PRB

Climate change adaptation has come to the forefront of the global agenda after 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.

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 new 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. The policy brief includes an example of how to apply these key strategies to a real-world adaptation initiative, showing how the FP/RH community could seize opportunities created by the importance of adapting to climate change and the growing availability of international climate financing to strengthen prospects for FP/RH’s inclusion in multisectoral adaptation plans.