Climate Change has a direct implication on food security and migration, people without any viable option migrate to escape hunger. In states like Bihar, 90 per cent of the population lives in rural areas and out-migration numbers are extremely high.

To understand the Climate change-induced food insecurity and accelerated rate of migration, a State level Workshop on Dialogue and Relationship Building was organised under the banner of Global Programme India by the Forum for Social Initiatives in association with Bihar Water Development Society, Patna on September 2, 2021.

Funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Government of Germany, and Caritas Germany, the programme was recently launched in Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam to build resilience to natural calamities, enhance nutrition and food security, social inclusion and strengthening civil society learning.

Fr. James Shekhar, Director – Bihar regional forum of during the inauguration explained the background of the organization and social development programmes by the forum. He lauded the work of the Government during the Covid pandemic and expressed his satisfaction with the associated work done by the Media and NGOs.

“Global Programme aimed at micro, meso and macro-level towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals related with Climate Change, food security and social inclusion of the vulnerable population in Bihar state,” shared Abhishek Kumar from Caritas India, a lead organisation in the programme.

Addressing the workshop Mr. Neeraj Kumar, Sr. Consultant – Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA) shared about the various initiatives taken by BSDMA. He informed that BSDMA and Government is doing all the effort, preparing SOPs and capacity building trainings for the personnel involved, panchayats and community also. The awareness and skill development trainings of task forces volunteers are seen as great use. He stressed that we need to work in coordination to minimize the risks during disasters.

Rakesh Tiwary, a faculty from A.N SINHA institute Patna focused on key social dimensions and the impact of Climate change on food security. Tiwary talked about the role of NGOs that goes beyond the coordination, and to the extent of innovative ways to address the migration vs needs vs empowerment.

Mukul and Chandan from Save the Children and Oxfam enlightened the need for strengthening networks of like-minded institutions, particularly at the grassroots level.

Sharing the media perspective, Ajay Kumar from Bihar Times elaborated on the role of media as an effective partner with development practitioners. He mentioned that media is not only to cover the news of events and critics, but it also acts as a powerful medium to reflect the work of Government and humanitarian agencies. It plays a cementing role and a bird’s eye view for the wider public opinion.

Sanjay Pandey, Convener Bihar Inter-Agency Group (BIAG) detailed the coordination between Government and NGOs in development sectors but also cautioned that coordinated effort should be done in a unified manner of development intervention.

The workshop was also addressed by Saurabh Kumar who highlighted the social inclusion aspect with various development work done by the Government and agencies. Anand Vijeta from Google Early Warning System and Shrawan ji, an expert on first response in disasters also attended the workshop to share their perspectives.

The workshop concluded with the way forward of having more interactive discussion and to bring community led partnership model hosted by Caritas India towards bringing enhanced nutritional food securities inclusive and access for all.