With the fourth highest forest cover in Africa and highest amount of deforestation on the continent, at up to 300,000 hectares per year (earth.org, 2022), coupled with a populace of which 59% live below the poverty line and 48% are considered multidimensionally poor (UNDP & OPHI, 2022), Zambia was a logical choice for the introduction of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Theoretically, REDD+ has the potential to deliver multiple benefits as, in addition to mitigating climate change, it can support livelihoods, maintain vital ecosystem services and preserve globally significant biodiversity (CBD, 2012).

My empirical research into Africa’s largest REDD+ project by hectarage, the Luangwa Community Forests Project, seeks to determine whether benefits are being delivered and, if so, to whom. I further analyze whether this ‘flagship’ project is delivering ecological justice in its three dimensions of recognition, procedure and distribution (Visseren-Hamakers & Kok, 2022).

My methodology includes desk research, 33 key informant interviews, 6 focus group discussions and participant observation, allowing me to engage with approximately 282 stakeholders to date, both during an eight-week period in Zambia during June – July 2023, as well as virtually thereafter. My preliminary findings suggest that although problems of transparency and accountability plague the process, and benefit sharing mechanisms are highly contentious, there is merit in continuing to promote REDD+. Communities note cooler temperatures and higher rainfall in areas with standing trees, while carbon revenues provide a critical source of finance in areas with few other revenue streams.

REDD+ is not a silver bullet, but another tool in the toolbox. I argue that we need to improve an imperfect tool – not throw it out.

Current socio-political and economic systems are driving intersecting development crises due to climate change, social inequities, and health inequities. Existing economic and social inequities are compounded as climate change impacts are inequitably distributed between and within countries. This study examines the extent and nature of health and social equity considerations within national governments’ Nationally Determined Contribution reports (NDCs) to the UNFCCC, key objects of international cooperation for climate action.

Using quantitative content analysis and qualitative thematic analysis, we examine discussion within NDCs of social determinants that mediate impacts of climatic changes and socio-economic inequalities on human health. Inferential analyses also provide insight into country variation in report content, illuminating geopolitical tensions in countries’ responsibility for, and impacts of, climate change.

NDCs include greater discussion of economic issues compared to health outcome and social determinants-related content. Among high-income countries, we found moderate positive associations between levels of CO2 emissions and more frequent use of economic terms, and a negative association of economic language with levels of democracy. Democracy was also positively associated with discussion of equity and justice norms, indicating potential for impact through democratic pressures.

The relative frequency of economic frames in NDCs suggests that there is a need to reorient policymaking toward the inequitable impacts of climate change for development and health. We identify enabling and constraining factors for progressive climate change policymaking, providing critical insights for inter-governmental cooperation, mobilisation of national political will for regulating climate-warming emissions as a public health intervention, and advocacy to support these processes.

Locally-led climate change adaptation in informal settlements in the Global South is championed by community leaders and experts as an appropriate response to the climate crisis. However, adherents and critics recognise challenges in responding to diverse populations’ priorities; and connecting to action and policy at scale. In response, my research asked how the perspectives of local activists could help better understand the lived experience of adaptation in their informal urban contexts and how that could influence policymakers and practitioners to engage with it. I used a case study method with ethnographic approaches to answer these questions in a peri-urban neighbourhood in Colombia called Panorama. The results indicate that adaptation initiatives like greenspace conservation and self-built housing respond to a web of social, political, and environmental challenges connected to the post-colonial context, crime, and the climate. Residents, leaders, and experts in the case study navigate political networks and allegiances while advocating for their priorities, negotiating decisions, and compromising ideals. Adaptation responses are woven together in these complex visions for the neighbourhood through creativity and conflict. As a result, the data challenges mainstream adaptation approaches in local contexts that are technology and results driven and often referred to as top-down. The bottom-up side of the equation in Panorama demonstrated significant agency and power despite socio-political inequality and injustice that defined the context. The emerging cohort of climate adaptation and development professionals must take in these lessons to properly address the pressing crisis that climate change has integrated itself into.

Women’s access to, and control over, finances at the household level is widely seen as a key element of building equality and women’s empowerment. In response, some governments and financial institutions in the global South have introduced a number of financial products and policies with the intent of addressing this issue. In Bolivia, rural lending for agricultural activities has begun to explicitly target women with low interest rate loans only accessible to women. This is viewed by the lenders and government as a successful tool in contributing to women’s financial empowerment, food security, and resilience, especially in the rapidly growing aquaculture sector where women have a high degree of participation in production and markets, and where access to credit for any borrower was limited only a few years ago. Yet little is known about Bolivian women's experiences with lending programs, and the metrics used to determine the success of this lending have tended to focus narrowly on repayment rates and number of loans given. Anecdotal stories collected through our work in the aquaculture sector over the past two years, however, have indicated that adverse effects of this lending program are present, complicating the empowerment narrative associated with the expansion of credit to women.

In February 2024 a survey will be conducted with 200 women heads of households of the 600 aquaculture farming families who make up the heartland of aquaculture in Bolivia. It will focus on how women access and control the loans they have acquired as well as the barriers they face in such acquisition. This presentation will share these findings, discuss their significance in terms of how to improve lending to women, and will outline how this can shape financial products that enhance women’s financial empowerment in the global South going forward.