A new project aims to prevent mental health problems and poor nutrition caused by the climate crisis.
Researchers and community co-researchers will investigate how increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events in southern Malawi affect the health and wellbeing of vulnerable rural farming and fishing communities.
The THRIVE team, led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Research Programme (MLW), will work with the Malawian government and Save the Children Malawi to translate their findings into policy change and local action to support those most in need.
Participating communities will implement and evaluate co-created adaptation and resilience strategies in two districts, which will inform the development of Malawi’s first National Health Adaptation Plan and subsequently, district health adaptation plans. The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, aims to build climate-resilient community health systems in vulnerable rural communities affected worst by the escalating climate crisis.
Dr Maryse Kok, Reader in Health Systems and Social Sciences at LSTM and MLW and lead on the project, said: “I’m excited to start the THRIVE consortium, where researchers from various disciplines will work together with communities, local organisations, and policymakers to support community resilience to extreme weather events in Malawi. There is much to learn about the climate – nutrition – mental health nexus, and from people’s lived experience in adapting to the climate crisis.”