The vulnerable bear the brunt of

A global health conference highlighted how women and children are the hardest hit. But there are also stories

‘Climate change is very real. It’s not something about the future. It’s also not … about a few polar bears that are not going to have ice any more to live on,” Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), told the audience.

“It’s actually about the now, and the impact that it’s having on people, particularly the people who are already the most vulnerable, the most marginalised, the poorest in the world. And, of course, women and children are disproportionately affected.”

Swaminathan was speaking at a panel discussion that explored the intersection of gender, climate change and women’s leadership. The discussion was held at the Womenlift Health Global Conference 2024 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the theme “Reimagining Leadership: New Approaches to New Challenges”.

Moderated by Dr Yvonne Maingey-muriuki, the panel included Sareen Malik, executive secretary for the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation, and Dr Debisi Araba, a public policy, innovation and strategy specialist.

Although there have been 28 United Nations Climate Change Conferences, only COP28 included discussions of health, Swaminathan said.

“I think there’s been a huge gap globally. The WHO has been raising the issue of the health impacts of climate change, the health impacts of air pollution, the fact that these [have been] disproportionately borne by women and children for many years now,” she said.

“But it’s only now that the global community

has at least recognised that health impacts are already happening and that the adaptation to climate change, the emphasis, the financing, the attention on adaptation were far behind where they should have been and a lot of people are already suffering impacts.”

According to the UN Development Programme, women and children are 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters than men and, whenever there is a climate hazard, women suffer disproportionately.

“This includes things like increased gender-based violence and intimate partner violence, girl-child marriages going up, teenage pregnancies going up. So everything that we’ve been working to improve, actually, we are seeing a setback,” Swaminathan said.

Natural disasters also increase vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever, foodborne diseases and waterborne diseases. Swaminathan said the impact of heatwaves is “very worrying”.

“Research is now showing that heat exposure to women, particularly outdoor workers, [results in] higher rates of pre-eclampsia, as well as higher rates of stillbirth and premature deliveries. And newborn babies also suffer from it,” she said.

“It’s very clear that the impacts of climate change on human health are already occurring. They’re very real. They are both direct and indirect, seen and unseen, but women are facing a disproportionate burden.”

Water crisis

Malik said climate change is a risk amplifier and water is a resilience multiplier.

“The climate change crisis is a water crisis; the water crisis is a governance crisis. This dark triad has a severe impact on health outcomes. [It impacts] even further [on] women and girls, who are the ones that have the burden of fetching water and all kinds of things that are related to water,” she said.

Malik stressed the need to use legislation for meaningful impact.

“Policies are important, but policies are like a suggestion. You cannot take a policy to court. Law, the rule of law, is absolutely crit

Photo: Christopher Furlong/getty Images Women from the remote Turkana tribe in northern Kenya carry water from a well near Lodwar on 9 November 2009. Some villagers have to walk up to 16km, leaving at 4am to miss the daytime heat, to get fresh water for their families as wells and riverbed pits run dry. More than 23 million people across East Africa are facing a critical shortage of water and food, a situation made worse by climate change.

Photo: Supplied Zuhura Ahmad, a Tanzanian climate activist, stresses the importance of supporting women at the forefront of climate action as a catalyst for lasting change.

Three women collect firewood in India. Women who are exposed to heat have higher rates of stillbirth and delivering premature babies. Photo: Christian Ender/getty Images

Photo: Supplied Sareen Malik says legislation must be used to create meaningful impact when addressing the climate crisis.