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Climate Change Adaptation (CCA)
There is no scientific ambiguity to the fact that the world’s climate is warming and that this warming over the past 50 years is attributable in part to man’s activities. There is a wide consensus that this warming will lead to changing rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, increased spread of tropical disease, loss of biodiversity and increased frequency and amplitude of weather related natural disasters. Children are particularly at risk in a disaster and vulnerable to the incremental impacts of climate change. It is essential that their immediate and longer-term survival, protection and developmental needs are considered in any activities to prepare for or mitigate a potential disaster, or adapt to the negative impacts of longer-term climatic trends. Communities and local authorities need to listen to children to find out what risks they might face and how they might respond to them.
CCA programs are activities which aim to make adjustments in natural and human systems in response to actual or expected climate change and their effects. For Save the Children, adaptation is principally about practical measures in programming, policy and advocacy which reduce vulnerabilities or increase resilience of children and their communities from the negative effects of climate change. Disaster Risk Reduction and CCA are not mutually exclusive but in fact interdependent; a CCA project may be just as vulnerable to natural hazards as any other project and therefore needs a DRR component to protect the CCA investment. To address the risks and uncertainty predicted by climate change, both DRR and CCA analysis and programming must attempt to take account of the unpredictability of what may happen in the future as the planet continues to get warmer.
Photo: Save the Children
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RecommendedReducing Risks, Saving Lives. Save the Children's approach to Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
Disasters have the biggest impact on the poorest and most vulnerable people, and it is children who bear the brunt. Over the past two decades, the number of natural disasters has doubled. Children’s lives are also threatened by epidemiological disasters,
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Why Focus on Children: A literature review of child-centred climate change adaptation approaches
Climate change effects have a marked, often acute, impact on children. Not only to their current wellbeing, but also their future. This literature review provides an overview of existing research and practice relating to climate change adaptation approach
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Case Study: The response of community structures during the Kasese floods
In May 2020, severe flooding in western Uganda has displaced tens of thousands of people. In Kasese district, Save the Children—working closely with District Local Government and with support from the Government of Japan—has been running a Disaster Risk R
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Our World Our Say: National survey of children and young people on climate change and disaster risk
The release of this youth survey report on climate change and disaster risk takes place in the context of a global pandemic and in the wake of national and state inquiries into the devastating Australian ‘Black Summer’ bushfire season of 2019/2020. From F
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Open Letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres re: Inclusion of children in the Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
This joint letter calls on Secretary General Antonio Guterres to include children and adolescents younger than 18 in the Youth Advisory Group on climate change. At the time of writing, this group includes seven young climate leaders between the ages of 18
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Child-Centred Risk Reduction Research-into-Action Brief: Child-centred climate change adaptation approaches and household and community resilience
The impacts of climate change pose risks to children’s health, safety and survival; education; and family and individual security. However, children are not only passive victims. There is a growing body of evidence that demonstrates how child-centred resp
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The Global Climate Crisis: A child rights crisis
Climate change arguably poses the single greatest challenge to the realisation of children’s rights, and threatens to undercut decades of hard-won progress to improve their lives. Despite being least responsible for this unfolding crisis, children bear th
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Fortaleciendo la Respuesta ante Desastres en el Perú
Lecciones Aprendidas del Fenómeno El Niño Costero 2017 en el Perú aims to strengthen the response to disasters in the country and promote a useful reflection of recurrent phenomena in the context of the climate change. The objective of this research was t
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Children, Do You Know What To Do During Emergencies?
The Philippines is hit by around 20 tropical cyclones every year, state weather bureau PAGASA reported. Aside from typhoons, other forms of natural calamities can happen, such as earthquakes, landslides, extreme flooding, and volcanic eruptions, among sev
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Our Humanitarian Efforts: Overview of our humanitarian work in Bangladesh
Disaster preparedness and risk reduction play a major role in preventing the loss of lives and livelihoods during disasters. Directly and with partners, Save the Children has been preparing vulnerable communities for natural disasters and works with the g
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Child Poverty: What drives it and what it means to children across the world
This new, flagship report looks at the situation of children living in poverty in countries around the world, shining a light on the drivers of child poverty and exploring why it persists, even in some of the wealthiest places. We also hear from children
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Children and Resilience: A collection of success stories from the humanitarian sector, Bangladesh
Disaster preparedness and risk reduction play a major role in preventing the loss of lives and livelihoods during disasters. Directly and with partners, Save the Children has been preparing vulnerable communities for natural disasters and works with the g