Climate action and resilience
Our vision: Child sensitive policies and programmes that promote urgent and participatory climate action, sustainable development and enhance the resilience and participation of children.
Challenge
Jamaica faces climate and environmental crises, ranking twenty-first worldwide in exposure and vulnerability to natural risks and disasters. Over the past 30 years, the frequency of natural events related to climate and weather has increased. They include tropical cyclones (storms and hurricanes), excess rainfall, floods, droughts, and landslides, incurring increasing economic and environmental costs.
Considering the potential impact of natural disasters on the development of the country, and the likelihood of these to increase in intensity in the years to come, emergency preparedness, climate change adaptation and resilience-building need to be further enhanced. Measures must include the development of adequate financing strategies for child-sensitive disaster risk and climate change adaptation.
Solutions
Our Climate action and resilience programme aims to address the environmental and socioeconomic drivers of vulnerability for children by
- Strengthening the capacities of the Government and communities to support the development, financing, implementation and monitoring of child-sensitive, gender-responsive climate policies and programmes.
- Strengthening the capacities of national stakeholders on risk-informed programming to better protect children and adolescents from the impact of natural disasters and climate change.
To achieve these goals, we work with various partners on a range of strategies including:
Evidence generation: Generate evidence to demonstrate how children are affected by climate change and disasters and map out existing policies for climate change adaptation.
Technical assistance: Provide technical assistance for the development of child-sensitive climate policies and programmes.
Youth engagement: Support child and youth participation in decision-making processes regarding climate, the environment and disaster risk reduction, including by advocating for the establishment of institutional dialogue mechanisms.
Climate curricula at school: Support improvements to climate curricula at primary and secondary levels so that they are more relevant and action oriented.
Emergency preparedness and response: Support national stakeholders to develop and implement child-sensitive and shock-responsive emergency preparedness and response programme.