PRB

Climate change adaptation has come to the forefront of the global agenda since the 2015 Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and momentum for international financing for climate change adaptation projects is growing. This growth provides the family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) community an opportunity to engage with adaptation decisionmakers and processes to potentially access adaptation funding as part of multisectoral adaptation projects.

The Policy, Advocacy, and Communication Enhanced for Population and Reproductive Health (PACE) Project has been a leader in advancing multisectoral approaches that integrate family planning and reproductive health as solutions to complex challenges such as climate change adaptation and sustainable, equitable development. PACE has underlined how these programs contribute to increased climate adaptation and resilience, opening the door to greater investment in health and development interventions among climate adaptation solutions.

A 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, thus far, population and family planning have been largely left out of adaptation proposals and projects. A PRB policy brief, available in English and French, identifies four key strategies the FP/RH community can use to promote inclusion of family planning in adaptation strategies in ways that build resilience, improve health, and enhance women’s economic empowerment.

• Draw the connections to and build the evidence base for including family planning in multisectoral adaptation approaches.
• Reach out to a country’s designated authority to identify main climate change adaptation decisionmakers at the national level and develop an understanding of how adaptation finance flows.
• Engage in a country’s National Adaptation Plan process to connect with stakeholders and identify country-driven adaptation priorities.
• Consider partnering with others in developing multisectoral proposals that include family planning and helping to implement those proposals.

The best opportunity for funding FP/RH within adaptation projects is to integrate women’s empowerment—including family planning—within multisectoral proposals. A how-to video produced in 2022 adds to the report and brief published in 2018 to illustrate strategies for family planning and reproductive health program implementers and advocates to position their programs to access climate adaptation funding. A virtual watch party and workshop in April 2022 showcased the video and provided an opportunity for implementers and advocates to explore how to apply each of the strategies to their programming with advice from key experts.