Building resilience to climate change across communities and health systems in Middle East and North Africa

 

The impact of climate change on health is multifaceted, exacerbating existing health system challenges and introducing new community and individual-level health risks. Women, girls and marginalized communities, particularly those living in Lebanon, Egypt and Morocco, are disproportionately affected by the health impacts of climate change due to a combination of social, economic and cultural factors. However, evidence remains limited on the impact of policies and mechanisms adopted by health systems, health facilities and communities to address them.

This project aims to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the capacity of health systems and the effect of policies and procedures adopted by health-care organizations and communities in Lebanon, Morocco and Egypt to mitigate, respond to and recover from climate-induced health impacts. The project also aims to understand how gender, context and other social determinants influence the impacts of climate change on health, particularly among women and vulnerable communities.

Findings from this project will be disseminated and promoted through scholarly articles, case studies and a webinar series. These findings will inform the development of a regional roadmap that will be co-developed with relevant stakeholders. The roadmap will serve as a blueprint for countries in the region to design and implement gender and context-sensitive interventions aimed at enhancing the resilience of their communities, health-care organizations and health systems to the health-related repercussions of climate change.