REACH: Research, actions and solutions on the care-climate nexus in the Caribbean hub

The Caribbean, a region composed largely of small island developing states, faces some of the highest climate risk levels globally, with intensifying hurricanes, prolonged droughts and rising sea levels threatening livelihoods, infrastructure and food security. The climate crisis disproportionately affects women and girls, who are often responsible for unpaid care work. As access to water, food and health services becomes harder and more precarious, women absorb the burden by walking longer distances, managing degraded resources and substituting for failing public systems through unpaid labour.

Recognizing care as a climate-resilience strategy is not only urgent but transformative: it reframes caregiving as a frontline response to climate disruption and positions Caribbean women’s labour and knowledge as central to sustainable adaptation and recovery. This project will generate critical, context-specific data on the interlinkages between climate change and unpaid care work, which remains largely invisible yet essential to the Caribbean’s socio-economic fabric and resilience.

Through feminist, participatory research across multiple countries, and by supporting grassroots-led local solutions, the project will amplify community-driven innovations at the intersection of climate change and care work. REACH aims to influence policy reform, strengthen public investment in care systems and ensure that the caregiving roles of women and girls are reduced, recognized and integrated into climate-adaptation strategies. By combining research, training, community action and policy dialogue, REACH will build a sustainable regional hub dedicated to care-centred climate action.

This project is one of five regional hubs supported by IDRC to advance locally grounded research addressing the intersection of care and climate change. All of these hubs aim to inform scalable, gender-transformative solutions in low- and middle-income countries.