To bridge this gap, Ipas Africa Alliance partnered with the Pastoralist Community Initiative and Development Assistance (PACIDA) and the Samburu County Government to assess how the climate crisis is affecting SRHR services in Samburu County, Kenya. The findings reveal the urgent need to strengthen the resilience of both health systems and communities in the face of climate change. 

The study specifically explored how the climate crisis influences the need for SRHR services within the community health system, focusing on the adaptability and resilience of health services in Samburu County. Extreme weather events like droughts, intense heat, and flooding are disrupting the delivery of essential SRHR services.

“Heatwaves, floods, and droughts—worsened by the climate crisis—are forcing pastoralist communities in Samburu to adapt in ways that directly affect their health, and SRHR is no exception,” says Sally Dijekerman, Ipas’s senior research scientist. She explains that as communities migrate further from health facilities in search of water and pasture, access to contraception and SRH services diminishes, leading to increased rates of STIs/HIV transmission, unintended pregnancies, and pregnancy complications.