Image showing significant temperature changes in Malawi. Source: Climate stripes for Malawi: Accessed Dec 2024
The CHAIRR (Climate Health in Africa Integrated Risk Research) project is a collaboration with Sightsavers, to create climate risk assessments for 10 districts of Malawi. It provides a comprehensive picture of climate effects that will have a bearing on the epidemiology of NTDs.
The project applied models from the Walker Institute’s previous risk analyses in the Middle East to Malawi’s context. The work produced a set of storylines which detailed plausible climate futures in each district, overlaid with the health and welfare effects that these could precipitate for target NTDs in the country.
Richard Selby, head of portfolio for NTD research in Sightsavers, explains a little more about the project: “Working collaboratively with Walker and the Malawi country office, we identified datasets that were needed to model climate change, and collaborated with Government, NGOs and academics to gather data including existing climate records, NTDs, livelihoods and natural disasters.”
“The Walker Institute modelled the future climate scenarios using over 40 of the most suitable models and identified the three most likely scenarios that are anticipated in each of the 10 districts being studied. We then linked these projected scenarios to the likely outcomes in terms of public health infrastructure, livelihoods, agriculture, disease transmission, risk of natural hazards and disasters.”
The research will aid discussions with government policymakers about these scenarios to implement adaptation to policies (short, medium and long-term needs) and to try and limit negative climate impacts on health outcomes.
AI generated podcast
For a more focused look, do take a listen to the short 14 min podcast below that provides an easy introduction to more detail on the research. This is an impressive AI podcast that was created by Richard using Notebook LM. Please bear this in mind when listening to the AI presenters. Apologies for a few pronunciation errors.