Bushra Afreen becomes first chief heat officer in Bangladesh

Bushra Afreen, daughter of Dhaka North Mayor Atiqul Islam, has been appointed as Bangladesh's first chief heat officer. 

Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock), an international organisation working on climate change, selected her for the post to work in Dhaka North City Corporation areas to help tackle climate change risks. 

Apart from Dhaka, six other cities around the world have chief heat officers (CHO), including UN habitat, Miami of US, Santiago of Chile, Freetown of Sierra Leone, Athens of Greece, Melbourne of Australia.

Arsht-Rock employs these individuals as part of its work to address dangers posed by climate change around the world.

In an interview with The Independent, Bushra said, "Dhaka is my home but it's not a city that I recognise anymore because of the unbearable heat. Unlivable – that's the word which commonly gets associated with Dhaka now."
"I want to push more engagement and work with all communities but especially those who are really vulnerable," Bushra told the British daily.

"People really are at risk of dying, I don't know how else to say it," says Bushra, who has a background in the public and private sector across social welfare, government and micro-finance.

"You can't sweat enough to release all that heat from your body," she told the British daily.

"It (Dhaka) became a very hostile environment to even step outdoors in," she added.

Talking about the mega city's living condition, she referred to the term of "harm chain" where people live largely without access to proper sanitation or drinking water. She said to survive, they must work with little protection in extreme temperatures.

"The kicker is that these housing quarters are composed entirely of metal – the worst thing under heat," she said. "During this [latest] heatwave, the thing I kept hearing was that no one was able sleep at night, the houses felt like ovens."

Following Bushra's recruitment, a rumour went around that the Dhaka North mayor created the new position specifically for his daughter.

Ruling out any affiliation with the city mayor, Dhaka North City Chief Executive Officer Selim Reza told The Business Standard, "Chief heat officer is not a north city post."

He also said Bushra being the first one in Bangladesh, in all of Asia, to hold the position is rather a matter of pride and joy for the nation.

"Arsht-Rock itself will fund the steps it would take to reduce the temperature in Dhaka while the Dhaka North City Corporation will make some contribution," said the Dhaka North official.

When contacted Bushra said she has no idea if she would be given any honorarium or salary against the post.

"There may be different programme based honorariums," she guessed.

Bushra Afreen is a social welfare executive who has advanced changes within Bangladesh's garment sector to protect workers and deliver a more sustainable product. 

Among the initiatives Afreen spearheaded was the creation of a task force to reduce heat on garment industry production floors. Furthermore, she enhanced support for working mothers by implementing changes in the factories, such as the inclusion of dedicated feeding rooms and training child-care providers in daycare. 

She previously worked as an executive officer at Shakti Foundation, a nongovernmental development organisation in Bangladesh. 

Afreen worked closely with the local government in her role as a policy advocacy consultant, where they collaborated on policy change and the implementation of the Animal Welfare Act (2019).  

Prior to transitioning to policy advocacy, Afreen worked as a management executive where she monitored the impact and efficacy of ongoing micro-finance initiatives and processes. 

She organised the annual Citi Micro-entrepreneurship Awards (CMA) with Citibank NA and the Credit and Development Forum (CDF) to bring funds and global recognition to socially innovative micro-enterprises in Bangladesh. 

Afreen earned a BA Honours in Global Development Studies and Drama from Queen's University in Canada.