Launched in 2009, ClimUrb is a major research platform on urban poverty and climate change at University of Manchester, UK in collaboration with BRAC University, Bangladesh.

In 2013, the ClimUrb team has completed an ESRC-DFID sponsored project on ‘Community and Institutional Responses to the Challenges facing Poor Urban People in Bangladesh in an Era of Climate Change’. The research had four objectives:

• To examine the key challenges facing poor urban people in Bangladesh and understand how these challenges are compounded by climate change.
• To investigate current adaptive practices by individuals and communities to build, protect and maintain their livelihoods in the face of these challenges.
• To examine the institutional structures which mediate the urban poor’s livelihood practices, and assess their comparability across a selection of urban contexts in Bangladesh.
• To provide policy relevant findings that help public, private and non-profit agencies contribute more effectively to support the urban poor, particularly with adaptation to climate change.