean water and sanitary products affected 82.5 per cent of respondents, while 86 per cent showed symptoms of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. Laboratory tests confirmed gynaecological infections among many participants.
A second study found health continues to receive a negligible share of climate finance despite being identified as a priority sector. Less than 1 per cent of funding from the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) has gone to health projects, with only three of 877 BCCTF-funded projects approved through 2024 implemented through the Health Services Division.
The study noted that Bangladesh’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP) 2023-2050 prioritises health, while the Health National Adaptation Plan estimates a requirement of $1.4 billion over five years to build climate-resilient health systems. Yet more than 60 per cent of climate-health spending remains concentrated in development projects, leaving disease surveillance, emergency preparedness, workforce development, research and long-term resilience underfunded.
“Climate finance remains a hazy space. Quantitative evidence is essential to attract global support,” CPRD Chief Executive Md Shamsuddoha said, adding that climate adaptation discussions should extend beyond safe drinking water to broader quality-of-life concerns.
Economic Relations Division Deputy Secretary Shah Abdul Saadi called for stronger sectoral ownership, clearer climate rationales, resource mobilisation, sectoral risk indexing and independent verification by civil society and academia to improve access to international climate finance.
Climate Change and Health Promotion Unit Director Md Iqbal Kabir said health receives only about 5 per cent of global climate finance and Bangladesh faces a similar neglect. “Limited data further restricts evidence-based, data-driven policy development,” he said.
Economic Relations Division Additional Secretary and UN Wing Chief AKM Sohel said climate considerations remain inadequately integrated into development planning. He called for broader climate research beyond coastal regions, stronger data systems, improved climate literacy and a virtual information-sharing platform, adding that health-related loss and damage should be recognised as economic costs to strengthen Bangladesh’s case for global climate funding.
Participants urged the government to strengthen climate-budget tracking, increase recurrent financing for preparedness and surveillance, integrate Health National Adaptation Plan priorities more closely into the budget and expand access to domestic climate finance for health-sector adaptation initiatives.
