Project Details
Projekt Print View

FOR 2936:  Climate Change and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa

Subject Area Medicine
Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine
Geosciences
Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Term from 2019 to 2023
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 409670289
 
This interdisciplinary Research Unit (RU) addresses the astonishingly big evidence gap on climate change and health in sub-Saharan Africa. In the first RU phase, we focused on studying the climate change impacts, evaluating potential adaptation strategies to lift those impacts, and projecting both, the health impacts and the potential health-benefits from adaptation strategies, to future climate scenarios. We work in rural Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) in north-western Burkina Faso and south-western Kenya, where undernutrition, cardiovascular heat-stress, and malaria constitute major health problems. In both sites, we evolved the HDSS to climate-ready population observatories with demographic, health, climate, socio-economic, agriculture, and behaviour data of entire population cohorts. The existing models for future climate, climate impacts, and economic effects were tailored to the study locations through downscaling, bias-correction, and nation-wide economic and health data. Historical and prospective links between climate change and the three health outcomes were established, and will be advanced in the second RU phase. Importantly, we will introduce an additional research focus on adaptation measures, providing best-practice examples for designing, implementing and evaluating adaptation strategies that apply technological innovation, behaviour change or policy options. The overarching goal of the second RU phase is to gain in-depth understanding about the effectiveness of local adaptation strategies on health in sub-Saharan Africa – today and under future climate scenarios. We have four specific objectives: i) Identify and quantify potential impacts of future climate change on child undernutrition, malaria and heat stress; ii) Determine the effectiveness and potential socio-economic costs of specific adaptation policies and interventions with respect to reducing climate impacts on child undernutrition, malaria, and heat stress; iii) Quantify the economic effects of climate-related health impacts and adaptation strategies at the national level; and iv) Establish the importance of human mobility for climate change-related health impacts and adaptation strategies. In phase 2, we will integrate human mobility responses in the research agenda, because they play an important role in the nexus of climate change and health in sub-Saharan Africa. Our concerted efforts from health sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences will generate unique evidence for decision making about policy implementation and investments in sub-Saharan Africa in order to mitigate climate change, adapt to the existing consequences, and strengthen the local health systems.
DFG Programme Research Units
International Connection Burkina Faso, Kenya, Switzerland

Projects

 
 

Additional Information

Textvergrößerung und Kontrastanpassung