GCRF_NF452 Climate Change & COVID-19 (CCC19): Achieving a Sustainable and Equitable Recovery in Malawi and Rwanda

Most of our responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are focused on the immediate needs of affected countries and populations and their swift economic recovery. In developing countries, where the effects of climate change are now made even worse by COVID-19, there is a lot of appetite for making this recovery sustainable and equitable. Specifically, we need to understand how COVID-19 has affected local people's ability to withstand droughts, floods and sea-level rise and the prospects for adapting to and mitigating climate change in these countries. However, the data and knowledge on how to achieve this are lacking.

This project will invite local community members as well as practitioners from government, development, private sector and community-based organizations in Rwanda and Malawi - two countries simultaneously affected by the pandemic and climate change - to participate in interviews, focus groups and surveys on this topic. Participants from local communities will also be asked to produce video stories of their experiences of COVID-19 and climate change in order to put a human face on both crises and ensure local voices are heard at the highest levels of government in both countries. The findings of this research will inform the work of the Malawian and Rwandan ministries responsible for health, climate change and environment (key project partners).

This will be achieved through a range of products and events, including reports, journal articles, a documentary, an interactive website and case-study leaflets. We will hold two simultaneous end-of-project workshops with online participation from the UK, during which all stakeholders will be able to discuss and exchange their experiences and inform policy development. The project's ultimate aim is to ensure that the way these countries plan and carry out their recovery after COVID-19 is environmentally sustainable and socially equitable, so that it does not harm the climate or the most vulnerable people.