Archive for: Global

Connecting Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene with Fresh Water Conservation and Climate Resilience: The Need to Facilitate Integration in Development Assistance

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Many areas that lack safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) also need to restore or protect fresh water ecosystems and enhance resilience to climate change. Integrated solutions can help end extreme poverty and ensure long-term access to basic human needs such as food, clean water, and sanitation facilities. Currently, the development sector all too often addresses WASH, climate resilience, and fresh water conservation as separate issues. Fortunately, though, awareness about the importance of integrated efforts to solve these challenges in development projects is increasing. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has publicly spoken about and financially supported some efforts to promote integrated solutions for addressing WASH, conservation, and climate. However, more can and should be done to fully facilitate integrated approaches.This Natural Resources Defense Council issue brief is focused on examples from U.S. government development aid funding, however, its recommendations are relevant for any funder or implementer, including development agencies, foundations, or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Year: 2014

Source: Natural Resources Defense Council

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Advocacy

Climate Change

Conservation

Integration

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Community Driven Vulnerability Evaluation Tool “CoDriVE-Programme Designer”: A Handbook – Incorporating Vulnerability to Climate Change into Project Design and Implementation

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The purpose of the CoDriVE-PD tool is to enable communities to articulate their experience of how they are being impacted by climatic and non-climatic forces, identify and assess their areas of vulnerability or “development deficits” and encourage them to plan for and undertake adaptive actions to build resilience and reduce vulnerability. CoDriVE-PD is community-engaging, easy-to-use, sensitive enough to capture the different types and degrees of vulnerabilities across communities and regions, and it is oriented towards adaptive action. It has been rigorously tested and validated in different social, economic and agro-ecological contexts in four different Indian states. To support easy, quick, and large-scale application of this tool, Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR) has developed a web-based software program that enables processing and analysis of key data with a view to generating a vulnerability profile as well as situation-specific adaptive actions to be undertaken.

Year: 2014

Source: Watershed Organization Trust

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Adaptation

Climate Change

Resilience

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Climate Change Solutions: Empowering Women and Girls through Reproductive Choice

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The realisation of the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and girls and the advancement of gender equality are inherently linked to sustainable population and climate change. It is well documented that women and girls are most affected by climate vulnerability, and that their reproductive health and rights are negatively impacted by climate change. In this paper, we propose that providing reproductive choice can improve the health and resilience of women and their communities, enhancing their ability to prepare for and adapt to climate change. Providing family planning to women wishing to delay or cease child bearing can also contribute to sustainable population growth, decrease consumption and lower emissions. As a practical solution to climate challenges, sexual and reproductive health interventions should be integrated into climate change and development programs, particularly in areas vulnerable to climate change such as the Asia Pacific region.

Year: 2017

Source: Marie Stopes International Australia

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Climate Change

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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Climate Change and the Potential Effects on Maternal and Pregnancy Outcomes: An Assessment of the Most Vulnerable the Mother, Fetus, and Newborn Child

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and The Lancet Commission have presented evidence about global warming and the impact of human activities on global climate change, and the impact of climate change on human health. Pregnant women, the developing fetus, and young children are marginalized in many countries, and are among the most vulnerable members of society. This article demonstrates that climate change will increase the risk of infant and maternal mortality, birth complications, and poorer reproductive health, especially in tropical, developing countries, with substantial impacts on the health and survival of the next generation of these populations. Research efforts must identify the most vulnerable populations, fill knowledge gaps, and coordinate efforts to reduce negative health consequences of climate change. Increased focus on antenatal care is recommended to prevent worsening maternal health and perinatal mortality and morbidity. Interventions to reduce the negative health impacts caused by climate change are also crucial.

Year: 2013

Source: Global Health Action

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Climate Change

Maternal and Child Health

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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Climate Change and Population: A Review of the Literature

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There is a sizeable body of literature that explores the connections between population and climate change and family planning as a link between the two. Overall, family planning has been proposed as both a means of preventing further climate change by slowing population growth, and thereby reducing consumption, and as a tool to equip vulnerable individuals, households, communities, and countries to better manage the challenges of a warming world. The following review summarizes the academic literature, conference papers, and UN reports from the last decade, exploring the background of these two perspectives, with an emphasis on family planning as a strategy of climate change adaptation, particularly for women.

Year: 2013

Source: PAI

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Climate Change

Family Planning

Population

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Climate Change and Population: An Annotated Bibliography

This annotated bibliography provides an overview of 25 research papers that represent some of the diversity of research, perspectives, policy relevance, and advocacy opportunities around population and climate change interactions. These final 25 papers were selected as a useful start to anyone interested in exploring how the issues of population dynamics, reproductive health, family planning, women’s empowerment and climate change interact. Undoubtedly, the selection of these papers reflects some biases. Population Action International is primarily interested in policy application, climate change adaptation, and the role of increasing access to family planning and reproductive health services as a way to improve the well-being of women, their families and the environment.

Year: 2013

Source: PAI

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Climate Change and Family Planning: Least-Developed Countries Define the Agenda

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This paper analyzes the first 40 National Adaptation Programmes of Action reports submitted by governments of least-developed countries to the Global Environment Facility for funding. Of these documents, 93% identified at least one of three ways in which demographic trends interact with the effects of climate change: (i) faster degradation of the sources of natural resources; (ii) increased demand for scarce resources; and (iii) heightened human vulnerability to extreme weather events. These findings suggest that voluntary access to family planning services should be made more available to poor communities in least-developed countries. The article stresses the distinction between this approach, which prioritizes the welfare of poor communities affected by climate change, versus the argument that population growth should be slowed to limit increases in global carbon emissions. The paper concludes by calling for increased support for rights-based family planning services, including those integrated with HIV/AIDS services, as an important complementary measure to climate change adaptation programmes in developing countries.

Year: 2009

Source: Bulletin of the World Health Organization

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Climate Change

Family Planning

Population

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By Slowing Population Growth, Family Planning Can Help Address Food Insecurity and Climate Change

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Slowing the rapid growth of human population through strengthened voluntary family planning services would powerfully and inexpensively contribute to improvements in food security and the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. A confluence of long-term environmental and population trends is undermining world food availability and driving climate change. These trends include quickening climate changes and difficulty adapting to its effects; widespread depletion of water, soils and fisheries; increased diversion of grains from human consumption to bio-fuel production and livestock and poultry feed; rapid population growth, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia; and increasing affluence in middle income countries.

Year: 2015

Source: Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health

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Climate Change

Family Planning

Food Security

Integration

Population

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Bushmeat Hunting and Extinction Risk to the World’s Mammals

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Terrestrial mammals are experiencing a massive collapse in their population sizes and geographical ranges around the world, but many of the drivers, patterns and consequences of this decline remain poorly understood. Here we provide an analysis showing that bushmeat hunting for mostly food and medicinal products is driving a global crisis whereby 301 terrestrial mammal species are threatened with extinction. Nearly all of these threatened species occur in developing countries where major coexisting threats include deforestation, agricultural expansion, human encroachment and competition with livestock. The unrelenting decline of mammals suggests many vital ecological and socio-economic services that these species provide will be lost, potentially changing ecosystems irrevocably. We discuss options and current obstacles to achieving effective conservation, alongside consequences of failure to stem such anthropogenic mammalian extirpation. We propose a multi-pronged conservation strategy to help save threatened mammals from immediate extinction and avoid a collapse of food security for hundreds of millions of people.

Year: 2016

Source: Royal Society Open Science

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Conservation

Wildlife

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Building Resilience Through Family Planning and Adaptation Finance Webinar

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The impacts of climate change—climbing temperatures, extreme weather, drought, shifting rainfall patterns, and rising sea levels—are intensifying around the world. These impacts threaten to undo development progress in poor and vulnerable communities, where rapid population growth and unmet need for family planning contribute to limited capacity to adapt. This webinar provides an overview of the climate finance landscape and explore strategies that the family planning community can use to join with others in efforts to build resilience to climate change impacts. Speakers and participants shared views on ways to forge partnerships for multisectoral climate adaptation projects that are eligible for multilateral climate change adaptation funding. Experiences and perspectives shared may also be useful for other organizations seeking to access this type of climate adaptation funding.

Year: 2018

Source: Population Reference Bureau

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Adaptation

Climate Change

Family Planning

Resilience

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