Climate Change Adaptation in Population, Health, Environment, and Development Programs: Status and Future Directions

Samuel Sellers, Office of Population and Health, USAID

Population, health, environment, and development (PHED) programs combine voluntary family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) services with environmental conservation, sustainable livelihood, and other health (non-FP/RH) activities into a single intervention. Traditionally, PHED programs were designed with a goal of simultaneously improving human health and biodiversity conservation outcomes, often near protected areas. However, as climate change has become a greater global concern, PHED practitioners seek to better understand whether and how these programs bolster adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change impacts. This paper summarizes what is known about PHED programs and their ability to foster adaptive capacity and resilience, drawing three primary conclusions. First, many mechanisms in PHED programs linking human health and livelihoods with biodiversity conservation are also likely to have adaptive capacity and resilience benefits. Second, there may be tradeoffs between achieving biodiversity conservation and climate adaptation objectives. Many of the geographies that are considered most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are not necessarily locations well-suited for PHED programs intended to conserve biodiversity. Third, to improve outcomes, the PHED community should strengthen its understanding of and the evidence supporting the mechanisms linking integrated health and environment programming with improved climate adaptation outcomes.

Keywords: Population, Environment, and Climate Change, Population and Development

See paper.