Bridging the Climate-Gender-Health Nexus:

A Funder's Starter Guide

Advance Climate-Resilient Health Technologies

The Challenge

Health services, including SRH, become increasingly inaccessible as climate impacts intensify. A summary of the peer-reviewed evidence, published by YLabs in 2024, shows that extreme weather events compromise critical road, energy, and water infrastructure, damages healthcare infrastructure, and strains healthcare workers’ ability to provide quality and timely healthcare. SRH services are often overlooked in recovery efforts, highlighting the urgent need for healthcare and SRHR systems to strategically integrate climate resilience planning.

The Opportunity

In the face of these challenges, local organizations are developing innovative solutions to maintain access to healthcare services during climate emergencies. Supporting and scaling these organizations’ innovative approaches, such as expanding telemedicine, installing sustainable energy in health facilities, and leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for information sharing, can help ensure continuous access to essential health services for women and girls in affected communities.

Recommended Investment Strategies

  • Support organizations to develop and scale innovative climate-responsive health technologies.
  • Expand the availability of telemedicine, counseling, and referrals to SRH services to reach remote populations and ensure access to services during climate emergencies.
  • Invest in technologies that strengthen information-sharing systems to inform communities of the impacts of climate change on SRH and provide proactive recommendations when facing climate disasters.
  • Leverage technologies like AI and data analytics to improve weather forecasting and enhance climate disaster preparedness interventions.
  • Equip and build climate-resilient healthcare facilities, ensuring an SRHR lens is included in climate-change-based health systems strengthening.

Partner Examples

We Care Solar

Promoting safe motherhood and reducing maternal mortality through solar electricity.

Location: Registered 501(c)(3) in the U.S., working globally

About: We Care Solar is an award-winning NGO that leads national health facility electrification programs in multiple countries and advances solar education and lighting programs in schools. We Care Solar equips remote health centers with lifesaving solar power to ensure every woman has access to well-lit health care for safe childbirth.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: The Light Every Birth initiative is building a coalition of government agencies, development partners, and implementing organizations to advocate for and implement clean energy solutions to strengthen maternal healthcare.

Jacaranda Health

Supporting women and new mothers during periods of extreme heat.

Location: Registered 501(c)(3) in the U.S. and a registered NGO in Kenya, working in Kenya, Eswatini, and Ghana

About: Jacaranda Health is a Kenya-based nonprofit that partners with governments to deploy proven, data-driven, and scalable solutions to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes in public health systems. The PROMPTS digital health platform has supported three million mothers through pregnancy in Kenya, and the MENTORS training program has built skills among thousands of frontline maternity nurses. Jacaranda Health uses the data from these programs to amplify women’s voices in the health system and help government partners allocate resources more equitably and effectively.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: Jacaranda Health has been working to overlay qualitative and clinical data from hundreds of thousands of mothers with climate and heat data to show how pregnancy is affected by extreme heat. They will be testing approaches in 2025 to help mothers navigate extreme heat events more safely, train nurses to care for heat-related complications, and work with government partners to adapt health facilities to accommodate heat-affected mothers.

ECO-MAMA

Addressing the mental health impacts of climate change on women in Rwanda.

Location: Social enterprise in Rwanda

About: ECO-MAMA is a Rwandan start-up and its digital platform is ready for investments to scale across the world to serve more women. ECO-MAMA offers a lifeline to women experiencing mental health issues through an AI chatbot, telepsychiatry, and localized education by their trainees. In October 2024, founder Joie Sophia Umuhoza was awarded the Marc Mitchell Award for Leadership and Innovation by D-tree, selected from over 250 applications.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: ECO-MAMA’s Women Warriors Program supports local youth and young women to become advocates for mental health resilience and teaches community climate resilience planning.

HERA Inc.

Helping refugees access healthcare using their mobile phones.

Location: Registered 501(c)(3) in the U.S.

About: HERA’s open-source, AI-powered digital health tools enable refugees to carry their health records, access emergency care, and navigate the local health system. The platform is specially designed for refugee women and children, helping them access routine immunizations and pregnancy care - two of the most vital health services. Their work started in Turkey with Syrian refugees and they are expanding to more countries in the Middle East.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: HERA’s work has supported 180,000 refugees in disaster-affected communities to date.

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