REACT (Resilient and Equitable Health Workforce to Address Climate Threats) is an NIHR-funded health research consortium which aims to strengthen the responsiveness of the health workforce against health impacts of climate crisis in Nepal and Zimbabwe. Partners are LSTM, CeSHHAR (Zimbabwe) and HERD International (Nepal).
Why is the REACT consortium needed?
The climate crisis is the biggest threat to human health. Extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts, floods and landslides, are affecting people emotionally and physically. We are seeing increasing instances of malnutrition, respiratory illnesses, maternal and newborn complications, heat-related deaths, and diseases such as malaria. The situation will worsen, with WHO estimating that between 2030 and 2050, climate change will cause around 250,000 additional deaths per year.
The climate crisis is also impacting on people’s ability to access health care and health systems’ ability to provide services. We need health systems that can withstand climate shocks and stresses, and the health workforce is an important part of that response.
Why health workers?
Health workers are well-positioned to talk to people about the climate crisis, to act to protect health and to respond to health needs. However, we know that health workers do not have enough knowledge about climate crisis and its impact on health.
REACT is working to strengthen the responsiveness of the health workforce against health impacts of climate crisis in Nepal and Zimbabwe. We are engaging with stakeholders to ensure that health workers in our two study countries have the relevant knowledge, skills and support to respond to the challenge.
How will REACT work?
Together with health workers, managers, policymakers and communities, including patients and vulnerable groups, we are working to understand the health workers’ situation. What do they know about the climate crisis and its health impacts? How can they respond? What are the communities’ changing health needs and expectations?
Together we are co-creating, testing and evaluating context-specific interventions to help the health workers improve how health facilities react to the health impacts of climate crisis. Participatory action research with qualitative studies, cost analysis, and end-line surveys are being employed to assess the impact of the intervention.
We aim to help develop a resilient health workforce which is better able to cope with the changing health impacts of the climate crisis, and which can ultimately help save lives.
Where is REACT working?
In each country we have chosen an urban and a remote rural setting with ten health facilities in each. Climate events and health impacts, as well as the health workforce itself, will differ across the sites and together offer a range of contexts and challenges for the study. The sites are:
- Ghorahi Sub-Metropolitan City and Chandannath Municipality in Nepal
- Mount Darwin District and Harare Local Authority in Zimbabwe.
Find out more
- LSTM: Prof Joanna Raven
- CeSHHAR: Prof Euphemia Sibanda
- HERD International: Dr Sushil Baral
This project is funded by National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
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Banner photo: Chandannath Rural Municipality, Nepal. Courtesy Ms. Samikshya Singh
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