Climate plans fail to track investment in children – study

Climate plans across Barbados and five other Eastern Caribbean countries do not contain the measures needed to track whether climate investments are actually benefiting children, according to a new UNICEF study.

While national climate plans identify sectors such as education, health, water, agriculture and social protection, researchers found none of the countries studied had incorporated child-specific indicators, measurable outcome targets or adaptation commitments linked to outcomes for children.

The finding is contained in the Child-Centred Climate Analysis for Building Resilience, which covers Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Researchers said the absence of those measures makes it difficult to determine whether climate investments are reaching children and to demonstrate returns to climate finance providers.

The study also identified gaps in climate monitoring infrastructure, child-disaggregated impact data, policy implementation tracking, climate finance flow tracking, insurance coverage data and evidence on youth engagement in policy.

Researchers said these were more than research gaps, since insufficient data could also hinder efforts to build evidence-based cases for climate financing.

Against that background, the study proposes 49 actions aimed at strengthening the protection of children from climate shocks.

They span areas including anticipatory action, shock-responsive social protection, structural resilience and climate and disaster financing.

Among the proposals are climate-smart agriculture and drought-tolerant production systems, farmer peer-to-peer learning, psychological first-aid training for teachers and other community actors, and specific provisions for children in disaster risk financing.

Three of the 49 actions have been selected for priority implementation over the next 18 to 24 months based on their potential impact on children and their financeability.

Clive Murray, programme specialist for climate change and disaster risk reduction at the UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Area Office, said the priorities emerged from consultations with government representatives, regional organisations and youth networks.

“The three priority actions were identified through key informant interviews and webinar discussions with government representatives, regional organisations, and youth networks,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“All 49 proposed actions were presented and discussed, and the prioritisation process focused on identifying the actions that offer the most practical, financeable, and child-protective entry points for regional governments in the short to medium term.”

The first calls for a defined share of disaster risk financing to be ring-fenced for services critical to children, including schools, primary health facilities, nutrition and social protection.

The researchers noted that countries already use instruments such as contingency funds and parametric insurance, but said these do not contain explicit provisions for children.

The second priority calls for pre-agreed education and heat-health continuity protocols that would be activated when hurricane warnings or temperature thresholds are reached. Proposed measures include remote learning, pre-positioned learning materials, changes to school schedules, hydration protocols and alternative shelter arrangements.

The third involves building youth peer-support networks for psychosocial response following disasters, including psychological first aid training for teachers, health workers, religious organisations and youth advocates and trauma-informed programmes when schools reopen.

The researchers said the three priorities were designed to explicitly incorporate children into systems countries already have.

Murray said, however, that getting the measures implemented would require governments to overcome financial constraints.

“The biggest obstacle is financing, given the persistent fiscal constraints faced by regional governments,” he said.

He pointed to several financing mechanisms that could be explored, including parametric insurance provided by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, catastrophic risk drawdown options available through the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, and climate financing through the Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund.

Murray also identified fragmented coordination as an operational barrier, saying unified national plans could help incorporate child-sensitive climate measures into sector strategies and align them with national climate policies.

The study was launched in Saint Lucia on Wednesday and was followed by a two-day workshop hosted by UNICEF and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency for regional media professionals. 

(SM)