What will Chief Heat Officer Bushra do?
Besides Dhaka, six other cities have chief heat officers, all appointed by Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center
Chief Heat Officer (CHO) Bushra Afreen, first in the post not just in Bangladesh but in Asia, will work on engaging all communities, especially those who are really vulnerable, to face major challenges and find solutions in tackling extreme heat in Dhaka.
Her core responsibilities are to raise awareness of extreme heat risk and solutions with their constituents and peers; identify communities and neighbourhoods that are most vulnerable to extreme heat; coordinate stakeholders; implement long-term heat risk-reduction and cooling projects, among others.
"People need to be informed about the invisible risk of extreme heat waves. Many countries in the world warn people about this in advance. Advice on what to do when going out in a heatwave. But Bangladesh does not have it," Bushra said.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
She was appointed by the international think-tank Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre (Arsht-Rock) on Wednesday.
Bushra, the daughter of Dhaka North Mayor Md Atiqul Islam, is the first CHO in Asia to join an all-female squad in cities around the world. Arsht-Rock has created this position in six other cities around the world.
"The main victims of the suffering caused by the intense heat wave are the common people. That is why they will be involved in the policy-making stage as well," she added.
She said people who are affected by extreme heatwaves but are not at the policy-making stage need to be heard. "Especially women – who are the biggest victims – should be heard."
Bushra said other chief heat officers around the world have taken special measures to control the temperature of buildings, pavements, and roofs while some are applying various methods including afforestation.
"We have limited space here, so we will figure out how to make a temperature-controlled miniature forest. There are many solutions to the problem of severe heatstroke. We have to find them and apply them keeping local issues in front. A task force will be formed to decide what to do, and how to do it," she added.
"The Arsht-Rock Foundation is giving us advice and support on various ways to reduce the temperature of Dhaka city…We will plant two lakh trees in Dhaka North areas in the next two years to control the heat," said Dhaka North Mayor Atiqul Islam while speaking as chief guest at the launching of "Building Urban Heat Resilience: An International Collaboration between the DNCC and the Arsht-
Rock" programme at the Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building of Dhaka University on Wednesday.
Dhaka North Chief Executive Officer Selim Reza told The Business Standard that "Dhaka North has no institutional or financial connection with the appointment. The foundation completed its recruitment process through a proper due diligence process."
He also said that this appointment is really a matter of pride and joy for Bangladesh. He expressed hope that Bushra Afrin will make the countrymen proud by fulfilling her duties properly.
Who is Bushra Afreen?
Bushra Afreen studied up to the secondary level in a school in Dhaka and completed higher secondary education in Canada. Later she did her higher studies in Global Development Studies at Queen's University. She also studied at the Institute of Local Government in Ghana.
She 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.
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 N.A. 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.
CHOs around the world
Arsht-Rock employs chief heat officers as part of their work to address climate change risks in cities around the world. Their first CHO was appointed in 2021.
The appointments aim at making people more resilient to extreme heat by 2030.
The other chief heat officers are- Eleni Myrivili, UN Habitat & Arsh-Rock; Jane Gilbert, Miami, Florida; Cristina Huidobro Tornvall, Santiago, Chile; Eugenia Kargbo, Freetown, Sierra Leone; Elissavet Bargianni, Athens, Greece; and Krista Milne and Tiffany Crawford, Melbourne, Australia.
Activities of other CHOs
Cristina Huidobro, the chief heat officer in Santiago, Chile, where the local mayor is backing a $2m urban reforestation plan to cool the city, according to Arsh-Rock website.
In Miami, the world's first-ever CHO Jane Gilbert worked with the city to designate May/October as the official heat season, riding on a public campaign already in place for hurricane preparedness.
In Florida, radio was discovered to be particularly popular in certain communities so multilingual public service announcements were broadcast on Haitian and farmworkers' radio channels, Gilbert told Fast Company last year. In parts of town with the highest numbers of heat-related illnesses, billboards and bus shelter posters warned about heat exposure.
Freetown's CHO Eugenia Kargbo found out from market traders that their greatest need was coverings for stalls. It's a relatively simple, rapidly-deployed solution that not only protects them but also the goods from which they earn a living.
How are CHOs appointed?
Chief heat officers are appointed by local officials who have made heat action a priority for their government, Arsht-Rock said on its website.
When mayors or other leaders create an officer position and appropriate resources to fight the impacts of extreme heat, they are investing in a more climate-resilient future and reducing current losses in lives and livelihoods to the climate crisis.
Arsht-Rock plans to pilot a CHO on each continent.
Why are CHOs needed?
A major challenge in tackling heat at the city level is that while many city government departments oversee heat wave-related preparedness, response, and recovery, they often do not have a unified response aimed at marshalling their resources so that they identify and target the most pressing problems effectively.
This can make it difficult to align their efforts with community organisations and other stakeholders which may be working to address different aspects of this issue. By putting one person in charge of coordinating dispersed efforts both inside city government and across the private sector, this role helps to break down silos.
