From evidence to action

There is incontrovertible evidence that early childhood health and development has long-term consequences for life chances, and there has been global progress in this area in recent decades. Yet this progress risks being stalled or reversed by climate change, with nearly one billion children living in countries at high risk from the impacts of a warming planet with more extreme weather. There is a lack of rigorous research and policy on the effects of climate change on early childhood health and development, especially in the world's poorest countries. This project will begin to remedy that. 

We will generate evidence on this question in a range of counties, especially in the Asia-Pacific and African regions, with the aim of informing and prompting policy to mitigate and adapt in ways that protect children’s health and development, involving affected communities. 

The project has been co-created through transdisciplinary partnerships between climate scientists and early childhood health and development experts at Oxford University, UNICEF, the International Center for Equity in Health (Brazil), and regional early childhood networks in the Asia-Pacific region (ARNEC) and Africa (AfECN). Within Oxford University, project partners include the Blavatnik School of Government; Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics; the School of Geography and the Environment; and the Oxford Human Rights Hub (Faculty of Law). 

The project has four interlinked, cross-cutting aims: 

1) Evidence: Generate new evidence for the impacts of climate change on early childhood health and development 

2) Policy engagement: use the evidence generated to engage policy levers for change, involving affected communities 

3) Visibility: raise global visibility of climate change’s impact on early childhood health and development 

4) Partnerships: Deepen established partnerships for research and policy impact 

We will advance the emerging science of event attribution and develop novel spatial-temporal epidemiological models to explore how climate risks affect early childhood health and development outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. We will use the evidence, engaging with stakeholders in innovative ways, to leverage policy change through local, regional and international mechanisms.

Principal Investigator: Professor Alan Stein 

This project is funded by the Wellcome Trust