Grant: Operating Grant

The Adaptation to the Health Effects of Climate Change among Indigenous Peoples in the Global South (IP-ADAPT) project is a multidisciplinary, international collaborative research project that will develop and apply a framework for adaptation assessment, evaluating pilot interventions for adaptation to the health effects of climate change among Indigenous populations in the global south, and providing an evidence base for targeted intervention programs and adaptation policy. Recent international commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have created funding opportunities to implement adaptation programs in low and middle income countries. Allocation of these funds requires evidence that interventions are feasible and successful. Despite the magnitude of the adaptation challenge, there is a lack of evidence-based research to support access to funding. There is widespread recognition of particularly high vulnerability among Indigenous peoples, yet these populations have been largely neglected in literature and discourse on climate change. Working with Indigenous community partners in Amazonian Peru and southwestern Uganda, the IP-ADAPT project is the first research initiative to explicitly evaluate adaptation interventions to promote climate change adaptation in the context of Indigenous health. The research team consists of international leaders in climate change adaptation, Indigenous health research, and health policy, and the project is guided by an integrated knowledge translation model. The research will contribute to the development of a sparse but critically needed evidentiary base to support policy formulation and funding allocation for adaptation among Indigenous peoples.