Africa: Enhancing Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Gender and Climate Change Linkages to Build Climate - Resilient Communities

Aug 27, 2019 | Julitta Onabajo, Benoit Kalasa, and Shoko Arakaki, UNFPA
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Twenty-five years ago, world leaders acknowledged the threats of climate change at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). In the Programme of Action, they recognized that “ecological problems, such as global climate change, largely driven by unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, are adding to the threats to the well-being of future generations.” The ICPD made clear that population, gender, health, rights and climate change are intertwined.

While Africa has contributed the least to increasing global greenhouse emissions, it bears a disproportionate burden of climate change. Across the continent, livelihoods are threatened by recurrent droughts and floods, extreme storms, and heatwaves, and people face prospects of dying livestock, water shortages, crop losses, and food insecurity. Competition over depleted resources is sparking conflicts and people are being forcibly displaced from their homes or relocating to survive.