Intersecting Crises and Cross-sector Solutions: Environmental Justice and SRHR

Imagine a woman in her third trimester wading through flood waters toward her nearest clinic, only to find both road and clinic closed, and no midwife available. Will she receive the care she needs in time?

This is just one way that climate emergencies become health risks for girls and women every single day, according to Thoai Ngo of Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. He painted the stark picture during a recent global webinar addressing the intersecting crises of environmental injustice and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Convened by Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters and Columbia University’s Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, this panel brought together leaders to explore cross-sector solutions on the sidelines of the 70th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

Breaking Down Silos 
“Climate change is not just an environmental crisis; it is a reproductive health crisis, a maternal health crisis, and a justice crisis, and our systems are not designed to respond,” said Ngo. “Too much work happens in silos, despite the fact that all of these issues are deeply intertwined.”  

“Environmental policy must be grounded in rights and accountability,” he added. “Women and girls must be at the center of climate response, not in the margins. And the solution must be interconnected. That’s what this panel is about.” 

Decades in the Making
Schaff offered a historical perspective, citing longstanding patriarchal approaches to government and misogynistic devaluing of environmental stewardship. “Protecting communities from pollution has been perceived as feminine,” she said. “We need to ensure that those in the extraction industry don’t wield disproportionate influence.”

Jyothirmai Racherla elaborated on how the polycrisis widens structural inequalities. “SRHR and gender-based violence in a climate change context is mostly neglected,” she said, pointing to the many pending impacts. “Extreme weather events disrupt health systems, limiting access to safe abortion and contraception. Over the next decade, an estimated 14 million women could lose access to contraception—leading to more than 6 million unintended pregnancies, over 2 million unsafe abortions, and around 5,800 maternal deaths.”

Mining Policy Is Health Policy
In Kakamega, Kenya, as in so many other places, mining activity has intensified at a pace regulations cannot match, leading to unintended consequences.

“We have an influx of male migrant workers and settlements, which poses numerous dangers to women and girls,” he said. “Along with pollution, we’re seeing a rise in transactional sex linked to income instability, an increased risk for gender-based violence, and growing demand for STI treatment.”

Communities bear the cost in health risks and economic burden, despite having no voice in land use decision. “We must have a way to integrate gender and health considerations into mining and development policies,” he said.

Leveraging Local Resources
Mankani shared her perspectives as a midwife in a heavily climate-affected Pakistani community, where the population of 60,000 has no access to formal maternal healthcare.

“Here, when sea levels rise, untreated solid waste comes back to people’s homes,” she said. “Fishing-related pollution reduces resources and leads to poor nutrition and neurological challenges with newborns. Extreme heat causes high rates of stillbirth and low birth weight.”

Mankani sees midwives like herself as essential to the solution. “We need to integrate more frontline workers into the system and scale them, so that low-tech, community-based care models remain functional even during disruptions.” This kind of resilient social organizing is the beating heart of climate adaptation in poor communities.

Evidence From the Ground Up
Research on environmental justice and SRHR have come a long way, according to Khalifa. But much work remains. She underscored the need for greater investment in smarter, sustainable, locally owned data systems that can push evidence forward, with communities as the driving force.

She described a current PopFam’s initiative, How We Adapt, that employs an in-depth case study approach in four different communities, in Vietnam, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Mexico to document how people are already adapting to the environmental stressors in their communities. “With mixed-methods like in-depth interviews, photovoice, and community walks, we ask not only how they are impacted, but how are they responding and anticipating.”

“A lot of the disparities are caused by top-down systems,” she said. “Governments draft national adaptation plans and expect that information to filter down, making massive assumptions about who is most affected. We know that programs are much more effective, equitable, and sustainable when communities drive the intervention.”

The Way Forward
Panelists were asked what was needed to reshape agendas around environmental, social, and gender justice. “You can’t forget about building up people power in policy and political settings,” said Schaaf. “A new normal for climate-resistant health systems requires more financing from governments,” added Jyothirmai Racherla.

“We have to push governments to see things form a holistic perspective,” said Maleche. “And we need to involve different groups, like those working on tuberculosis, water, and land issues.”

“We must ensure that extractive industries and local governments keep human rights at the center of negotiations shaping global health and climate resilience investments,” concluded Ngo. “And in an increasingly resource-constrained world, progress will depend on working across disciplines and sectors.”

Watch the full recording: https://www.srhm.org/news/intersecting-crises-and-cross-sector-solutions...

Listen to the full webinar:

On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6tfMnTNVR8U1FmnRvCx31y

On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/intersecting-crises-and-cross-sector-solutions/id1558099164?i=1000756312609