Climate Change and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: Exploring the Linkages
Climate resilience and gender equality are inextricably linked, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are an essential element of gender equality. How can we ensure that climate action works hand in hand with efforts to realize SRHR?
Despite increasing recognition that climate action must be gender responsive, to date, only limited attention has been paid to the linkages between climate change and SRHR, which comprises issues such as access to contraceptives, maternal and newborn health, and gender-based violence (GBV). Barriers to the realization of SRHR inhibit progress toward gender equality and may impede climate action. At the same time, the impacts of climate change may negatively affect SRHR, for example, through interruptions in sexual and reproductive health services caused by extreme weather events.
This project, implemented in collaboration with Women Deliver, explored the available evidence on the implications of climate change for SRHR, as well as the relationships between SRHR and climate action. Building on this, it analyzed available National Adaptation Plan (NAP) documents, health sector adaptation plans, and funding proposals to assess the integration of SRHR issues. The findings illustrate the need for additional evidence on the linkages between SRHR and climate resilience. Recommendations for improving the consideration of SRHR in adaptation action, in a rights-based approach, provide advocates and decision-makers with a pathway for realizing rights and resilience to climate change.
Related Work
Climate Change and Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights (SRHR) | Interactive infographic
Explore the links between gender equality and climate resilience, as National Adaptation Plan (NAP) processes present an opportunity to address the impacts of climate change on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Processes
Informed by a review of the literature on climate change, adaptation, and SRHR, this report explores the extent to which NAP processes recognize the linkages between climate change adaptation and the realization of SRHR, including maternal and newborn health, voluntary modern contraception, and gender-based violence.
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