Building resilience through family planning and climate adaptation finance: systematic review and opportunity analysis

Abstract

BackgroundClimate change adaptation is on the forefront of the global agenda, and momentum for international financing for climate change adaptation projects is growing. This growth provides an opportunity to engage with adaptation decision makers and processes to include women's empowerment as part of multisectoral climate adaptation projects. MethodsA growing evidence base links women's met needs for family planning with reduced human vulnerability to climate change and enhanced resilience in the face of climate change impacts. Yet, population and family planning have been largely left out of adaptation proposals and projects. Through key informant interviews, a literature review, and research, the Population Reference Bureau identified how to promote the inclusion of family planning in climate adaptation strategies in ways that build resilience, improve health, and enhance women's economic empowerment. FindingsWays to integrate family planning into climate adaptation strategies included drawing the connections to and building the evidence base for including family planning in multisectoral adaptation approaches; reaching out to a country's designated authority to identify main climate change adaptation decision makers and develop an understanding of how adaptation finance flows; engaging in a country's National Adaptation Plan process to connect with stakeholders and identify country-driven adaptation priorities; and considering partnering with others in developing multisectoral proposals that include family planning and help to implement those proposals. InterpretationThe best opportunity for funding family planning and reproductive health within adaptation projects is to integrate women's empowerment—including family planning—within multisectoral proposals. The research includes an example of how to apply these key strategies, showing how the women's empowerment community could seize opportunities created by the importance of adapting to climate change and the growing availability of international climate financing to strengthen prospects for including women's health in climate adaptation projects. The Ecological Christian Organization of Uganda and Reproductive Health Uganda are following the Population Reference Bureau's research with a country-level strategy to advocate for the adoption of a multisectoral approach to climate adaptation in Uganda. FundingUnited States Agency for International Development (USAID).