The “Climate x SRHR: Frontline Leaders in Action”
conference, held on October 16, 2025, brought together leaders and stakeholders
from around the world to discuss the intersection between climate change and
sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The virtual event, which
began at 10:00 a.m. EST, was organized in collaboration with major
organizations such as Panorama, the Packard Foundation, and the Hewlett
Foundation, under the umbrella of ICFP 2025. Participants explored how women
and marginalized communities are facing the impacts of climate change and how
they can be empowered as agents of change. Key discussions focused on the
importance of inclusive policies, sustainable financing, and collaboration
across the health, environment, and gender sectors. It was also emphasized that
addressing climate change requires a social perspective that protects human
rights and strengthens access to reproductive health services. The conference
inspired renewed hope for collective action toward building equitable and
sustainable communities worldwide.
Ms. Janet: Alright, so let’s begin we’ll start first with
the Mama - Pikin Foundation, which is represented by their country director,
Leeann Rizk. The Mama - Pikin Foundation works to improve the health of women,
children, and families in Sierra Leone and your team recently published a
climate literacy tool. Qn: - Can you tell us a little bit about the tool, and
what inspired you all to create it?
Ms. Leeann Rizk Having us share our story the literacy tool is a tool that
we developed basically in the midst of research with Human Rights Foundation. A
Sierra Leone Maternal and Child Health Climate Literacy and we realized very
quickly, especially in rural and urban settings, where you have, A Sierra Leone
Maternal and Child Health Climate Literacy Tool that the issue of climate is
not one that people understand. It’s not digestible. It’s not something that is
easy to converse and really get people to understand at all.
A Sierra Leone Maternal and Child Health Climate Literacy
Tool, and it says Place the hot. Which basically translates into, wow, it is
getting hot, right? And this is an everyday conversation on public transport,
in the waiting room at the bank. A Sierra Leone Maternal and Child Health
Climate Literacy Tool, everybody is saying, place the hot, literally. People are saying that every day.
So, we decided to name it that. As soon as you see this first picture, you know
what this is, and every time we go over this tool in, a clinic setting. A Sierra Leone Maternal and
Child Health Climate Literacy Tool, right? I am trying to, get make a living. I have my children with
me. I do not have a choice. I have to keep it moving. Designed to spark
learning, reflection, and conversation. The tool was developed with pregnant
women, healthcare providers, and community partners.
And for example, many women told us, that they avoid using
mosquito nets at night when it is hot, it’s just hot, so they are just not
going to do it. And that includes their baby. Their baby is with them, and it
is they are not under a mosquito net another thing, another important point
that came out, these kinds of conversations that we found, is that providers
also describe how extreme heat affects their ability to deliver respectful and
compassionate care, which makes sense, because you’re under pressure. These
clinics are not clinics that are really made with extreme heat in mind, so
there's no proper ventilation and then it is full, it is packed to the brim
with pregnant women and lactating mothers, their children, and you're expected
to provide quality.
Respectful care. So, these are the things this is another,
excerpt from the flip, our tool is about an 83-size flip chart tool, but you
can see here all of the different types of work that pregnant women have to do,
undergo, on their daily You know, their
daily hustle. And so, they can definitely resonate with this, and we just
have, different points of how... what
are some things you can do, like tried to find shade, try not to, go under direct heat or smoke.
Next one, just so we can Because I do not know how I am
doing on time, Janet. I am looking at you. And so, this is also going back to
the provider part of this, so it is not just about the pregnant women, and of
course, the children. It's also about,
healthcare and healthcare systems. And how this is affecting, the people who are providing the care, the
people who are expected to provide the care. They're also part of this
community and many, like I said, many of the healthcare facilities, both in
rural and urban settings, are not set up to deal with the heat at all. In fact,
they are do not even have water at times, so running water is not available, so
it is difficult.
Pregnant women, when they come to give birth, they have to
find water, and come with buckets of water just so that they can have water
during their birth so there's a lot of different layers to this, and we all
know the research is showing that extreme heat has very unfavorable outcomes and can impact the
health of maternal maternal and child health, and newborn health. And the more
we delve into that, the more we felt like it was necessary to have a tool to
really break it down in a way that people can understand that has lots of
visuals and illustrations, and not just for the end. The end users, but also
for the people who are giving the care, right? So, for the providers, they also
need to know this information, so we expect this tool to be, happening in the
clinic at ANC clinics, so antenatal clinics at the under 5 clinics.
Amazing Thank you, Leeann. I love it the illustrations are
wonderful, and really take me to West Africa. Yeah, I think overall, the tool
has been very, very much well received. I think people are, still trying to piece together some of the
linkages between.
Climate and the health, and their healthcare, and why should
they care. So, I think having this tool really opens up that conversation. It
helps to get it out there, because at the end of the day, we cannot expect
people to fight for any kind of they cannot even expect this, you cannot expect
this to be something where they feel like it is a right of theirs, if they do
not understand it. Like, they do not understand it, so... The point is that we
want to convey to them that this is your human rights, this is a part of something that's been
violated, even though.
“Sierra Leone is probably contributing to the global crisis
at a very small margin compared to other countries, and, you know. And we have
to also talk about that in the tool, so I think it is really important, just
because people really need to know. better to do better, you know what I am
saying? Yeah, that's amazing. It's also
offering them a chance to be accountable to their health system and to their
government, if they understand it better, they can advocate for themselves
better that's super powerful.”
Ms. Janet: We're going to turn to our next panelist now from
Reebok Mnyigumba, From the Climate Action Network Tanzania is at the front of
advocacy efforts to integrate gender and SRH into Tanzania's national climate
policy landscape.
QN: - “My question is, Reebok, can you share a little bit
about why it is critical that we advocate for the inclusion of SRH in these
national climate adaptation plans?”
Reebok Mnyigumba:
Reebok Mnyigumba Yeah,
thanks, Janet, and hi, everyone. It’s really great to be part of this
discussion. I think this question of why we should advocate for the inclusion
of sexual and reproductive health, or SRH, in national climate adaptation plans
goes right to the heart of what “climate resilience” really means.
When
we talk about climate change, we often focus on things like infrastructure,
agriculture, or water systems. But the truth is, climate change affects people
first, and it affects them differently. In Tanzania, for example, when floods,
droughts. tropical cyclones hit the communities the availability of essential
healthcare services and reproductive health services is compromised. So, when a
pregnant woman visits health facilities for delivery, and the floods have
damaged the infrastructure, it forces her to deliver in unsafe conditions,
which puts her and her unborn baby at great risk of losing their lives. So,
when we advocate for the integration of sexual reproductive health and gender
issues into climate change policy frameworks is all about protecting the lives
of our dear mothers, sisters, and daughters. Ultimately, we can’t call the
climate policy “inclusive” if it leaves out the health and rights of half the
population. The meaning of inclusive is means it has to recognize the unique
needs, vulnerabilities of these different population groups that are affected.
And in our context, women and girls are the ones who are disproportionately
affected by the changing climate than other population groups because of
various factors, including limited access to resources and decision-making
spaces.
Qn:
- Ms. Janet: Access to sexual reproductive health issues at all times
empowers women to make the decisions, and it also contributes to strengthening
their resilience against the changing climate. What is the context in Tanzania?
And can you share a success that your team has had regarding this work, or a
challenge that you face? Whether it is getting folks to understand the
importance of this, or how these climate adaptations, plans are received or
worked through in Tanzania.
If I were to highlight one success, it
would be the inclusion of sexual and reproductive health considerations in
Tanzania’s draft Health–National Adaptation Plan, or H-NAP. The Plan is already
in place and now waits for the final endorsement by the government of the
United Republic of Tanzania. The component on sexual reproductive health and gender
has been mainstreamed in this draft, which was sidelined in the first Tanzania
HNAP. This is the result of our
persistent advocacy efforts because we have conducted a series of consultative
meetings with the government ministries and other CSOs that work on the gender
and reproductive health thematic area. And we have also developed several
policy briefs to increase awareness among policymakers on the nexus between
climate change, Gender, and Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Now, turning to challenges, there are a
couple I’d highlight. One is the advocacy process itself. Engaging multiple
stakeholders, government, development partners, government ministries, and
academic institutions, the process can be slow and complex. Sometimes it isn’t
easy to get all parties aligned, particularly when climate and health agendas
compete for attention or limited resources. SRH is institutionalized in the
health sector, and various health risks are exacerbated by the changing climate
change including nutrition, water-borne diseases, vector-borne diseases, and
the health system itself, such as the destruction of facilities that are
critical for operation and delivery of health services. In this case, there are
a lot of competing priorities in the health sector that could impede the
prioritization of sexual and reproductive health in climate policy frameworks,
even if there is solid evidence and very strong arguments to make in policy
spaces.
Lastly, as the Tanzanian climate policy landscape was evolving by the time we were engaging in advocacy in HNAP, we capitalized on the opportunity to ensure that what has been prioritized in Tanzania's second HNAP is used to feed other national climate policy frameworks, such as NDC 3.0 and NAP. This was deliberately conducted to ensure greater synergy and coherence between the national policy frameworks.
Dr.Mahesh Srinivas With respect to health and nutrition, the Foundation has
been supporting interventions, aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality
and morbidity over the last 15 years, And the key success has been its ability
to support public health systems to scale up community-based care models
through frontline workers. So, the frontline worker is at the core of our
interventions we believe that climate and health intersectionality need to be
an integral part of all public health programs and India, like most countries,
witness extreme climate events.
When we look at data from the meteorological department,
Over the last few decades. We see an increasing trend data that we see, and the
extreme heat is for prolonged periods You know, more than 75% of the 1.5
billion population that's right, 75% of
the 1.5 billion population are subject to extreme heat, anywhere from 60 to 90
days on an average, then and in many places, the temperatures can reach as high
as, 115 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
You know, so that obviously is a stress factor that we
should keep in mind and only about 10% of the population probably have access
to air conditioning, in rural areas, it’s less than 1%. So, all in all, climate
Events like extreme heat, amplifies, pre-existing vulnerabilities. And this
actually creates complex challenges to ensuring the well-being of women and
children we have set ourselves a very simple roadmap. There are four things
that we are doing as part of the current project, supported by Panorama,
firstly, we plan to obtain contextual knowledge. Through research, qualitative
research, on community awareness.
Practices and coping mechanisms. with respect to extreme
heat events I just noted down Leanne's
example of mosquito nets, which is a good one we also found in one of our
research projects that, consumption of
alcohol is a myth and that actually, probably aggravates
dehydration during extreme heat events. So, the research we feed. is key to
identifying vulnerable population, and more importantly factors that amplify
vulnerability. So that's the first thing the second thing, in the long run any
mitigation and adaptation efforts will require. the participation and the
leadership of frontline workers.
who form a very large workforce. We have about 2 million
frontline workers in India. And currently, their understanding of the effects
of extreme heat on maternal and child health, and more importantly, the actions
that they need to initiate. It's very limited. So, we plan to demonstrate a
viable model of large-scale capacity building of frontline workers that's the
second thing thirdly is the solutions, which is the most important part what, apart from. some of the mitigation
strategies that communities may try and do. What are some of the cost-effective
and scalable solutions to help children and women mitigate and adapt to extreme
heat. You know, there's a question that we have and likely to involve multiple
sectors. So, one of the things we have piloted over the last couple of years is
to promote bio-fortified crops from the point of view of enhancing food
security, but more direct interventions to protect the populations will be
needed so lastly, we India has been, you
know has got a head start around a decade ago by coming out with.
What we call as heat action plan. So, we have local
governments and urban bodies however, we noticed a couple of gaps in this
firstly, these plants are not specific to vulnerable groups and secondly, they
do not indicate any specific measures for pregnant women and children. We also
noticed that the last mile rollout of the heat action plan is a challenge
itself So this is where I think nonprofits like us can play a role and helped
strengthen the government efforts. So, in summary the current efforts that we
do. We'll put the spotlight back on vulnerable populations.
Ms. Janet: So, we are going to hear from Peter Ngure, from
Pathways Policy Institute, PPI works with youth advocates and communities in a
participatory process to identify areas that can influence primary healthcare
sexual and reproductive health and environmental policies. Through research,
training, and capacity strengthening.
Peter, as an organization with a strong track record working
at the intersection of advocacy and accountability.
Peter Ngure Thanks so much, Janet, and thanks, to the Panorama team for the organizing this
in Kenya, we have made quite a bit of progress, and a lot of, the progress
started with the Africa Climate Summit. In 2023, we are the space for health
around climate became critical, and then in 2024 when we started the work we
are doing with Panorama, there was the biggest disaster in Kenya on flooding,
which affected 38 of the 47 counties. And so, the national government, on May
2nd in 2024, declared that those who are at risk spaces, and so from that
declaration, then a lot of work has gone in on disaster preparedness and
response, so the first one was development with the National Disaster Risk
Management Strategy 2025-2030, in which a lot of the forecast was on strong risk
reduction, but then the realization that it was lacking in a lot of the early
warning systems in it. And so, in 2025, the conversation continued on how do we
ensure that we have early warning systems.
And the government now has developed an early warning
system, at the national government level a lot of the other progress you have
seen is legal and institutional reform, and this is where we work a lot the
public Finance Management Act was being reviewed last year because it was done
in 2012 and then 2015, a review but the one for last year in what was critical
about the work we did last year was to create what we call the County Emergency
Fund. And generally, every county out of the 47 counties is supposed to have a
county emergency fund that is inclusive and has local stakeholders, involved
and for us, under the support from Panorama, we work in two counties, but the
work we have done in, keep you
immediately, that was highlighted, we were able to go ahead as a county and
develop what we call the County Environmental Action Plan, the SIB 2025-2029,
in which.
Now, it brings more of the conversation around what climate
change, how do we do adaptation, but also out of that document, the development
of the Laikipia County Climate change act. This Climate Change Act has a lot of
reflections around how multi-agency disaster response can happen how we can
strengthen county governance on community participation, and also, and I am
glad the first presenter talked about it the County Climate Change Readiness
Index, because those are tools that are really critical for us. And then,
overall, for us, we are looking at and seeing a lot of impact in the
relationship between disaster management and reproductive health family
planning, just because the Climate Change Act now has highlighted a whole
section on health. There's a lot of, of course, challenges that people do not
want to go lower into, specifics in
health. They are still wanting to have climate and health, but then there's a
lot of work ongoing to ensure that this happens.
Whereas other organizations, I think, are newer to. what
kind of really meaningful work at this intersection, might be, so one thing to
ask further for organizations or countries even that are newer to working at
the intersection of reproductive rights and climate, and exploring, the important vulnerabilities that exist
there, and what kind of programming or policy, guidance can be developed to
address it what advice might you give based on your long experience, working
relatively long experience working in this in this area?
Yeah, thanks for that, and I think I've posted something on
the chat which you can post to the team I just just the whole statement,
because one of the first advice I would give is that. If you're working on a
policy, just one statement can actually alter the whole policy focus, and
ensure that you get what you wanted. And I am just using that as an example
where it says. We actually just put one statement in the climate change policy,
which says climate change significantly threatened maternal health by intensifying
the vulnerabilities, and so these are the issues that would happen. And
interestingly, the output from that policy.
We actually just put one statement in the climate change
policy, which says climate change significantly threatened maternal health by
intensifying the vulnerabilities, and so these are the issues that would
happen. And interestingly, the output from that policy. in the health sector
was they are now going to put a maternal child health and reproductive health
funding as part of their policy implementation metrics. So just one statement,
really. So, as you are working, because when you're working with especially
when you're working with the people working on the intersectionality, a lot of
people will later focus on a lot of health input, and others will focus on a
lot of climate input.
And mostly the climate people are very difficult to bring to
our side others, advice I would give is set up a multi-agency disaster response
structure. That's a key output that really is required when you're working on
this intersectionality. But also, do not forget about, community participation. And this, we are
doing through what we are calling the County Environmental Committees and our
work, actually, this year has been, how do we ensure that in every of the county,
environmental committees, we have a gender component, the ones that at least
are women and young people and persons with disability and by that,
coordination. You are seeing a lot of improvement in the way the work is done.
So, for those who are getting into this sector just ensure you have won that
key ask that you have even in a whole policy, then start drilling it into the
implementation matrix.
Ms. Janet: “QN: Can you share a little bit more about what
you have learned from the qualitative research you've done? About the needs and
challenges of women and girls and climate change in Niger, which is, such an
already hot and dry place?”
“Thank you, Janet” Through our community listening exercise
across different regions of Niger, what we have learned is that climate change
is not just an environmental crisis. It's a health and gender crisis. Women and
girls are living this reality every day Particularly in rural and conflict,
affected areas. We heard repeatedly how growth and floats have destroyed roads
and have centers.
Making it really an extremely difficult for pregnant women
in particular to reach maternal and newborn services. Many women told us that.
they know work long distances, more long distances, under harsh conditions,
just to access basic carrots. Can you just imagine? And sometimes give birth at
home without assistance, because midwives cannot reach them. And I do not I
think that. We cannot realize this. Because you do not you do not have the
chance to get with this person and discuss with them, but we have this chance.
And it is end up sometimes with tears caused it these
persons are really affected by. this situation, and this turn of the
opportunity to discover that extreme hate and wild scarcity increase the burden
of women. And that they spend more hours switching water, and that exposed them
to health risk, and sometimes even gender-based violence. Especially adolescent
girls in particular. that face growing challenges. Or when communities are
displaced which affects their education too, and their muscular hygiene management,
too.
Yes, we have already started working on that with the look
at government and authorities and we are now planning to have a national
dialogue about, all the evidences, and that, as we have collected from these
discussions and, we have our authorities. completely engaged in this fight, I
think that it is a fight for women and gender equality. And our approach is to
transform these learnings into advocacy and actions at both community and
policy levels. First, we are using the evidence from our listening exercise to
engage local authorities. And half districts in Jalogs. about integrating RM
and CH into disaster preparedness and climate adaptation plans and at the
national level.
And we also believe in building local leadership especially
young adolescent girls; we have a program called We Inspiration where we train
young girls between 12 and 17. And we use this program to train them in climate
advocacy and how to preserve their planet, how to clean, how to make sure that
they are not chewing ways and plastic everywhere, and sensitize their
community. And we are training them to research and to communicate about health
and also to help them to influence policies in their own community. Our vision
is really in long term, to ensure that Niger’s response to climate change
always include women's and girls. Reproductive health as a key component of
resilience and human security so, to make it short, we are training we are
turning life experiences that we have collected into evidence and evidence into
policies. that can influence led by women.
QN: - “Somebody from Kenya, he said, my question is to the
panelists, so I think just broadly to the panel. What is the role of politics
in the advancement of intersectionality of SRHRJ and climate change?”
Mr. Reebok - Answer the question.
Yeah, for me, I would like to add something on the law of
politics and integration of climate change, or gender in the reproductive
health issues in the policy frameworks. As we know, politics is it everything I would like to set an example in
our country, for right now, our priority, the national priority, that has been
in the cream cookie as one of the, climate actions in any Tanzania. And it has
been prioritized in all climate policy frameworks, including even in the
national positional paper, that is going to be communicated in the COP30 in
Belem, Brazil.
So, I think if the government, the policy institutions
themselves, the politicians, if they take this agenda, crime exchange is really impacting, gender,
reproductive health issues, if they recognize that as many issues, it would be
much easier for it to be featuring in the policy frameworks much easier than,
other way along.
QN: - “Somebody from Kenya, he said, my question is to the
panelists, so I think just broadly to the panel. What is the role of politics
in the advancement of intersectionality of SRHRJ and climate change?”
Ms. Leeann Rizk
I think we can take Alan he has a question. He's from Kabuki
Trust in Uganda. Thank you for sharing the tool from Mama Pikin Foundation. How
do you adapt the beautiful illustrations in the tool for different audiences?
For example, rural versus urban, youth versus policymakers, then how do you
measure the effectiveness of these illustrations in sparking conversations or
changing. In terms of rural versus urban. I think, generally, the illustrations
are relatable for a cra that cut across all pregnant women and lactating
mothers.
So, we before, prior to us creating the tools, so that was
also some of the input and the feedback that we got to incorporate. After each
sketch was done, we would go back with
the sketch and go over it with both the healthcare workers and healthcare
providers, as well as the pregnant women
and lactating mothers, and even some of their partners and the larger
community. We got a lot of feedback on this tool and also, since we were
talking about politicians.
And say that we also had some input from, some politicians,
some policy makers, and as well as some administrators of hospitals. So we
really tried to get a diverse input into the tool, and obviously something that
can be adapted and changed as time goes on, as,
we continue to utilize It is a stepping stone, because really, it is a
literacy tool, so we are just trying to make sure that we can level up people's
literacy and understanding comprehension of what is, global global warming,
what is extreme heat, what is, climate
change in general. And so, I think that's really the goal here and the way that
we are measuring that is we are continuing to do rollouts.
We're also trying to I mentioned where we wanted this tool
to be, which is mainly in the clinic setting, but we are also putting them to
use at, midwifery schools and other
training, training institutions, because that's where our healthcare workers
are coming from. And so, it is very, very important when we've been going to
all the midwifery schools and trying to make sure that they can try and
incorporate it into their curriculum, and they are doing that and so I think
that that's really important to also mention.
QN:
She's a researcher at the Parliament of South Africa.
“The question is. How are and I actually think that okay,
let me find wondering how panelists advise we help bring attention to the issue
of climate-related SRHR impacts when there are so many other and for us?”
Peter Ngure: - The way we are trying to because, I mean, the
climate funds have a lot of competing interests. Especially from, resource,
make us, because a lot of people will say, if you invest in us, we will be able
to raise funds that help government. So, we are also using the same argument. Whereas we have the, the human argument, where you say humanity is
central, maternal mortality is bad, you know. But then you also look at the
other positive side of investing in SRH.
And claim it, we are
telling the government, if you under the Climate Change Act, you are able to
invest in solar-icing, maternity wards in and claim it, we are telling the government, if you under
the Climate Change Act, you are able to invest in solar-icing, maternity wards
in having, what boreholes in the
facility, or typing water from the facilities, the facilities will save on
resources, the county will save on resources, and eventually, these resources
can be used to transform other sectors in life. We are showing them that we are
not just coming as sexual reproductive health sector to get their resources
and, and take it to a service, but we
are also telling them, eventually, this has a return on investment when you do
it.
I just want to be very quick, have plenty of things to say,
but to share with you that the International Conference for Family Planning is
in just 2 weeks. Registration is open there are virtual registration and
program that will be happening too. And we are excited about this conference
for many reasons. It's the seventh conference, and this time it will be held in
Bogota, Colombia, the first time in a Latin American Caribbean country and the
theme is equity through action. And while there have been climate and
environmental sessions and topics in the past this is the first time the
conference has had an official track for environment and climate change. A
popular topic, and we are really excited because in addition to the scientific
sessions.
There’re quite a few very important auxiliary events,
pre-conference, post-conference sexual reproductive health and rights, and
climate justice end up hopefully being recommendations that can go to the COP30
conference, which is happening, the following week. So, I will share, some
links and special dates with our organizers, and hopefully those can go out.
Subject: Support Appeal – Empowering Independent Climate
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