child centered approach to climate change

8/3/2019 Child Centered Approach to Climate Change

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The benets o a child-centredapproach to climate change adaptation


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Children are one o

the largest and mostvulnerable groups at riskrom climate change.

A boy fies a kite at a camp orpeople displaced by the devastating2010 foods in Pakistan.

UNICEF/HQ10-2

733/Ramoneda


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UNICEF AND PLANTHE BENEFITS OF A CHILD-CENTRED APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION1

CONTENTS

Executive Summary 2

1. Introduction 6

2. A child-centred approach to climate change adaptation 7

3. The economic argument or a child-centred approach 14

Case studies 20

4. Conclusions and next steps 27

Acronyms and reerences 28

This report was written or UNICEF and Plan International by Courtenay Cabot Venton

Front cover: A girl completes a mathschallenge at a UNICEF-supported child-protection centre set up ater the devastating2010 foods in Pakistan. The foods aected20 million people, hal o them children. UNICEF/HQ10-2871/Noorani


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The benets o achild-centred approach toclimate change adaptation

Climate change, and its impacts on natural andhuman resources, threatens to undermine humandevelopment across the globe. Developing nations,where resilience to shocks is low and livelihoodsare oten highly dependent on natural resources

such as water and land, will be the most aectedby climate change. Within these nations, childrenare perhaps the most vulnerable to the impact oclimate change. Without concerted action, millionso children will be at increased risk rom inectiousdisease, malnutrition, water scarcity, disasters, andthe collapse o public services and inrastructure.The response to the threat o climate change thusdemands a child-centred approach. Many o themeasures that can address childrens vulnerability toclimate change are already well known and are someo the lowest-cost measures available.

The aim o this paper is to present a scoping studythat highlights some o the evidence in an economicargument or a child-centred approach to adaptation.

A girl rom Gonaves, Haiti,stands surrounded by

foodwater ater HurricaneTomas. Gonaves was

also hit by a majorcholera outbreak in 2010.

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A child-centred approach to climatechange adaptation

In order to understand and measure the benets oa child-centred approach to adaptation and disasterrisk reduction, we need to understand our baseline the current and predicted impacts o climatechange under business as usual. Broadly speaking,the impacts o climate change on children can beuseully ramed in terms o the impacts o suddendisasters, and as a result o more gradual and chronicsystemic crises.

Sudden disasters: In the next decade, up to

175 million children are likely to be aected everyyear by the kinds o natural disasters broughtabout by climate change.1The impacts arediverse. Children are unable to attend school intimes o disaster and even beyond, as amiliessend them out or work. Children are at greaterrisk o injury and suer disproportionately romdisease as water, sanitation and ood securityare threatened. The psychological and socialimplicationsare proound as children may beseparated rom parents, lose amily members,be orced into early marriage, or suer romviolence and displacement because o disaster.

Chronic crises: Changes to temperature andprecipitation, because o climate change, areresulting in more systemic changes in naturalprocesses. For example, diminishing groundwatersupplies used or drinking and irrigation purposes,expansion o communicable diseases intonew areas, and intensication o drought anddesertication that result in ood insecurity. Theknock-on eects o chronic crises are wide

reaching or children. In addition to increasesin mortality and morbidity through disease,children miss school as they become tooweak to attend, are required to help with otherhousehold activities as a coping mechanism,or nd themselves having to travel urther orrewood and water as resources dwindle andhence have less time or education. Childrenalso eel the social impacts: or example, whenamilies are divided because one parent has toleave or extended periods to nd work to makeup or losses in traditional livelihoods, or increasingtension and conict over dwindling resourceswithin amilies as well as wider communities.

1 Save the Children, 2007. Legacy o Disasters: The impact oclimate change on children.

A child-centred approach to adaptation and disasterrisk reduction targets activities that help to reducethe vulnerability o children to climate change,

and can include a wide range o activities: suchas structural measures that protect children romdisasters, training and evacuation planning orchildren, or insecticide treated mosquito nets toprevent the spread o malaria.

This approach can be categorised into two types:programmes that ocus specically on childrensneeds reerred to in this report as child targetedpolicy and programming and programmes thatinvolve children in the design and delivery, reerred tohere as child led adaptation.

The economic argumentor a child-centred approach

The economic argument or investing in child-centredapproaches to adaptation can be summarisedas ollows:

1. Children are one o the largest groups at riskrom climate change. Thereore, measures thatspecically target this group have the potential

to reduce the impacts o climate changeacross a large proportion o the population, andmay realise economies o scale. Importantly,child led measures develop skills across a largesegment o the population and over a longertime period.

2. Children are also one o the groups mostvulnerable to the eects o climate change.Thereore, the losses associated withdegradation o health, education and protectioncaused by climate change are high. In turn,

adaptation measures to protect children havethe potential to oset these losses, and realisesignicant economic gains.

3. Many o the interventions that can reducethe vulnerability o children to climate changeare some o the lowest cost options and arealready well established, such as insecticidetreated mosquito nets, and water, sanitationand hygiene training.

In summary, there is a strong economicargument or child-centred approaches:

programmes targeted at reducing thevulnerability o children have the potential orhigh levels o benet at low levels o cost.


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Table 3.1: Analysis o economic benets associated with child-centred adaptation

Category

o beneft

Economic impact Approach to valuing benefts

(per capita)

Additional beneft associated with

child-centred approaches

Health Improved childhoodsurvival rates andimproved health

Lost years o lie due to morbidity/mortalitymultiplied by a measure o income or ayear (or example, wage rates o per capitaGross National Income) to determine thetotal economic loss associated with poorhealth/death.

Children account or a disproportionatenumber o lost healthy years becauseo the greater number o years lostthrough child mortality, the longer-termconsequences o childhood illness andbecause they generally have more yearsahead o them. Thereore each interventionthat targets a child will result in more lieyears saved.

Reduced health carecosts associatedwith injury andillness

Reduced health care costs measuredor instance in terms o the expense o adoctors visit and medicines.

Parents oten have to accompany childrenand thereore cost per child is higher thanor an adult.

Children are more vulnerable to diseasebecause o their developing immunesystem and require specialised treatmentand care. Their injuries and illnesses can bemore severe and long-term and thereorerepresent a greater avoided cost.

Education More time at school Number o school days lost multiplied bythe value o a school day (oten taken ashal o the wage rate).

Education underpins childrens ability tocontribute to society over a lietime, andthereore the benets are realised over alonger period.

Protection andwell-being

Reduced costs ochild rehabilitation

Cost o programmes to rehabilitatechildren.

As with education, child protectionprovides gains over a lietime.

Reduced costs ohumanitarian aid

Where adaptation has reduced the impactso a disaster, the savings in the cost o

humanitarian relie can be counted as aneconomic benet, as those unds can beused or other development purposes.

Because children represent a substantialproportion o the population and because

they have specialised needs, they will alsoaccount or a large percentage o the costo humanitarian relie.

Children cook near a tent camp or peoplelet homeless by the devastating 2010

foods in Pakistan. The camp is ull andcannot accommodate them. The 2010Pakistan foods were the worst in living

memory, aecting up to 20 mil lion peopleand leaving millions o children in need o

immediate, lie-saving assistance.


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1 Introduction

1.1 Children in a changing climate

Climate change, and its impacts on natural andhuman resources, threatens to undermine humandevelopment across the globe. Developing nations,where resilience to shocks is low and livelihoodsare oten very dependent on natural resourcessuch as water and land, will be the most aectedby climate change. Within these nations, childrenare perhaps the most vulnerable to the impacts oclimate change. Without concerted action, millionso children will be at increased risk rom disease,malnutrition, water scarcity, disasters, and the

collapse o public services and inrastructure.2

Chronic crises and sudden disasters related toclimate change disproportionately aect children.First, children make up almost hal o the populationin developing countries, and hence are one othe largest groups aected by climate change.Furthermore, they are one o the groups mostvulnerable to climate change. For example, due totheir physical immaturity, threats such as malaria anddiarrhoea, hunger and malnutrition oten result inmuch higher levels o illness and death among

2 Save the Children, 2009a.

children, particularly those under the age o ve.One o the most signicant consequences is a lossin education due to poor health, lack o money

or school ees, and closure o schools in times odisaster. Children also ace a myriad o threats totheir well-being, as climate change and disasters putstress on amilies, orce migration, and weaken thesaety nets that ensure childrens protection.

The response to the threat o climate change thusdemands a child-centred approach. Many o themeasures that can address childrens vulnerabilityto climate change are already well known, and aresome o the lowest cost measures available. Thesocial, moral and economic arguments or investingin adaptation and disaster risk reduction that targetschildren are very clear and strong. However, mosto the evidence to date has ocused on qualitativediscussions around the social and moral argumentsor targeting children. The aim o this paper is topresent a scoping study that highlights some o theevidence to support an economic argument or achild-centred approach to adaptation, and providesrecommendations or ways to contribute urther tothis important and developing body o work.

A child sleeps surrounded by foodwater at his home in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. An estimated 2.5 million o the provinces3.5 million population were aected by the 2010 disaster.

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2 A child-centred approach to climatechange adaptation

2.1 IntroductionClimate variability and change are already aectingnations across the world, and threaten to undermineprogress towards human development i substantiveaction is not taken. The direct physical impacts oclimate change, including changes to temperature,precipitation, and the requency and intensity oextreme events, are impacting on water availability,agricultural systems, and disease vectors, to namebut a ew. These impacts are having the greatestimpact on the poorest nations, and the children

within these nations are particularly vulnerable.

In order to understand and measure the benets oa child-centred approach to adaptation and disasterrisk reduction, we need to understand our baseline the current and predicted impacts o climate changeunder business as usual. There is a large literatureon the impacts o climate change on children, andthis section highlights some o the key eatures othese eects. The section begins with an overviewo the types o impacts brought about by climatechange categorised into sudden disasters and

chronic crises. Next is a detailed description o thespecic impacts on children in terms o changes tohealth, education, and well-being and protection.

2.2 Sudden disasters and chronic crisesBroadly speaking, the impacts o climate changeon children can be useully ramed in terms o theimpacts o sudden disasters and o more gradualand chronic systemic crises. Clearly, these twocategories o impact do not operate in isolation chronic changes such as eroding ood security can

experience sudden downturns when crops aredestroyed by a food or cyclone.

2.2.1 Sudden disastersOne o the most acute impacts o climate changeon children is through the eects o extreme events.Every year in the next decade, the kinds o naturaldisasters brought about by climate change are likelyto aect up to 175 million children.3The impactsare diverse. Children are unable to attend school indisaster times and even beyond, as amilies sendthem out to work. Children are at greater risk oinjury and suer disproportionately rom disease aswater, sanitation and ood security are threatened;and the psychological and social implications are3 Save the Children, 2007.

high as children may be separated rom parents, loseamily members, orced into early marriage, or suerrom violence and displacement because o disaster.

Extreme weather events such as cyclones, foodsand droughts are among the well-recognisedconsequences o climate change. The scale o theseevents is enormous. Over the last 30 years, morethan 2,150 foods were recorded, claiming more than206,000 lives and impacting some 2.6 billion peopleworldwide. The statistics clearly show thedisproportionate vulnerability o children to climaticevents. 4 Overall, 25 per cent o deaths in thepopulation can be attributed to environmentalactors. Among children under 14, however, thegure rises to 36 per cent.5

2.2.2. Chronic crisesShits in temperature and precipitation becauseo climate change are resulting in more systemicchanges in natural processes. For example,persistent drought diminishes groundwater suppliesor drinking and irrigation, changes in rainall,humidity, temperature and levels o surace waterincrease the penetration o disease vectors such asmalaria into new areas, and intensication o foods,

drought and desertication result in ood insecurity.

The knock-on eects o chronic crises are widereaching or children. In addition to increases inmortality and morbidity through disease, childrenmiss school as they become too weak to attend, arerequired to help with other household activities asa coping mechanism, or nd themselves having totravel urther or rewood and water as resourcesdwindle and hence have less time or education.Children also eel the social impacts, or example asamilies are divided when one parent has to leaveor extended periods to nd wage labour to copewith losses in traditional livelihoods, and tensionand confict over scarce resources increases withinamilies as well as wider communities.

2.3 The impacts o climate change on childrenBoth sudden disasters and chronic crises are alreadyaecting children in multiple ways, as highlightedabove, and these impacts will only intensiy withclimate change. The impacts on children are typicallydescribed according to the ollowing categories:

health, education, and well-being and protection. Theollowing section describes some o the statistics

4 Prss-stn, A. and C. Corvaln.5 Ibid.


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that currently exist in the literature, which help togive an idea o the scale o the problem.

2.3.1 Impacts o climate change on childrens healthOne o the biggest actors contributing to thevulnerability o children, as compared with othergroups, is their susceptibility to disease. Children inthe developing world are already dying on a massivescale rom diseases that are preventable. Everyyear, more than 8 million children die beore theirth birthday6 and 98 per cent o them are born inthe poorest countries o the world.7 These childrenare dying rom diseases like malaria, malnutritionand diarrhoea diseases that could be preventedor treated using relatively simple and low costinterventions such as mosquito nets, provision oclean water, and hygiene training.

Many o these diseases will occur more requentlybecause o climate change, posing a substantialthreat to childrens health, with implications orchildrens development, education, and participationin economic activities. Both sudden disasters andchronic crises contribute to the mortality and

6 UN Inter-agency Group or child mortality estimation, 2010.7 UNICEF, 2008c, pp 89.

morbidity o children. The impacts o climate changeare already apparent or instance, the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) estimates that climate

change was estimated to be responsible in 2000 orapproximately 2.4 per cent o worldwide diarrhoea,6 per cent o malaria in some middle incomecountries and 7 per cent o dengue ever in someindustrialized countries.8 The Stern Review urtherestimated that climate change could lead to anadditional 250,000 child deaths per year.9

MalariaThe impact of malaria on children: Each year, morethan 800,000 people die o malaria, o whom85 per cent are children under the age o 5.10Thevast majority o those aected are in Arica.11 Malariacan contribute to death in young children in threemain ways:

an overwhelming acute inection can kill achild quickly;

repeated inections contribute to thedevelopment o severe anaemia, whichsubstantially increases the risk o death; and

8 WHO, 2002.9 Stern Review on the Economics o Climate Change, 2006.10 UN Inter-agency Group or child mortality estimation, 2010.11 Save the Children, 2008.

A health worker gives water to a child being treated orcholera in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In 2010 a series o disastersravaged the health o Haitian children.

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low birth weight (LBW), a requent consequenceo malaria inection in pregnancy, is the majorrisk actor or death in the rst month o lie.

In addition, repeated inections make young childrenmore susceptible to other common childhood diseases.12

The impacts o malaria and other vector-bornediseases are a loss o education, inability to contributeto household activities and, in the extreme cases,death. The impacts aect the rest o the amily, asparents and siblings spend time caring or a sick child,orcing them to abandon other household oreconomic activities. One study o malaria looked athistorical data and suggests that the economies ocountries with a high incidence o malaria grew1.3 per cent per year less between 1965 and 1990(ater discounting other infuences on growth), andthat a 10 per cent reduction in malaria was associatedwith 0.3 per cent higher growth per year13.

Malaria and climate change: As temperature andprecipitation patterns change, experts expect theconditions or the transmission o vector-bornediseases to expand into new areas, bringing thethreat o diseases such as malaria and dengue ever

to previously unaected communities. Studiessuggest that, due to climate change, the percentageo the worlds population exposed to malaria willincrease rom 45 per cent to 60 per cent in the next100 years.14 Overall, an additional 260 million to320 million people could be aected by malaria by2080 because o its movement into new areas.15Climate change will also aect the transmission oother vector-borne diseases such as dengue ever an additional 2 billion people will be at risk o denguetransmission by 2085.16

Hunger and malnutritionThe impact of hunger and malnutrition on children:In 2009, around 2.7 million children under theage o ve died rom the eects o malnutrition17,accounting or 35 per cent o childrens deaths18.Thirteen million babies are born malnourished,and these babies are eight times more likely to diethan a baby with a good birth weight.19 Repeatedexposure to disasters whether rapid-onset

12 Mills, A. and Shillcutt, S. 2004.13 Gallup, J. L., and Sachs, J. D., 2001.

14 Watterston, T and Lenton, S., 1997.15 Obama, B., 2007.16 Hales, S. et al, 2002. pp 830834.17 UN Inter-agency Group or child mortality estimation, 2010.18 Save the Children, 2009b.19 Black, R. et al., 2008, pp 243.

such as foods, or slow-onset such as drought ordesertication increases the likelihood o a childbecoming chronically malnourished. The long-term

implications o chronic malnutrition, or stunting, havea proound eect on childrens mental and physicaldevelopment and these impacts are irreversible aterthe rst two years o a childs lie.20 Children whosurvive malnutrition are more vulnerable to inection,suer rom stunted growth, and experience impairedcognitive development. In the long term, they doless well in school, earn less as adults and hencecontribute less to the economy.21 Furthermore,malnutrition undermines resilience, and increasesthe risk o populations to subsequent shocks, as theyhave ewer reserves to withstand the impacts.

Malnutrition in a population reduces gross domesticproduct (GDP) by an estimated 36 per cent andcosts billions o dollars in terms o lost productivityand health care spending.22 Globally, studiesestimated that the direct cost o child hunger andmalnutrition is between US$20 billion and $30 billionper annum.23 A study o early childhood developmentin developing countries estimated that stuntingcaused by chronic malnutrition resulted in a reductiono 20 per cent in average annual earnings.24

Malnutrition and climate change: Food securityis aected by a confuence o actors, includingdisasters, armed confict, economic pressures,climate change and climate variations. Climaticchanges in temperature and precipitation, as wellas the impacts o extreme events such as droughtand foods, are resulting in ailures o many crops,introduction o new pests, and loss o waterresources or irrigation. There is also an eect onlivestock, as grazing lands change and deteriorate.The eect on humans is increasing levels o hungerand malnutrition. It is estimated that by 2050 therewill be 25 million more malnourished childrenbecause o climate change.25

DiarrhoeaThe impact of diarrhoea on children: Diarrhoea,despite being easily preventable, accounted or thedeath o 1.2 million children under ve years oldin 2009.26 Most cases o diarrhoea in children arecaused by inadequate sanitation, poor hygiene, and20 Save the Children, 2008.

21 Save the Children, 2009b.22 Ibid.23 Global Framework or Action, 2006.24 Grantham-McGregor, S. et al, 2007.25 Nelson G.C. et al, 2009.26 UN Inter-agency Group or child mortality estimation, 2010.


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unsae drinking water.27 Diarrhoea is by no meansthe only water-borne disease that is prevalent in low-income countries, but it is certainly one o the most

deadly, and hence is the ocus o this discussion.

Diarrhoea and climate change: Climate change willexacerbate the causes o diarrhoea through, orexample, contamination o drinking water and poorhygiene because o natural disasters such as foods.An estimated 85,000 deaths due to diarrhoea areattributed to climate change.28 Estimates suggestthat, due primarily to the eects o climate change,cases o diarrhoea are predicted to increase bybetween 2 per cent and 5 per cent by 2020 incountries with a per capita income o below $6,000.29In some parts o Arica, cases o diarrhoea couldincrease by as much as 10 per cent. In addition,outbreaks o water-borne diseases such as cholerawill become more prevalent.30

2.3.2 Impacts o climate change onchildrens educationEducation is clearly a critical component o a childsupbringing, and every child has a right to educationas laid out in international standards. Yet educationis one o the rst activities abandoned in times o

disaster or hardship.

In the case o slower onset disasters and stresses,it is well established that when amily livelihoodssuer and asset bases are eroded, childrenbecome the risk management strategy they maybe increasingly absent rom school or drop outaltogether to increase their role in domestic tasks orincome generation.31

Emergencies oten disrupt education, as schoolsclose or become shelters or a stricken population.In addition, slower-onset changes aggravated byclimate change such as sickness, malnutrition, oodinsecurity, and migration degrade childrens capacityto learn. For example, UNICEF estimates that childrenlose 272 million school days due to diarrhoea alone.32While the International Labour Oce reports thata third o reugees, asylum seekers, and internallydisplaced people are children o school age.33

The economic impacts can be signicant. A WorldBank study ound that increasing the number o27 World Health Organization, 2007.28 Save the Children, 2009a.29 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007.30 Save the Children, 2009a.31 Polack, E., 2010.32 UNICEF, 2010b.33 International Labour Oce, 2010.

women with secondary education by one per centincreases a countrys entire annual per capita incomeby an average o 0.3 per cent.34

2.3.3 Impacts o climate change on childrenswell-being and protectionBoth sudden disasters and chronic crises relatedto climate change urther aect childrens well-being and protection in a myriad o ways. In thecase o sudden disasters, the implications areoten more acute and visible, as amilies are tornapart, relocated, or orced to migrate. Because otheir age and dependency on others, children areparticularly susceptible at times o disaster, as saetynets ail and children are oten orphaned or amiliesno longer have resources to protect children. Asa result, children ace heightened risks, includingpsychological distress, physical harm, tracking,exploitation and gender-based violence. Womenand children account or more than 75 per cent odisplaced people ollowing natural disasters.35

Many o the implications are similar with moregradual climatic changes, or example ascommunities migrate in search o water or land.The social implications are also high, as the stress

and trauma o these events erodes condence andundermines a sense o saety and protection.

The scale o the problem is big: every year, anestimated 1.2 million children are tracked acrossborders or within countries or the purposes oexploitation, including as cheap child labour36; andaround 215 million children worldwide are engagedin child labour.37 While not all o these cases willbe directly related to climate change and disasters,these events are an important part o the problem.

Girls are particularly vulnerable, as they are exposedto additional orms o exploitation, such as earlymarriage and prostitution. In developing countries,girls rom the poorest households are three timesas likely to get married beore the age o 18 thangirls rom the wealthiest quintile.38 And in times odrought, girls have to travel arther or etching water,leaving them exposed to greater threat.

34 Dollar & Gatti, 1999.35 UNICEF, 2008b.36 International Labor Organization, 2002, p.32.37 International Labour Oce, 2010.38 UNICEF, 2010a.


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2.4 What is a child-centred approachto adaptation?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) denes adaptation to climate change asan adjustment in natural or human systems inresponse to actual or expected climatic stimuli ortheir eects, which moderates harm or exploitsbenecial opportunities. In other words, adaptationis any spontaneous or planned action taken to copewith the impacts o, or reduce vulnerability to,climate change. As such, adaptation represents awhole host o activities, rom reducing vulnerabilityto disasters through early warning systems and

equipping communities, to introducing alternativelivelihoods that are not as dependent on naturalresources or modiying agricultural practices to bebetter suited to a drier climate. In act, adaptationis oten development that specically ensuresthat populations have options to respond toclimate threats.

It thereore ollows that a child-centred approach toadaptation targets activities that help to reduce the

vulnerability o children to climate change. A childocused or child-centred approach to adaptationcan be categorised into two types: programmes

that ocus specically on childrens needs, reerredto in this report as child targeted policy andprogramming; and programmes that involve childrenin the design and delivery, reerred to as child ledadaptation.

Many o the potential solutions or reducingvulnerability o children are largely low cost andalready well known. For example, i all childrenin high-risk countries were to sleep under aninsecticide-treated net, the threat o vector-bornediseases would be substantially reduced.39 Diarrhoeaand cholera are easily treatable with antibiotics andlow-cost oral rehydration therapy, yet millions ochildren lack access to these lie-saving interventions.In education, abolishing school ees, providing cashtransers to poor amilies and introducing water,sanitation and hygiene programmes in schools arekey actions known to boost school enrolment andattendance40, contributing to greater resilience todisasters and hardships.

39 Global Health Council, Interventions in Health, www.globalhealth.org/child_health/interventions/40 UNICEF, 2010a.

A mother and child reugee at a UNICEF-supported eeding centre inDarur, Sudan.

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Table 2.1: Matrix o child targeted and child led adaptation 41

Child targeted policy andprogramming

Child led adaptation

Defnition Policy and programming that respondsto the needs o children as recipientsor beneciaries.

Participatory policy and planningwhere children are actively engagedin decision-making, planning andaccountability processes.

Types o adaptation activities.For example

School eeding programmes

Social protection/cashtranser measures

Structural strengtheningo school buildings

Child-led awareness raisingthrough multimedia

Disaster risk reduction programmesintegrated into school curriculum,such as risk mapping and planningwhat to do in an emergency

Small scale child-led risk reductioninterventions, such as tree planting,water testing and mapping.

41 UNISDR, 2011 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, 2011.

Table 2.1 highlights just a ew examples o the typeso adaptation activities that might be termed aschild targeted policy and programming, and those

that are more child led.

It is also important to note that a child-ocusedapproach does not necessarily have to occur at acommunity level. Clearly many activities take placewithin the community, such as school initiativesocused on disaster risk reduction, training, and rstaid. However, child ocused approaches can alsooccur at a national level in terms o strengtheningpolicy and legislation that builds protection orchildren, and at an international level throughintegrating childrens voices into negotiations onclimate change, or instance.


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2.5 The benets o achild-centred approach

The benets o employing adaptation options thatreduce child vulnerability are ar reaching. Thissection provides a qualitative description o the ullrange o benets associated with a child-centredapproach, providing a basis or Section 3, whichtakes a greater ocus on the economic argument.

The ollowing diagram42 uses our categories inrelation to potential outcomes rom children arisingrom a child-ocused approach to both adaptationand disaster risk reduction survival, development,

protection and participation to highlight the benetso such an approach.

42 The diagram has been adapted rom Plan International,A Children centred adaptation o the characteristics o a disasterresilient community.

POTENTIAL OUTCOMES:

Survival:Prevention o disease among children beore, during and ater disasters.Reduction in injury and loss o lie among children during disasters.Nutrition and inant health care addressed in regards to chronic extensive risks

Development:Increased condence and skillsIncreased ability to express themselvesLeadership skillsImproved school attendance and achievementAble to resume schooling more quickly ater disastersEnsure childrens ability to play as part o social development

Protection:More positive view o lieTake better care o themselvesLess likely to join gangsIncreased protection o children beore, during and ater disasters (including risks o

exploitation, abduction, recruitment into ghting orces, sexual violence,

labour migration)Opportunity to express their emotions ollowing traumatic events.

Participation:Increased credibility with adultsImproved status o children within the communityAn increased sense o belonging and doing something good or the communityChildren who have participated elected as youth leadersChildren initiate their own disaster risk reduction, adaptation and broader

development activitiesIncreased participation o children in community risk reduction and adaptation activities

INPUT:

Child-ocused andchild-led activitiesthat aim to ensureaccess to education,health, protectionand well-beingor children


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3 The economic argument or achild-centred approach

3.1 IntroductionThere is clearly a social and moral argument orinvesting in adaptation that specically addressesthe needs o children. There is also a clear economicargument. Reducing childrens vulnerability to theaects o climate change delivers economic benetsto children, their amilies and the wider economyand community by reducing the burden o disease,helping children to participate in amily livelihoods,and increasing school enrolment. This section aimsto provide a greater evidence base or the economic

benets o a child-centred approach to adaptationand disaster risk reduction, demonstrating the valuethat such an approach can provide, using bothqualitative and quantitative evidence, to the extentthat they are available.

As described previously, child-centred approachescan be divided into two categories o activity programmes that target children and programmesthat are child led. Both approaches bring benets.However, in the case o adaptation that is childled, detailed evidence is lacking in relation to the

economic benets. Nonetheless, evidence romboth approaches is used to support the economicargument presented below, to the extent possible.

3.2 Summary o the economic argument or child-centred approachesThe economic argument or investing in child-ocused approaches to adaptation can besummarised as ollows:

1. Children make up one o the largest groups

aected by climate change, and thereoremeasures that specically target this grouphave the potential to reduce the impacts oclimate change across a large proportion o thepopulation and may realise economies o scale.Importantly, measures that are child led willdevelop skills across a large segment othe population.

2. Further to this, children are also one o thegroups most vulnerable to climate change,and thereore the losses associated with theclimate change-related impacts to their health,education and protection are high. In turn,adaptation measures to protect children havethe potential to oset these losses, and realisesignicant economic gains.

3. Many o the interventions that can reducethe vulnerability o children to climate changeare some o the lowest cost options and are

already well known, such as insecticide treatedmosquito nets or water, sanitation andhygiene training.

Hence, there is a strong economic argument orchild-centred approaches programmes targetedat reducing the vulnerability o children have thepotential or high levels o benet at relatively lowlevels o cost.

Each o these points is discussed in greater detailbelow, with supporting evidence where available.

1. Children make up one o the largest groups atrisk to climate change, and thereore measures thattarget this group have the potential to reduce theimpacts o climate change on a large scale.

The risk o a group o people to the eects oclimate change impacts can be described in twocomponents. The rst component is the exposureo a group to the impacts o climate change or

example, a particular area will be considered moreat risk to climate change i it has a high populationdensity o people exposed to that risk. Accordingto the World Banks World Development Indicators,nearly 40 per cent o the more than 845 millionpeople in low-income countries in 2009 werechildren under the age o 15.43 Save the Childrenurther estimates that children make upapproximately 50 per cent o people aectedby disasters.44

Children are one o the largest groups o peopleaected by climate change and disasters, anduture generations are set to bear the brunt othe consequences o climate change. Hence, anymeasures that target them as a group have theability to oster resilience in a large portion o thepopulation, and may realise economies o scale.Similarly, those measures that are built around childparticipation are drawing on a large population oreecting change.

Childrens participation can be acilitated in a variety

o ways. For example, the role o children in disasterrisk reduction/adaptation can include:

43 http://databank.worldbank.org/44 Save the Children, 2007.


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Analysers o risk and risk reduction activities; Designers and implementers o disaster risk

reduction/adaptation at a community level;

Communicators o risk; Mobilisers o resources and action; Constructors o social networks; and Monitors o progress.45

Importantly, one o the strongest economicarguments or child-led adaptation is that theremay be lower costs or the inclusion o children inadaptation activities as compared with adults. Forexample, child led adaptation that is integrated asa part o school curriculums may have a lower unitcost, and has the ability to transmit learning andknowledge to a large proportion o the population.Box 3.4 describes a project in Tajikistan, wherestudents learned to take water samples to testtheir water quality, and make community decisionson that basis. Within a short time, it was possibleto generate a comprehensive map o hundreds oschools and communities where water quality wasidentied an achievement that would have requiredconsiderable time and money i it were donethrough surveyors.

2. Children are one o the groups most vulnerableto the eects o climate change, and thereoreadaptation measures to protect children have thepotential or signicant economic gains.

The second component o risk is the vulnerability othe group exposed to the eects o climate change in other words, populations will be most at risk tothe eects o climate change where exposed groupshave the least resilience to these changes.

Children are clearly one o the groups mostvulnerable to the eects o climate change becauseo their physical, cognitive and physiologicalimmaturity. A UNICEF report highlights that childrenare particularly vulnerable because their physicalcharacteristics, childhood activities and naturalcuriosity put them at greater risk rom environmentalhazards.46They are more susceptible to disease, andare more likely to die rom climate related disease.

I they survive, the impacts o disease can be

irreversible and have economic impacts that continuethroughout lie. Research ndings increasingly

45 Plan International, 2010.46 UNICEF, 2008a.

point to the critical imprints that childhood health,nutrition, and education leave on long-term adultmental and physical health and the ability to

contribute to a sustainable society.47

For example,the Copenhagen Challenge Paper on hunger andmalnutrition states that malnourished childrenscore more poorly on tests o cognitive unction,have poorer psychomotor development and nemotor skills, have lower activity levels, interact lessrequently in their environments and ail to acquireskills at normal rates.48 According to the ChallengePaper on malaria, although evidence is limited, itis likely that malaria signicantly aects intellectualdevelopment and since variations in reasoning ability,cognitive skill, and years o schooling are consideredto be important determinants o uture variationsin productivity and earnings o individuals, theeconomic impact is likely to be signicant.49

As a result o children being highly vulnerable, thepotential losses associated with climate change anddisaster impacts are high. Equally, any measures thatprotect children (whether this is achieved throughactivities that are child led or programmes that arechild-ocused) will oset these losses. It stands toreason that where climate change losses are high,

measures that avoid those losses result in signicanteconomic gains. In addition, these gains are likely tobe realised over a longer time rame: where childrenare proactively involved in adaptation and disasterrisk reduction activities, they carry that knowledgeand learning with them or lie and, because they areyoung, the benets o that learning will be realisedover more years than an older counterpart.

The previous section describes a range o benetsrom adaptation that can be described in qualitativeterms changes in health, education, and protectionand well-being. Not all o these bring economicgains, or the gains are hard to value or monetise.For example, changes to well-being such asincreased condence may result in economicgains rom greater success in work in the longerterm, but the causality is hard to dene and thevalue o increased condence dicult to quantiy.Nonetheless, there are a number o specic contextswhere it may be possible to derive an estimate othe economic benet. For example, i a DisasterRisk Reduction (DRR) programme were able to

reduce the number o children becoming soldiers or47 Children in a Changing Climate, Children and Disasters:Understanding Impact and Enabling Agency, 2011.48 Behrman, J., et al, 2004.49 Mills, A. and Shillcutt, S., 2004.


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prostitutes, it could be possible to value this benetin terms o the cost avoided to rehabilitate and/orprovide health care or those children.

Table 3.1 describes the key economic impacts ochild-ocused adaptation, the approach that couldbe used to value these impacts, and some o theadditional economic benets that are associated withtaking an approach to adaptation that is specicallyocused on beneting children.

Table 3.1: Analysis o economic benets associatedwith child-centred adaptation

Category obeneft

Economic impact Approach to valuing benefts(per capita)

Additional beneft associated withchild-centred approaches

Health Improved rateso child mortalityand morbidity

Lost years o lie due to morbidity andmortality (dened as DALYs see boxbelow) multiplied by a measure oincome or a year (or example, wagerates o per capita Gross NationalIncome), to determine the totaleconomic loss associated with poorhealth/death.

Children account or a disproportionatenumber o DALYs, because o thegreater number o years lost throughchild mortality, the longer-termconsequences o childhood illness,and because they generally have moreyears o l ie ahead o them. Thereoreeach intervention that targets a child willresult in more DALYs saved.

Reduced healthcare costsassociated withinjury and illness

Reduced health care costs measuredor instance in terms o the expense oa doctors visit and medicines.

Parents usually have to accompanychildren on visits to hospital or doctorand thereore avoided cost per child ishigher than or an adult.

Children are more vulnerable todisease because o their developingimmune system and require specialisedtreatment and care. Their injuries andillnesses can be more severe and long-term and thereore represent a greateravoided cost.

Education More time atschool

Number o school days lost multipliedby the value o a school day (oten takenas hal o the wage rate).

Education underpins childrens ability tocontribute to society over a lietime, andthereore the benets are realised overa longer period.

Protectionand well-being

Reduced costs ochild rehabilitation

Cost to provide programmes thatrehabilitate children.

As with education, child protectionbrings gains over a lietime.

Reducedhumanitarianaid costs

Where adaptation has reduced theimpacts o a disaster, the savings inthe cost o humanitarian relie canbe counted as an economic benet,as those unds can be used or otherdevelopment purposes.

Because children represent a substantialproportion o the population, they willalso account or a large proportion othe costs o humanitarian relie.


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An animal carcass lies on the ground indrought-aected Wajir, north east Kenya.

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3. Many o the interventions that can reduce thevulnerability o children to climate change are some

o the least cost options and are already well known.Clearly, there is a wide array o adaptation optionsthat can be taken to protect populations rom theeects o climate change. In some cases, theoptions required are high cost, or example structuralmeasures such as building dykes and dams toprotect shorelines rom sea-level rise and otherextreme events. However, in the case o children,many o the actions required are simple and lowcost. This is true or child-targeted interventions andchild-led interventions, where the evidence suggests

that these programmes may be lower cost as theycan be integrated with existing school projects, buildon existing systems, and maximise outreach romschool to the wider community, or example.

Table 3.2 below highlights a range o potential child-ocused adaptation options that can help to address

child vulnerability to climate change in the areas ohealth, education, and protection and well-being.The list is by no means exhaustive, but helps tohighlight the myriad o options available. Clearly,the cost o options will be context specic nonetheless, it is possible to make some genericassumptions regarding interventions that are typicallylower cost, and these are highlighted in bold to helpillustrate the point. The table is ollowed by severalboxes that describe practical examples o the waysin which child ocused adaptation interventions canbe simple and low cost, but with powerul results.

The most commonly used measure o the economicloss that comes about through increased mortality andmorbidity is a Disability Adjusted Lie Year (DALY).This measure describes the cost o the death o a childin terms o the years o lie lost. Similarly, when a childis unable to participate actively in education, work, andamily lie as a result o illness or disability, the measuredescribes the cost as years lost due to disability.The sum o these two measures is a DALY. One DALYcan be thought o as one lost year o healthy lie.

Children account or a large proportion o the total DALYs

in the global burden o disease because disasters andclimate change disproportionately aect children andbecause the loss o a child represents the loss o alietime o contribution to society.

The World Health Organization (WHO) classies causeso death into three groups:

Group I includes communicable, maternal, perinataland nutritional conditions;

Group II includes non-communicable diseases; and Group III includes injuries.

In 2004, the causes o death in Group I accounted or 89

per cent o deaths to children under fve.1 Importantly,

Group I is also the area that will experience the greatest

increase as a result o climate change.

1 United Nations Population Facts, 2010.

The WHO also compiles data by age group on the DALYsthat are lost in each o these categories. The data or2004 was extrapolated to look at DALYs or children inlow-income countries, and the ndings help to highlightthe potential impact o climate change on children in thiscase through the lens o the disease burden on children.The ndings not only demonstrate the disproportionateimpact o the disease burden on children, but thesegures will only become more pronounced as climatechange exacerbates the health burden.

Low-income countries lose approximately

1.5 billion DALYs, or years o healthy lie, as a resulto poor health/death. Within these countries, children (ages 0-14)

account or 58 per cent o lost years o healthy lieor all causes o death.

Group 1 - communicable diseases and so on contains the vast majority o health issues that willbe exacerbated by climate change. Within this,children account or 78 per cent o years o lost lie.

And perhaps the most startling gure o all, thelost years o healthy lie to children because ocommunicable diseases alone accounted or49 per cent o the total global burden o disease inlow-income countries.

Adapted rom WHO (2008). Global Burden o Disease,2004 Summary Tables. http://www.who.int/evidence/bod

Climate related child DALYs


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UNICEF AND PLANTHE BENEFITS OF A CHILD-CENTRED APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION19 UNICEF AND PLANTHE BENEFITS OF A CHILD-CENTRED APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION 19

Table 3.2: Examples o child-centred adaptation and disaster risk reduction interventions

Category Examples o Child-Centred interventions

Education Structural measures, or example retrotting o schools to withstand impacts o disasters andto improve access to schools (or example, routes to school raised above food levels)

Community unds targeted at school ees (see Box 3.2) Integration o disaster risk reduction/adaptation activities and environmental education into

school curriculum Youth-led community risk mapping School-based programmes such as early warning systems, gardening

Health Community based water management programmes, such as rainwaterharvesting, chlorination

Improved access to health services Access to anti-malarial treatment and insecticide-treated mosquito nets Household water treatment Training on rst aid, water, sanitation and hygiene Draining stagnant water Improved sanitation options Mapping o water sources (see Box 3.4)

Protection and Well-being Community projects such as clearing drains to reduce water logging, raising o embankments Teaching children to swim, evacuation techniques (see Box 3.3) Tree planting (see Box 3.5) Advocacy training, programmes to give children and youth a voice Social protection, psychological-and social support Saety net interventions to help prevent dislocation and exploitation o children Engaging children in raising awareness through multimedia

Girls carry large bottles o waterin a camp or people displaced bythe 2010 foods in Pakistan.

UNICEF/HQ10-1635/Ramoneda


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In Niger, community gardens ensure that children have nutritious ood and a better balanced diet.Garden harvests are stored to help amilies survive the long o-season, and children have rst call onharvested vegetables. When the gardens yield an excess, the vegetables are sold in the market, and themoney deposited in a womens community bank account, which can be used to buy medicine, pay orschool ees and uniorms, and buy basic staples.

Source: UNICEF, Climate Change and Children

C AS E S TUDY 1 :Community gardens in Niger


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Drowning is the leading cause o death among children age 117 in Bangladesh. Each year,approximately 17,000 children in this age group drown. Better supervision and basic swimming lessonscan prevent most o these child deaths . For Bangladeshi children age 517, teaching them to swim is acrucial survival skill. Swim or Lie is a programme designed to provide lie-saving swimming and watersaety skills or children age 410.

Source: Rahman, A. et al., Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey Report on Children, Ministry o Health and Family Welare, Bangladesh, Instituteo Child and Mother Health, Bangladesh, UNICEF Bangladesh and The Alliance or Sae Children, Bangkok, January 2005, . In UNICEF, Climate Change and Children: A human securitychallenge. 2008.

C AS E S TUDY 2 :Swimming and water skills in Bangladesh


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Providing clean water to schools is a big challenge in Tajikistan. Diarrhoea and typhoid are prevalentbecause o the lack o clean water and basic sanitation. For instance, children oten drink water romditches because there is no clean drinking water. Cases o diarrhoea and typhoid are likely to increasebecause o climate change, and any measures that reduce their impact on the population will help toimprove resilience.

In order to improve the situation, it was important to have a ull picture o the conditions and quality owater in schools and communities. This was not easy, since the lack o clean water and basic sanitationis widespread, especially in rural areas. A UNICEF-initiated school-based hygiene and sanitation projectaccomplished extensive, reliable water testing, led by children as researchers who sought to assess thequality o water at their schools and communities on a weekly basis.

The results were interesting and useul. Within a short time, it was possible to generate acomprehensive map o the quality o water and sanitation in hundreds o schools and communities, anachievement that would have required considerable time and money i done through surveyors.

The results surprised many communities, as tests ound contamination in wells thought to be sae.The child researchers became community hygiene promoters, raising awareness o the danger odrinking untreated water, introducing the practice o boiling contaminated water beore use, andadvocating or better sanitation acilities in and around water sources. The inormation was alsocoordinated with district health ocials and became useul in making decisions on where the prioritieswere in bringing sae water and sanitary acilities to schools and communities.

Source: Goodman, D., Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education: Children and adolescents leading the way in Tajikistan, Case Study, UNICEFNew York/Tajikistan, 2005, available at . In UNICEF, Climate Change and Children: A humansecurity challenge. 2008.

C AS E S TUDY 3 :School-based water testing in Tajikistan


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Teguis is one o 17 barangays (an administrative division) o Poro, a municipality o 21,500 inhabitants onCamotes island in the province o Cebu, central Philippines. The main economic activities are armingand shing. Children in Teguis learned about the importance o protecting local ecosystems in their localdisaster risk reduction group.

When childrens groups in Teguis conducted their vulnerability and risk assessment exercise, one o therst things they noted was that mangrove orests were being cut down or charcoal. Mangroves aretrees or shrubs that protect coastal areas rom erosion, storm surges (especially during hurricanes), andtsunamis. Mangroves can absorb up to 90 per cent o the orce o wind during a storm. In the atermatho the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, studies revealed that mangrove orests played a crucial role in savinglives and property, yet mangroves are among the most threatened habitats worldwide. The trees shield

the land rom wind, and trap sediment in their roots, maintaining a shallow slope on the seabed thatabsorbs the energy o tidal surges. They are also one o the astest absorbers o carbon dioxide; onetree can absorb 0.35 kilogrammes o the gas a year. Mangroves are also a great spawning ground orsh and thereore oer livelihood opportunities or local communities.1

The children o Teguis realised that the destruction o the mangroves posed a huge risk or theircommunity. A group o 20 girls and boys decided to act by spearheading a mangrove rehabilitationcampaign to restore their local ecosystem.

With support rom Plan and the Teguis Farmers Association, the childrens groups were able to educateothers on how to protect mangroves. They shared their views at community meetings, used localmedia to raise awareness and distributed simple yet scientically sound inormation, education andcommunication materials stressing the importance o osetting the impacts o climate change byprotecting the communitys natural resources. They also ormed teams to replant mangrove trees.In seven months, the children planted 100,000 mangrove trees covering 10 hectares o land.

The children in Teguis are an example o the important role young people can play in risk communicationand promoting behavioural change to reduce disaster risks. Childrens sense o responsibility to protecttheir uture is an invaluable resource. The Children Associations President, a 15-year-old girl calledSharmaine declared, It is very important that we do this, so that when we grow old we can say wevebeen a part o the movement against climate change.

Source: Plan International, 2010. Child-centered Disaster Risk Reduction: Building resilience through participation.

1 Environmental Justice Foundation, 2006, http://www.ejoundation.org/pd/tsunami_report.pd

CASE STUDY 4 :Children protect mangroves in the Philippines


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Summary:There is a strong economic argument orchild-centred approaches to adaptation approachestargeted at reducing the vulnerability o children have

the potential or high levels o benet oset by lowlevels o cost.

The evidence presented above suggests that thebenets o child-ocused approaches to adaptationare likely to be high because children are numerousand experience the impacts o climate change moreacutely than other groups and over a longer period,the avoided losses associated with adaptation toboth sudden disasters and systemic climate changeare signicant. And the literature is also clear thatmany o the interventions that are required to achievethese gains are low-cost, well-known activities. Forexample, insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) arelow cost, and yet have been shown to reduce overallchild mortality in children under age 5 in Sub SaharanArica by 19 per cent.50These two arguments holdtrue, generally speaking, across interventions inhealth, education, and well-being and protection.

Clearly, the value o investing in child-ocusedapproaches to adaptation will dier depending on thecontext. There is no one size ts all approach to

adaptation, and hence measures will have dierentcosts depending on the context in which they areused (or example, water treatment measures willlikely be lower cost per capita where populationsare more dense, and higher cost in more rural anddispersed areas). Similarly, the scale o analysis whether value or money is assessed at a global,regional, national, or local level will infuence thendings. Typically, studies that investigate value ormoney at a community level are more evidence-based, but equally very context specic, whereasstudies at a global level can provide ndings thatare more applicable to policy, but which are overgeneralized due to the wide range o assumptionsthat are necessary to undertake an analysis atthis scale.

There are several studies in the literature thatback up these ndings, albeit specic to healthinterventions.

50 Lengeler, C., 1998, pp. 54.

AstudybyUNICEF,summarizedonpage25,

examined the cost eectiveness o equity-ocused approaches to health. While the study

was not specic to climate change, it clearlysupports the argument presented in this paper that targeting children may be a highly costeective strategy due to their high levels oexposure and vulnerability. The study aimedto investigate the conventional wisdom thattargeting the more marginalised populations, whoare harder and thereore more expensive to reach,was not as cost eective a strategy are targetingthe low hanging ruit. Using extensive dataanalysis across a sample o countries, the studyactually ound that, due to the larger proportiono children in excluded countries, and the higherproportion o these children who die, that thebenets o providing services to these excludedpopulations outweighed the costs. In act, thestudy concluded that it would be more costeective and sustainable to target marginalisedcommunities than current models. They oundthat an equity-ocused approach is especially cost-eective in low-income, high-mortality countries.In these settings, or every additional $1 millioninvested this approach averts 60 per cent more

deaths than the current path.

TheCopenhagenConsensus2004createda

series o reports that convened some o the topeconomists to try to prioritise some o the mostpressing challenges and potential solutions thatwere acing the world, looking at the economicarguments or investing. Three o the papersocused on the major issues that ace childrenpresented in this paper: communicable diseaseincluding malaria; hunger and malnutrition; andwater and sanitation. Their key ndings (see textp. 25 ) present a very powerul argument orinvesting in a range o measures that addressthese health issues - the vast majority yieldedsubstantially higher benets in relation to costs.While these measures were not specically inrelation to adaptation, many o them are validadaptation responses to the threat o climatechange, and hence highly applicable to this study.

1

2


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For a long time, the conventional wisdom has beenthat more lives are saved in poor countries by ocusingon the low hanging ruit those most readily reachedby extending proven interventions through traditionalservice delivery modes such as hospitals and clinics.To ocus on the marginalised, though right in principle,was generally not perceived as being cost-eective.However, a review o evidence and experienceconducted by UNICEF in mid-2010 suggests that this isno longer true or three reasons:

Excludedpopulationswithincountriesgenerallyhave

a larger proportion o children than other groupsowing to higher ertility rates. As their rates o childmortality are also oten considerably higher than thoseo more afuent groups, their burden o child deathsconstitutes a large share o the national total.

Inexcludedpopulations,ahigherproportionofchildrendie o preventable or treatable inectious diseases orconditions than the children o other groups.

Mostexcludedpopulationshavemuchlowercoverage

levels o cost-eective interventions with a provenhigh impact in reducing major childhood diseases andconditions. Consequently, these populations have thegreatest scope or gains in survival and developmentoutcomes in the next ve years.

Two initial results o the simulation exercise stand out.First, an equity-ocused approach will accelerate

progress towards the health MDGs aster than thecurrent path. And second, it will be considerably morecost-eective and sustainable than the current path in allcountry typologies.

The ndings presented below are only a brie summary,and need to be viewed within the range o assumptions

and caveats that underpin the analysis. Nonetheless thendings present a compelling argument or investmentin child centred approaches.

Malaria interventions such as insecticide treatedmosquito nets (ITNs); treatment or pregnant womenwith malaria to protect children rom dying romcomplications associated with low birth weight; and aswitch and improved supply o medicines used to treatmalaria, were highly cost eective, with a benet-to-costratio (BCR) o 27 or a package o interventions.1 In otherwords, or every $1 spent on malaria prevention, $27

could be realised in avoided losses.

An analysis o strengthening basic health servicessuggests that there are likely to be high returns rominvesting in communicable disease control, with benetcost ratios substantially exceeding one. Taken with thecurrently low coverage o malaria, HIV/AIDS and basichealth care programmes in large parts o the developingworld, especially SSA, [the ndings] suggest thatcommunicable disease control is substantially under-resourced. Moreover, investments where health statusis low will provide substantial benets to the poorestpopulations o the world.2

1 Mills, A. and Shillcutt, S., 2004.2 Ibid.

The Copenhagen Consensus considered a wide array ointerventions or mitigating hunger and malnutrition, or

reducing the prevalence o low birth weight, promotinginant and child nutrition, reducing the prevalence ovitamin and mineral deciencies, and investments intechnologies or agriculture. Across the 13 interventionsincluded, most o which specically targeted children,all o them had a benet-to-cost ratio greater than one,ranging rom 1 (break even), to as high as 520 (iodinetreatment to reduce mirconutrient deciencies).3

In relation to water and sanitation, the CopenhagenChallenge Paper estimates that the total net benets ohalving the people without access to water and sanitation

by 2015, are estimated to be US$300-400 billion. Thepaper concludes that providing community-managedaccess to low-cost water supply and sanitation is a majoropportunity to increase global welare. This requiresan integrated approach to water supply, sanitation andhygiene education. The ocus should be on service deliveryrather than on inrastructure and sanitation should receiveat least as much attention, and more unding, than watersupply. Social marketing and micro-credit programs are keyingredients o the package. The benets to society rangerom improved health, particularly a reduction in diarrhoealdiseases, and reduced loss o time engaged in gainingaccess to water and sanitation but particularly reduction otime lost to disease.4

3 Behrman, J., et al, 2004.4 Rijsberman, F., 2004.

Summary o UNICEF study

The Copenhagen Consensus 2004 project

1

2


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Girls at a school damaged by the 2010foods in Pakistan. The school hasbeen repaired with UNICEF support.

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4 Conclusions and next steps

Despite the signicant implications o climate

change or children, assistance has not targetedchildren on a scale that matches the problem.For example, a Save the Children publication51highlighted the lack o unding in relation to disastersand children. Despite the signicant impact odisasters on childrens health, nutrition, protectionand education, these sectors have, to date, beenconsistently under-unded by donors when providingemergency assistance. For example, in the 2007UN Consolidated Appeals, the education sectorreceived unds to meet only 38 per cent o needs

and the protection sector received just 36 per cent orequirements; these gures contrast with an averageo 72 per cent unding across all sectors.52In a more thorough review o UN Appeals or theyears 200007, education and protection requestswere unded at an average o only 36 per cent and34 per cent respectively.53

The fndings rom this scoping report suggest

that there is substantial evidence that investment

in child-ocused adaptation responses is more

than likely to be cost eective. Clearly, these

ndings will dier depending on the specic contextbeing addressed, and the adaptation measuresbeing considered. Funding decisions will thereoreneed to be made on a case-by-case basis. However,there is certainly a strong economic argument

or scaling up investment to child-ocused

measures as an eective and long term response

to climate change.

This is becoming even more signicant consideringthe interplay between climate change and growing

trends such as urbanisation, which are increasing thepotential risk or children. Recent research by UNICEF,Plan and other humanitarian agencies show thatwithout addressing the dierent challenges posed bytemperature and precipitation changes and extremeweather patterns, development gains will continue tobe undermined, especially in the poorest communities.

At the same time, by ocusing adaptation on childrenwe are not just ensuring children are protected butthat the whole community over the long term ismore resilient and more sel reliant. Children are not

just the vulnerable in need o support, but powerul51 Save the Children, 2008.52 http://ocha.unog.ch/ts/reports/daily/ocha_R30_y2007_08032807.pd53 Development Initiatives, Global Humanitarian Assistance 20072008, Available at http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/

communicators able to play a vital role in ensuringstronger communities.

The potential cost eective investment in child-ocused adaptation is increasingly relevant asdeveloped countries scale up their internationalclimate nance contributions to developing countries.At Copenhagen, developed countries committedto raising $100 billion ayear by 2020 o new andadditional resources or developing countriesor climate change to be split equally betweenadaptation and mitigation needs. This increasingglobal ocus on adaptation must prioritise childrenand ensure their specic vulnerabilities to climatechange are reduced. The cost eectiveness o child-ocused adaptation provides urther justication orthis argument, showing that this approach should beat the heart o discussions on international climatenance spending on adaptation.

Based on the ndings o this scoping report, thereare a number o gaps in the current literature. Here,urther evidence would be helpul to help make thecase or child-ocused adaptation and to prioritiseadaptation responses, and to better understand whichprogrammes and policies are more cost eective

at building resilience. This urther research andprogramme delivery will continue to be taken orwardby the Children in a Changing Climate coalition.

However until then, it is clear that there is urgencyin ocusing on children in adaptation policy andprogrammes because o their specic vulnerabilitiesand because o the potential gains or the widercommunity in involving children. Children haveunique ways o communicating, understanding riskand adapting to changing circumstances. Ensuringchildren are at the heart o climate change adaptation,especially in countries most vulnerable to climatechange, will deliver results, helping create a generationthat is more resilient to the changing world.


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Acronyms

DALY Disability Adjusted Lie YearDRR Disaster Risk ReductionGDP Gross Domestic ProductIPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeITN Insecticide-treated NetLBW Low Birth WeightMDGs Millennium Development GoalsWHO World Health Organization

Reerences

Behrman, J., Alderman, H., and Hoddinott, J., The Challenge ofHunger and Malnutrition, Copenhagen Consensus 2004 Project,2004.

Black, R., Allen, L., Bhutta, Z.A., Cauleld, L., de Onis, M., Ezzati, M.,Mathers, C. and Rivera, J., Maternal and child undernutrition: globaland regional exposures and health consequences, The Lancet, 371,9608, 2008.

Dollar & Gatti, Gender Equality, Income and Growth: Are goodtimes good or women? World Bank Policy Research Report onGender and Development, Working Paper Series No. 1. Washington,D.C., 1999.

Environmental Justice Foundation, Mangroves: Natures DeenceAgainst Tsunamis. www.ejoundation.org/pd/tsunami_report.pd,1999.

Gallup, J. L., and Sachs, J. D., The economic burden o malaria, TheAmerican Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 64: 85-96, 2001.

Global Health Council, Interventions in Health, www.globalhealth.org/child_health/interventions/

Goodman, D., Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education: Childrenand adolescents leading the way in Tajikistan, UNICEF New York/Tajikistan, 2005, available at www.unice.org/voy/media/Tajikistan.pd.

Grantham-McGregor, S., et al, Developmental potential in the rstve years or children in developing countries, The Lancet, 369,2007.

Hales, S., deWet, N., Maindonald, J. and Woodward, A., Potentialeect o population and climate changes on global distribution odengue ever: an empirical model, The Lancet, 360, 9336, 2002.

Inter-agency report or the Hague Global Child Labour conerence o

2010, Joining forces against child labour, May 2010Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), FourthAssessment Report: Climate Change 2007: Impacts, adaptation andvulnerability, 2007.

International Labour Oce, Accelerating Action against childlabour: Global report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration onFundamental Principles and Rights at Work 2010, 2010.

International Labour Oce, A Future without Child Labour, ILO,Geneva, 2002.

Lengeler, C., Insecticide treated bednets and curtains for malariacontrol: A Cocherane Review, Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel,Switzerland, 1998.

Mills, A. and Shillcutt, S., The Challenge of Communicable Diseases,Copenhagen Consensus 2004 project, 2004.

Nelson G.C., et al, Climate Change: Impact on agriculture and costsof adaptation, International Food Policy Research Institute, 2009.

Obama, B., A pledge to end deaths rom malaria by 2015, at http://obama.3cdn.net/c66c9bc20c49ee2ce_h6ynmvjq8.pd, 2007.

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child centered approach to climate change

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