Integrating Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) into National Climate Change Strategies
Khaleda Yasmin :
Past Lessons
Climate change is significantly impacting Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights (SRHR), Family Planning-Maternal & Child health (FP-MCH) program in Bangladesh, particularly for women and girls. Also, SRHR and FP-MCH program are not often linked to climate change. However, there are several reasons why SRHR are under threat in the face of an unstable and unpredictable environment. FP-MCH program is threatened by increasing temperatures and climate-related diseases (WHO, 2017), while disasters can interrupt SRHR services and lead to increases in gender-based violence, Maternal and Child health diseases and child marriage. Realization of SRHR can help build resilience to the effects of climate change and allow women, adolescent and their families to better adapt to a changing environment. So, realizing SRHR is crucial to achieve gender equality and gender-responsive adaptation to climate change.
The National climate policies can play a key role in determining responses to climate change, including plans for building adaptive capacity and resilience. A recent review of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) – documents that detail a country’s intended measures for adapting to climate change – found that almost half of the NAPs reviewed contained no references to SRHR (Women Deliver, 2021). Where SRHR was included, the vulnerability of pregnant women, Adolescent Girls and infants to the effects of climate change and gender-based violence were most commonly mentioned.
To evaluate areas of significance for SRHR, Population dynamics was included in part to assess consistency with the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action. To realize that vision and secure the benefits of a gender-equal world, we need to identify and address how interconnected climate change issues and SRHR of women and girls are. Gender equality, SRHR and climate change issues are intimately linked. Climate change, including extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and rainfall variability, poses a significant challenge to the basic determinants of physical and mental health. All genders, girls and women face discriminatory vulnerability to the effects of climate change all over the country. In large part gender inequality is impacted by social and economic factors. Evidence also shows that climate change increases these inequalities.
Bangladesh is likely to be among the countries that are the worst affected by climate change. The Government of Bangladesh is highly conscious of this, and has in fact been preparing to face this challenge for several years now. The Government of Bangladesh can realize that Climate Change is now an environmental as well as a developmental issue. Bangladesh is in height on the list of countries vulnerable to climate change, ranking seventh on the 2021 World Climate Risk Index. Climate change-induced natural disasters wide-ranging in Bangladesh due to its geographic location and flat, low-lying landscape. High population density, poverty and reliance on climate-sensitive sectors for water and food security, particularly water resources, agriculture, fisheries and livestock, increase its vulnerability to climate change. Climate-induced disasters such as tropical cyclones and storm flows, monsoon floods, flash floods, droughts, sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, ocean acidification, etc.
Present Realities:
The National Adaptation Plan of Bangladesh (2023?2050) provides the context, outline the implications and likely impacts of climate change in Bangladesh, provide an overview of different adaptation strategies and briefly outline mitigation issues. The NAP describes a program following six major pillars to build the capacity and resilience of the country to meet the challenges of climate change over the next 20-25 years:
1) Food security, social protection and health; 2) Comprehensive disaster management;
3) Infrastructure; 4) Research and knowledge management;
5) Mitigation and low carbon development; and 6) Capacity building and institutional strengthening.
Bridging Climate Action with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Bangladesh
SDGs introduce a holistic and integrated framework that spans across social, economic and environmental dimensions. While the 17 goals with 169 targets range from tackling poverty to creating meaningful global partnerships. Goal 13: is specifically assigned for climate action – “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts,” climate change is a cross-cutting issue and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that the impacts of climate change can potentially affect all of the SDGs. In Bangladesh, some of the changes induced by climate change include a rise in the sea level, intensified natural disasters, degraded natural resources and displacement of its population.
Climate change can hinder the achievement of SDGs
SDG-1: No Poverty:
Climate variability could cause reduction of long-term rice production by 7.4% per year;
A net loss amounting to USD 26 million in agriculture GDP (gross domestic product) over the time.
SDG-2: Zero Hunger:
Lower crop yields could result in at least 15% net increase in poverty;
Climate change can trigger displacement, forcing people to move to urban slums and poverty.
SDG-3: Good Health and Well-being
Climatic disasters are often followed by water stress and waterborne diseases;
Victims who survive such disasters suffer mental trauma and lack of FP-MCH and SRHR services.
SDG-4: Quality Education
Damaged roads and infrastructures force children to drop out of schools.
Cyclone Sidr destroyed 74 primary schools and estimated 103,664 children were affected by this;
Disasters destroy existing drinking water, sanitation facilities and MHM of adolescent girls.
SDG-5: Gender Equality
Women remain more vulnerable to climatic disasters. For example, death ratio between women and men in cyclone Sidr was 5:1.
Climate change will affect natural resources and rural women are usually in charge of going the extra distance for collecting resources for the household.
Climate Change, Gender Equality and SRHR: Situation Analysis
The Climate Crisis Is Underpinned by Severe Injustices
Within countries and communities, “Climate change has already harmed human physical and mental health. In all regions, health impacts often undermine efforts for inclusive development. Women, children, the elderly, Indigenous People, low income households, and socially marginalized groups within cities, settlements, regions and countries are the most vulnerable.”
Gender equality and SRHR is hindered by climate change
Historical and structural inequalities in gender power relations, reinforced through colonial, neoliberal, and fundamentalist policies and practices have already led to barriers to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in all their diversity.
Climate change mitigation cannot be an excuse for population control measures:
A human rights-based approach to climate justice centers a person’s bodily autonomy and individual choice. Contraception and family planning are not yet climate mitigation measures in Bangladesh. Climate change, with impacts on natural resources, infrastructure, food, security and sovereignty, education, migration, conflict, health and well-being, among others.
SRHR must be integrated into Climate Action or Adaption Plan
Gender equality depends on fulfilling the rights to health. Lack of SRH results in a range of health injustices, including high rates of maternal deaths, premature birth, unsafe abortions, and high HIV transmission to girls and women. Whether for family planning contraception, antenatal care (ANC), Menstrual Regulation (MR), Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM), infertility required to fulfill the right of health, to build adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience to direct and indirect climate impacts. On November 02, in 2023 the government made the long-awaited National Adaptation Plan (NAP) of Bangladesh (2023-2050) public, and its climate change leadership have been widely showcasing it at 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27). Bangladesh the Climate Change Strategy & Action Plan (BCCSAP, 2009), aims to achieve six specific goals:
i) Ensuring protection against climate change and disasters; ii) Developing climate-resilient agriculture;
iii) Building climate-smart cities; iv) Protecting nature for adaptation;
v) Integrating adaptation into planning; and vi) Ensuring capacity-building and innovation in adaptation.
The NAP proposed 110 interventions to address 14 climate hazards (1. Extreme Temperature, 2. Erratic Rainfall, 3. River Flood, 4. River Bank Erosion, 5. Draught, 6. Cyclone, 7. Sea-level rise, 8. Salinity intrusion, 9. Flash Flood, 10. Landslide, 11. Cold Snap, 12. Lightning, 13. Urban Flood, 14. Ocean Acidification) in 11 stress areas across Bangladesh; where Health and SRHR was not focused.
Future Directions:
Endorsements for National Action Plan on Climate Change and SRHR in Bangladesh
In order to fully capture the linkages between SRHR and climate change, minimize the impact of climate change on the population, and improve efforts to fight climate change by addressing the SRHR needs of populations, governments, international organisations, civil society organisations (CSOs), donors, researchers, and advocates must work together to following recommendations:
Enhance collaboration among climate change, health, and women’s rights advocacy communities;
Promote gender-transformative climate action by addressing the linkages between climate change, FP-MCH and SRHR across climate action processes;
Set targets for inclusive, gender-balanced, multi-sectoral stakeholder participation in policy;
Invest in research to address evidence gaps and integrate the analysis of SRHR and climate data;
Realize SRHR in order to prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate related disasters;Invest in health systems to address the underlying causes of vulnerability to climate change; Maternal health was the most commonly cited area of SRHR, with access to family planning services, gender-based violence, and people living with HIV also referenced;
GBV represents a key intersection of SRHR and climate change that should be addressed in policy; Simultaneously addressing aspects of gender, health and vulnerability intersections represent key entry points for greater inclusion of SRHR in climate policy; SRHR services should be a core component of building health system resilience to climate change; Climate action that reduces inequalities and removes barriers to the participation of marginalized groups in decision-making will positively impact existing SRHR goals;
The inclusion of SRHR and population dynamics in climate policy must be human rights-based and reflect the International Conference on ICPD Program of Action;
Realization of SRHR supports build resilience and adaptive capacity for climate change while reducing inequality and enabling justice;SRHR and FP-MCH issues should receive a stronger focus in climate policy and programming; Recognize the linkages between the climate crisis and other environmental crises; An intersectional approach is essential to tackling existing inequalities in SRHR and maximizing the power of SRHR to build adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change; Required to inclusion values in advocacy at Global to local level and Engagement with local leaders through capacity building regarding climate change and SRHR; Needed to include meaningful engagement through advocacy initiatives, increasing community participation and disseminating SBCC initiatives related to SRHR and Climate change;To implement the NAP, different advisory and technical committees are envisaged at the national level, supported by district, upazila and union-level structures; Along with working for coastal regions, we need to be careful that, Because the issue of SRHR, MHM and others are affecting rural women and girls all around Bangladesh.
It was found that the committees related to Disaster, FP and VAW is working on particular issues. So, need to be aware the members of the committee, what are their functions and the progress; Needed to work for male engagement within the activities of SRHR and Climate Changes; Needed linkage between knowledge products, target group considering climate change and SRHR; Essential to ensure community participation to work further for SRHR and climate change;
To avoid duplication of work, GO-NGO and civil society organizations should work in collaboration.
Conclusion:
Recognizing the links between gender and climate change is key to create an effective response to climate change while also improving gender equality and access to SRHR services.
Building a sustainable future for all requires the full potential – and participation – of girls and women in environmental and climate action, and the realization of that potential depends on their health and rights.
Though there are considerable gaps in research and evidence that link climate change and SRHR. It is also clear that climate change, its impacts, and subsequent efforts to address them, negatively affect SRHR both directly and indirectly.
These negative impacts are felt most by girls and women, and individuals who already experience multiple barriers to the realization of their SRHR.
First, it is important to explore how existing natural resource management and biodiversity conservation laws and rules are aligned with the NAP. Second, the locally-led adaptation (LLA) approach is mentioned throughout the NAP under different interventions to ensure effective social inclusion.
Finally, as we implement NBS under the NAP, we need to follow certain guidelines and protocols. So that we can identify, design, and implement NBS carefully, ensuring local people’s rights and benefits on SRHR and Climate Change in Bangladesh.
Source of Information:
National Adaptation Plan of Bangladesh
(2023-2050).pdf bangladesh_climate_change_actiona_plan.pdf
Climate-Change-and-SRHR-Scoping-Study_Bangladesh.pdf
Policy Brief Climate Change and SRHR.pdf
