Paper details
| Paper authors | MARKUS BAKAIRA |
| In panel on | Building Climate-Resilient Health Systems in Humanitarian Crises: Examples from Research and Practice |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
Abstract
In the context of climate change, governments and organizations are seeking to minimize vulnerability while optimizing opportunities for sustainable development. This means providing vulnerable individuals and sectors with greater resilience to the impacts of climate change. In the far north of Cameroon and Chad, climate change is increasingly affecting populations, and extreme hydrological events such as floods are becoming more frequent, jeopardizing the health and safety of these populations. Multi-scale responses exist, but the gap between adaptation solutions and the needs and aspirations of communities persists. This sometimes reduces the effectiveness of humanitarian responses to disasters or health risks related to climate change.
This article aims to evaluate community health resilience strategies for climate-displaced people in the far north of Cameroon and Chad. In Cameroon, the study is being conducted in the Logone and Chari department in the Far North region. In Chad, it covers the department of Chari-Baguirmi. This vast valley, drained by the Chari River and its tributary the Logone, is home to a dense population that lives off agrosilvopastoral resources but suffers the effects of climate change every year through increased drought and flooding.
The data collection tools used are questionnaires, interview guides, and focus groups with individuals and organizations, namely health and psychological care service managers, humanitarian coordination actors, and civil society actors. The study is based on a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) approach with random sampling. Biophysical data are collected to characterize environmental dynamics, while GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping and remote sensing methods are applied to model the impacts of climate change and resilience.
This research leads to the characterization and assessment of the social and health vulnerability of communities in resettlement sites, diseases caused or exacerbated by the effects of climate change, the status of interventions, community responses in climate-displaced sites, and opportunities for integrating endogenous knowledge into the process of strengthening community health resilience, the effectiveness of humanitarian actions, and health systems.
