FRESH INSIGHTS - When Climate Shakes the System

About This Video

While El Niño is a climate pattern, in Eastern and Southern Africa it is also a health emergency, as droughts and floods drive food insecurity and disrupt livelihoods and health systems, pushing the most vulnerable further to the margins. This report examines what happens when HIV and SRHR are left out of emergency planning, drawing on the 2015/16 and 2023/24 El Niño responses, where damaged clinics, disrupted supply chains and overstretched health workers coincided with heightened risks of HIV, gender-based violence, and early or unintended pregnancy for young people, women, key populations and people living with HIV.  It finds that deliberate integration of HIV and SRHR into emergency response: through multi-month ART dispensing, mobile outreach, integrated HIV-nutrition services, and combined delivery with GBV support, food assistance and cash programmes, improved health outcomes and reached those most often missed, though persistent gaps in coordination, supply chains, guidance and data systems remain.  The report concludes that integration is not optional: HIV and SRHR must be built into emergency preparedness from the start, backed by flexible, long-term financing and communities recognised as leaders rather than just beneficiaries, so that climate shocks do not have to mean deepening inequality.