About Us
Why CHARTer Exists
Background
Climate change is a persistent environmental crisis with wide-ranging consequences across social, economic, and health dimensions throughout the life course. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, newborns, and young children represent a uniquely vulnerable population to the effects of climate change across the entire life course.
Context and Rationale
Significant gaps remain in knowledge and data regarding the impact of heat, drought, precipitation, and air pollution on access to prenatal care, postnatal care services, skilled birth attendance, maternal complications, and newborn outcomes across Africa.
Goal
To document the impacts of climate change on access to and use of prenatal and postnatal care services, as well as on pregnancy outcomes, maternal complications, and maternal and newborn mortality in Senegal and The Gambia.
The Funder: Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome is a globally recognized charitable foundation established in 1936 and based in London, UK. Founded by Sir Henry Wellcome, it is one of the world’s largest health-focused funders, driven by a mission to support science that addresses urgent health challenges worldwide.
COLLABORATION
Partners & Collaborators
Objectives
Policy & Readiness Review
To review existing policies, strategies, and action plans related to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, infant, and adolescent health and nutrition, and to assess their level of readiness for policy and practice change in the context of climate change.
Environmental Impact Assessment
To understand and estimate the impacts of environmental exposures — including heat, drought, and precipitation — on sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, infant, and adolescent health and nutrition throughout the continuum of care in Senegal and The Gambia, through the analysis of existing longitudinal data and health facility data.
Community Voices and Lived experiences
To document community-level understanding of climate change and its impacts on maternal, newborn, and child health; to assess the behaviors, needs, and lived experiences of pregnant women, women of reproductive age, and health care providers through participatory approaches.
Co-Designed Interventions
To co-design interventions with communities and stakeholders on climate change and maternal, newborn, and child health in Senegal and The Gambia.
Policy Communication & Advocacy
To develop a strategic communication plan targeting policymakers in order to disseminate findings and promote evidence-based decision-making regarding policy and practice changes in West Africa, through knowledge sharing, advocacy, and sustained engagement with policy actors.
WHAT WE DELIVER
Expected Results
- Quantify the current and future impacts of exposure to heat, drought, and precipitation on maternal and newborn health and on health systems in Senegal and The Gambia.
- Establish the current situation and lived experiences related to climate change and its impacts on access to prenatal and postnatal care among health care providers and service users.
- Co-design climate change adaptation and resilience measures and strategies that address the specific needs of women, children, and health care providers in Senegal and The Gambia.
- Advocate for scalable, dynamic, and context-specific climate change adaptation policies and practices in both study countries
