AFRICA: launch of PALM-TREEs project on psycho-sociological impact of climate
The project entitled “A Pan-African and Transdisciplinary Lens on the Margins: Coping with the Risks of Extreme Events” (PALM-TREEs) is launched. Funded by the British Government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the initiative aims to obtain data on the psycho-sociological impact of climate effects on vulnerable communities in Africa .
The British Minister for Development and Africa took advantage of the first African climate summit to announce the official launch of the project entitled “a pan-African and transdisciplinary lens on the margins: Facing the Risks of Extreme Events” (PALM-TREEs ). This project is part of the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) initiative, a UK-Canada research framework program on adaptation and resilience to climate change, funded to the tune of CAD$120 million, primarily by the British Government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCDO) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC).
Through a transdisciplinary and pan-African approach, the project aims to empower marginalized communities to better respond to extreme climate events in Africa, such as droughts, floods and heatwaves, and their socio-economic impacts. interconnected and cascaded.
Planned to last three and a half years, the research will focus on flooding in Kitui and Turkana counties in Kenya; flood dynamics and gender-based violence in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; the impact of floods and drought on the agricultural productivity of women in Cameroon and Mbanza-Ngungu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); the impact of heat stress on the health and livelihoods of communities in informal settlements in Lagos, Nigeria; and the impacts of droughts, floods and water management on diverse communities in the Volta Basins and Accra, Ghana.
The mental health of climate displaced people
PALM-TREEs will be implemented over a period of three and a half years by a consortium of universities and institutions led by the University of Cape Town, the University of Yaoundé 1 and the University of Oxford. The project is managed by a consortium director and principal investigators responsible for coordinating research in southern, central, eastern and western Africa.
According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), more than 20 million people are displaced each year and many more are affected by floods, drought and heatwaves. These extreme events are followed by negative effects on mental health and well-being and intersect with internal conflicts, security risks and multiple forms of vulnerability. Limited access to resources, aid and services during and after climate shocks in sub-Saharan Africa pushes communities to the margins of society and limits their capacity to adapt.
