"Without proper data, we cannot develop appropriate solutions," Vanessa Brizuela, the expert at the World Health Organization who issued the call, told CG. One aim of the effort, which emphasizes community voices and lived experiences, is to generate evidence to inform national adaptation plans.
In the absence of robust data, experts are facing an uphill battle to effectively address the growing climate impacts on sexual and reproductive health and rights. But amid recent cuts to aid programs — which some view as a "public health emergency of international concern" — the World Health Organization is pushing ahead to fund research that could help improve the lives of mothers, prevent violence, and strengthen access to medical care.
Through its Human Reproduction Programme, the WHO has issued a call for research proposals exploring how extreme weather events may be affecting maternal health, exacerbating gender-based violence, and disrupting access to contraception and abortion. These key areas were identified, in part, through an exercise led by the organization in 2024 to determine the relevant topics most in need of evidence.
"Without proper data, we cannot develop appropriate solutions," Vanessa Brizuela, the WHO expert who issued the call, told CG. "Evidence-based policies are critical to improved health outcomes."
Brizuela acknowledged a growing body of research linking climate-related events and health outcomes but said that some essential issues, including impacts on sexual and reproductive health and rights — or SRHR — haven't been studied much, if at all.
"There are particularly sparse data using an intersectionality lens looking at how gender, age, disability, poverty, and migration status interact with climate exposure to shape SRHR outcomes," she said.
One aim of the funding effort — open to research teams based in low- and middle-income countries — is to generate evidence to inform national-level climate adaptation planning, where gendered considerations are often overlooked or only partially integrated. Another is to emphasize the importance of participatory research, working closely with the people most directly affected by climate change to define problems, interpret findings, and identify solutions.
"Communities are the ones best placed to speak to how climate is affecting them, while also the ones with the lived experience to inform whether specific policies that may have been implemented have made an impact on their health," Brizuela said.
Proposals in response to the call are due April 12. In addition to funds, selected teams may also receive technical support, training opportunities, and access to WHO resources.
Gracie Leavitt contributed reporting to this piece.
"In emergency settings, there is rarely enough time to conduct full household surveys or collect detailed information, and field teams often face staffing, funding, and logistical constraints," study co-author Sonia Akter told CG. "The survey instrument overcomes these challenges."
Lize Barclay, Senior Lecturer in Futures Studies and Systems Thinking at Stellenbosch Business School in South Africa, told CG about how data center expansion in the region has the potential to further burden women and girls already disproportionately tasked with water collection.
Mothers displaced by floods across Kenya have shared accounts of infant illness, insufficient food, and decreased breastmilk supplies. One mom was forced to carry her newborn above rising waters. CG heard from Susan Onyango and Hellen Wanjohi-Opil, experts based in Nairobi, about the path forward.
"Cesar's actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people," Dolores Huerta wrote in her statement. "We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever."
