Catalysing climate change action research for maternal and perinatal health in West Africa: towards evidence-based policy and practice (The CHARTer Project in West Africa)

Our aim is to unveil the impacts of environmental heat exposures such as high ambient temperature, drought, rainfall/flooding on access to antenatal care (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC) services as well as on maternal, newborn and child mortality in Senegal and The Gambia through evidence generation, and public, community and policy engagements, in order to catalyse climate policy and practice change. An interdisciplinary team of researchers and policy experts will review existing maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) related policies, strategies and action plans and assess readiness; analyse historical climate and health data to quantify climate impacts on access to ANC and PNC, and on maternal and perinatal/newborn mortality and model future impact scenarios; conduct primary research to document communities’ understanding of climate change impacts on MNCH and assess behaviours, needs and lived experiences, and engage policy and practice actors to catalyse appropriate climate actions. We will employ qualitative participatory approaches combining environmental data, Health and Demographic Surveillance System and health facility data alongside community knowledge co-production to respond to the climate change and health challenges. We will synthesise the project findings and co-develop a communication strategy with the goals of promoting evidence- informed decision-making for practice, policy and systems change.