Pathways to Implementing the National Roadmap and Global Tools for NbS
Roundtable Discussion #3: Structuring Finance for Resilient Infrastructure and Food Systems
Event description
Bangladesh faces escalating climate risks that threaten both infrastructure and the agri-food systems. Sea-level rise, cyclones, salinity intrusion, riverine flooding, and extreme rainfall continue to disrupt agricultural production and degrade critical transport, water, and energy infrastructure. Recent analysis undertaken through the Global Center on Adaptation’s (GCA) Climate Stress Test on Infrastructure indicates that flooding alone already causes an estimated €12.3 billion in damages to the transport sector under baseline conditions, with losses projected to rise significantly by 2050. These impacts directly undermine food security by reducing connectivity, constraining market access, damaging storage and processing facilities, and weakening agri-food value chains in climate-exposed regions.
In response to these challenges, GCA, in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), and with support from UK International Development, has been advancing climate-resilient infrastructure planning and investment in Bangladesh.
Building on the national pipeline of 35 climate-screened infrastructure projects developed in 2025 and leveraging GCA’s Global Tools for Nature-based Solutions (NbS), this initiative seeks to identify and prepare three priority investment projects that integrate NbS while strengthening agri-food system resilience.
GCA is supporting this effort through a structured, data-driven prioritisation approach that combines climate risk analytics, spatial hazard mapping, MCA, investment case and financing pathway development. To ensure alignment, ownership, and bankability, the process is being guided through a series of multi-stakeholder roundtable discussions bringing together government agencies, development partners, development finance institutions, the private sector, and other key actors.
RESULTS OF THE 1st and 2nd ROUNDTABLE
The first roundtable (December 2025) marked a key transition from broad project identification to structured project prioritisation under the Bangladesh Climate Resilient Infrastructure Investment Roadmap. The project team presented an initial pipeline of 35 climate-resilient infrastructure concepts and shared the results of a structured shortlisting process that identified 10–15 projects with strong linkages to nature-based solutions (NbS) and agri-food systems. A Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) framework was used to assess projects against criteria including climate resilience impact, economic potential, technical feasibility, institutional readiness, and alignment with national development priorities.
During the roundtable, stakeholders reviewed the prioritisation results, provided feedback on the relevance of the selection criteria and robustness of the methodology, and offered views on the strategic alignment of the shortlisted projects. Their inputs helped validate and refine the prioritisation approach and informed the selection of a focused set of projects to be advanced into investment case development.
The second roundtable (January 2026) shifted the focus from prioritisation to investment design and economic justification. It presented preliminary Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) frameworks and core economic assumptions for three prioritised projects. The objective was to test the robustness of the analytical approach, validate projected benefits and costs, and ensure that the proposed interventions are technically sound, economically viable, socially inclusive, and institutionally feasible.
Stakeholder feedback at this stage strengthened the analytical foundations of the investment cases, improved alignment with sectoral priorities, and reinforced institutional ownership. Importantly, the discussion initiated early alignment around potential financing pathways.
INTRODUCTION TO THE 3rd ROUNDTABLE
Building on the prioritisation process presented during Roundtable 1 and the subsequent refinement of the three priority investment concepts during Roundtable 2, the third and final roundtable marks the transition from project development to financing strategy.
This session will focus explicitly on how the three priority projects can be financed and will examine potential financing pathways, funding structures, and institutional arrangements required to move the projects from concept to implementation.
The discussion will explore how these model investments – integrating resilient infrastructure and nature-based solutions (NbS) – can be structured to mobilise domestic public finance, development partner resources, and climate finance instruments.
It will also consider sequencing, co-financing opportunities, and the potential to position the projects within a broader programme framework that enables scaling and replication.