Women are tasked with caring for families through climate-change fueled disasters. How can we help?

Dr Samukeliso Dube Executive Director, FP2030

David Johnson Chief Executive, Margaret Pyke Trust

Women represent nearly half of all smallholder farmers in many low- and middle-income countries and are responsible for producing most of the world’s food supply. Women are the primary caregivers in families and communities around the world. The World Health Organization says girls are twice as likely as boys to be responsible for collecting water for their household. Women are also the ones who are and will be most affected by the effects of climate change.

Due to changes in climate and population, the UN estimates 1.8 billion people will live in water-stressed areas in less than 10 years. If current patterns continue, this will disproportionately impact women and girls who will spend increasing amounts of time searching for and collecting water.

Already today, more than 54 million women, girls, and young people are displaced from their homes and living in crisis settings because of conflict, climate-induced migration, or other complex crises. Women and girls are hit harder and differently to their male counterparts, because of gender inequality and gender norms hampering women’s socio-economic empowerment and, in many places, a lack of reproductive choice or access to related healthcare.

Jim Skea, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has said, “The science and the evidence is clear; unless ambitious action is taken to combat climate change, we will not be able to secure development goals.”

But what does “ambitious action” look like? How can we make sure the people most vulnerable to the effects of climate change – women and girls – have strategies for resilience and preparedness in place that consider the complex realities they live in, including gender and social norms?

Ambitious action on climate change means ensuring those that are hit hardest by climate change are included in all solutions and strategies. It means building strong, people-centered health systems to support individual and community resilience to extreme climate events. Ambitious action looks like changing global and local policies to better account for the human realities of living through climate change.

We know these approaches work. Blue Ventures is one organization that has made significant progress in Madagascar by coupling conservation efforts with family planning programs.

“What we see is that women are healthier,” said Vik Mohan, a doctor by profession and the director of community health at Blue Ventures. “We see that children and families are healthier… women are better able to engage in income generation, and women using our services are earning twice as much money as women who aren’t. Women who are using our services feel they’ve got more of a voice in the way natural resources are managed.”

The Margaret Pyke Trust (MPT) Uganda Country Lead, Uwimbabazi Sarah, said much the same.

“When family planning is integrated…women’s livelihoods are improved, they yield good crops because they have got that freedom. We see that they have also taken part in the savings groups and we have seen most children going to school. We have taught communities how to farm better on the hill slopes. Even the waste situation is better – people are learning how to dispose of litter. It looks better.”

It is the strength in these connections that is behind MPT’s decision to make an FP2030 commitment to support greater access to family planning

The ability to control pregnancies is foundational to women and girls’ empowerment and livelihood – and that’s especially true in crisis contexts where much of their lives is beyond their control. When women are living in refugee camps, for example, an unintended pregnancy is especially difficult to manage as maternal healthcare is difficult to access. Yet, contraception services are also difficult to access, even when women are more likely to be at risk for sexual violence in these contexts. Access to family planning can give women back some control in uncontrollable situations, and family planning has transformational benefits to women, families, communities, and in turn entire countries.

Investing in family planning is a development “best buy” that can accelerate achievement across the five Sustainable Development Goal themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership. Moreover, without increasing access to voluntary family planning, these global development targets will be missed, and our world will be less prepared for climate-related disasters.

The importance of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services has long been known within the gender and health sectors, but there is also now a growing body of evidence indicating the essential role of SRH in building resilience for global climate change. The UK Government has already acted on this evidence, announcing ambitious new funding at COP28: £16 million in funding for programs focused on reproductive choice, as part of climate resilience building. MPT has led advocacy calling for such a change for many years.

Significant and responsive funding for this work is essential to make progress. Innovative solutions and strategies require multi-sectoral funding that uses holistic approaches. Climate change preparedness, adaptation, and resilience building will save lives and requires adequate resources, a comprehensive understanding of the intersection of climate change and health, and cross-sectoral linkages and policy work that engage different sectors to meet the complex challenges posed by climate change and related emergencies.

While climate change affects us all, it won’t affect us all evenly. It’s time for those of us with the most power and privilege to take action: we need stronger policies that take into account the lived realities of those facing climate change crises first, including access to family planning and related healthcare. We need stronger, more intersectional and inter-sectoral funding. Most of all, we need to listen to those of us already facing the impact of our changing climate and develop plans and strategies that meet their needs.