Bridging the Climate-Gender-Health Nexus:

A Funder's Starter Guide

Fill Gaps in Climate-SRHR Research and Data

The Challenge

The severe impacts of climate change on women's and girls' health are frequently overlooked and unaddressed in government policies, philanthropic strategies, and health and climate initiatives. Despite growing evidence that climate change disproportionately affects women's and girls’ health in complex ways, the current research agenda primarily focuses on retrospective analyses rather than future projections. This results in considerable gaps in evaluating the real time effects of climate change on critical health issues including abortion, reproductive cancer, and contraceptive use. The limited understanding means that climate-SRHR projects often default to crisis response, communities are ill-equipped to prepare for future climate emergencies, and decision makers lack the data to develop effective policies and investment strategies.

The Opportunity

If you are a funder interested in supporting studies, strategic investment in research and data can uncover and address critical knowledge gaps at the climate-SRHR nexus to support policy formulation and program implementation. Reports like the 2024 scoping review provide an overview of the climate-SRHR research landscape and offer guidance on critically under-researched areas. Beyond a more effective research agenda, investments can also advance efforts to standardize how data is collected and evaluated across the health and climate sectors. By expanding the breadth and depth of research into key issues at the climate-health-gender nexus, policymakers and community leaders can improve climate and health policies and interventions.

Recommended Investment Strategies

  • Support qualitative research that documents the experiences of climate-affected communities to inform evidence-based policymaking.
  • Increase accessibility of communications materials to educate audiences across languages and literacy levels about climate impacts.
  • Develop climate scenario models to project future SRHR impacts with a focus on vulnerable regions and populations.
  • Enable iterative evaluation and measurement of innovative interventions that can enhance climate resilience and health outcomes for vulnerable communities.
  • Establish standardized climate-health-gender indicators across global platforms such as FP2030, Global Financing Facility, and the Global Fund, to measure investment performance and effectiveness.
  • Study the effects of extreme weather conditions on SRHR products, including contraceptive injectables, oral contraceptives, emergency contraception, and condoms to ensure effectiveness.

Partner Examples

*Current or previous Panorama Global grantee

YLabs*

YLabs designs technologies that amplify youth power, agency, and opportunity.

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

About: YLabs is a global design and research organization that creates solutions to amplify youth power, agency, and opportunity. They are a multi-disciplinary team working with youth across 17 countries, reaching over 1.5 million young people in five key focus areas: HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, economic inclusion, and climate resilience.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: YLabs is at the forefront of research at the climate-SRHR nexus. In 2023 YLabs published an evidence hub to help funders and implementers assess and respond to the impacts of climate change on SRHR. The evidence hub features NGOs in various countries that are working at the nexus. Some examples of publications include:

Population Council

Transforming global thinking on critical health and development issues through social science, public health, and biomedical research.

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

About: Population Council is a leading research organization dedicated to building an equitable and sustainable world that enhances the health and well-being of current and future generations. Their research has revealed how climate-related disruptions disproportionately affect women’s access to essential healthcare, identifying critical links between climate change impacts and reproductive health outcomes. Working with governments and health organizations, they ensure these essential services reach affected communities.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: Through initiatives like Population, Environmental Risks, and Climate Crisis, they generate groundbreaking evidence on how climate change affects access to essential SRHR services among the most vulnerable populations:

Ipas

Building cross-movement solidarity and collective action to advance climate, gender, and reproductive justice.

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

About: Ipas partners globally across Africa, Asia, and the Americas to advance reproductive justice by expanding access to abortion and contraception. As a co-founder and co-convener of the SRHR and Climate Justice Coalition, Ipas unites over 100 organizations across 50 countries to drive collective action. Through feminist, participatory research and strategic publications, Ipas builds evidence on how the climate crisis impacts SRHR, identifies vulnerabilities, and advances interdisciplinary collaboration. Ipas shares these findings with partners, governments, and donors to shape effective strategies and research agendas. By partnering alongside communities and health systems, Ipas co-creates adaptive, locally relevant solutions that reduce vulnerabilities and build resilience. This climate justice lens strengthens the resilience of abortion ecosystems and demonstrates SRHR as a vital climate solution to invest in.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: Since 2021, Ipas has led efforts to build evidence and solutions at the intersection of climate, gender, and SRHR:

The Academic Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Policy (ANSER)

An international academic network aiming to build a strong evidence base to inform and shape sexual and reproductive health policies.

Location: Public University in Belgium, working globally

About: ANSER was established in 2016 by Ghent University to strengthen the evidence base that informs and shapes SRHR policies. Today the network includes 50 member institutions from 27 countries.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: ANSER bridges the gap between science and policy through research projects, policy engagement, and innovative training programs.

HIGH Horizons

A research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Research and Innovation programme and UKRI Innovate.

Location: Europe, Africa, Global

About: HIGH Horizons is an international research project on how extreme heat affects pregnant and postpartum women, newborns, young children, and health workers who provide maternal care—an often-overlooked issue in plans for climate action.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: The project’s consortium of scientists is currently researching how to effectively measure and monitor the health impacts of extreme heat on pregnancy, newborns, and health workers in individual countries, across the EU, and globally; developing and testing a heat-health app, Mother Heat Alert, to warn and inform pregnant women and health workers about extreme heat in their area; and adapting health facilities that provide maternal care on limited budgets to reduce indoor temperatures, all while affordably mitigating facility carbon emissions.

Key publications include:

Asian- Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW)

Promoting and defending diverse women’s and young people’s rights and needs, particularly in the areas of sexuality and health.

Location: Registered 501(c)(3) in the U.S. and registered NGO in Malaysia, working in the Asia-Pacific region

About: ARROW is a regional non-profit supporting women and young people with consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. They produce a range of cutting-edge publications that explore SRHR linkages with development issues from a Global South and women’s rights perspective. With support from Women's Fund Asia, UN Women EmPower and the Danish Family Planning Association, ARROW has worked with various partners in Asia and the Pacific on gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, environmental sustainability, and climate change.

Climate-SRHR Spotlight: ARROW is currently focused on civil society organisations from four countries experiencing devastating consequences from climate change: Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines:

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