What This Means
This research systematically searched scientific databases and organizational websites to find programs or interventions that address both climate change and sexual and reproductive health (including maternal care, family planning, HIV prevention, and related issues) in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite conducting a thorough search, researchers found only seven relevant documents — a strikingly small number that highlights how little attention has been paid to this intersection. The few interventions that did exist focused narrowly on maternal and child health and HIV prevention, leaving out many other important areas like gender-based violence, abortion care, and harmful practices.
The review found that climate change programs and sexual and reproductive health programs are largely being run in separate silos, with little coordination between them. The interventions that do exist tend to address indirect pathways rather than directly tackling how climate change worsens reproductive health outcomes. Crucially, no interventions were specifically designed to protect the most vulnerable groups — including women, adolescent girls, and people living with HIV — even though these populations are known to be most at risk when climate-related crises like droughts, floods, or displacement occur.
This research suggests that sub-Saharan Africa, which already faces significant challenges related to climate vulnerability and reproductive health inequities, has a major gap in coordinated policy and programming. The study points to limited funding, weak policy frameworks, and organizational fragmentation as key reasons why this gap persists. Addressing it would require deliberate investments that treat climate change and reproductive health as interconnected problems rather than separate issues managed by different institutions.