Regional Study of Climate Change Impacts on Education Systems in South Asia and of System Responses
Fumiyo Kagawa is undertaking a mid-February 2020 to October 2021 consultancy for the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA) involving conducting a study of the impacts of climate change on education systems in the South Asian region as well as system responses to climate change.
South Asia is already grappling with serious impacts of climate change. Children are particularly vulnerable through its effects on their health, nutrition, livelihood, education among others. If the current trends continue, key social sectors, land areas and ecosystems in the region will be further severely affected by climate change, reducing possibilities for human and social systems to effectively adapt to its effects.
While the education sector is highly vulnerable to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change, it can play a critical role in advancing international and national efforts to address the impacts of climate change on children and their communities and to accelerate climate mitigation and adaptation actions.
The overall aim of the study is to generate evidence on how education systems in the countries of South Asia (i.e. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) are monitoring, assessing and responding to the impacts of climate change. It will also identify main educational tools and mechanisms being employed in planning for and addressing climate risks. The study will showcase the perceptions of key education system stakeholders (i.e. children, youth, teachers, government officials) regarding the further embedding of climate change concerns into educational tools and mechanisms.
The study, applying a human rights and gender lens, involves both desk-based review and consultations with key stakeholders from a distance. The recommendations that emerge from this study will inform UINCEF ROSA’s evidence-based policy and programming work on education and climate change both at regional and country levels.