Women Leading Change in Coastal Bangladesh

How Munda Adibasi women are building resilience, economic independence, and gender justice in the face of climate shocks

In Bangladesh’s climate-vulnerable coastal region, resilience is no longer just about surviving floods, cyclones, and rising seas. For Munda Adibasi women, resilience now means leadership, economic power, and justice.

The Creating Women Leadership for Resilience in the Munda Adibasi Community project is building a powerful, community-led model of change where it is needed most. Working with some of the most marginalised women in Bangladesh, the project shows what happens when women are supported not only to cope with climate impacts, but to lead the response.

Munda women self-help group (SHG) members greeted Oxfam in Korea delegation.

At the heart of the project is collective action. A total of 151 Munda Adibasi women have been organised into Self-Help Groups, creating safe spaces for solidarity, learning, and shared decision-making. Through these groups, women have gained access to community-led revolving loans, replacing exploitative and predatory lending practices that once kept families trapped in debt. For the first time, women can invest in livelihoods on fair terms, strengthening household income and long-term security.

This economic shift is paired with meaningful progress on gender justice. The project has achieved a remarkable milestone: zero child marriages within participating communities. Women report increased confidence and a stronger voice at home, with shared decision-making becoming the norm rather than the exception. These changes may not always be visible, but they are deeply transformative, reshaping power dynamics within families and across the community.

Crucially, the impact extends beyond households. Through collective advocacy, women have secured government commitments for women-friendly markets, improving access, safety, and dignity for women traders. What began as informal groups is now evolving into something more enduring. These women are establishing recognised Social Cooperatives, gaining formal recognition as economic and social actors in their own right.

In a region where climate shocks disproportionately affect women, this project proves that resilience is strongest when it is rooted in justice. Munda Adibasi women are no longer positioned as victims of climate change. They are emerging as community leaders, shaping local economies, protecting the rights of girls, and building systems that will endure long after the project ends.

This is what empowered resilience looks like: women organised, supported, and leading change, together.