Girls’ education and family planning: essential components of climate adaptation and resilience

The document establishes a direct link between gender-based development pillars—specifically secondary education for girls and access to modern contraception—and the capacity of vulnerable populations to adapt to climate change. It highlights that women in low- and middle-income countries face disproportionate climate impacts, which often trigger a cycle of early marriage and school dropout. The brief provides evidence that education reduces disaster vulnerability and that family planning improves maternal and child health, thereby increasing household resilience. It concludes that these strategies are largely absent from National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and calls for their integration into climate finance and policy frameworks.

• Education, particularly for girls, is identified as the most significant socioeconomic factor in reducing vulnerability to natural disasters across a study of 125 countries.
• Closing gender gaps in education and land tenure in five sub-Saharan African countries could increase crop production by 19%, improve GDP, and reduce poverty, enhancing the ability to manage climate hazards.
• Family planning enhances climate resilience by improving health outcomes; for example, children born with a birth interval of four years or more have lower risks of being underweight or stunted compared to those born after two years or less.
• There is a significant gap in the inclusion of these strategies in national climate policies: of 95 countries' NDCs analyzed, only 15 mentioned girls in the context of education, and none linked girls' education to adaptation goals.
• Family planning is a highly cost-effective investment for resilience, providing $26.80 USD in health benefits for every $1 USD spent, yet it receives less than 1% of international aid.
• Climate-related shocks exacerbate gender inequalities, increasing the risk of early marriage and school dropout for adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries, which creates a cycle of intergenerational poverty.

APA

Patterson, K. P., Jameel, Y., Mehra, M., & Patrone, C. (2021). Girls’ education and family planning: essential components of climate adaptation and resilience. Project Drawdown. https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Drawdown_Lift_Policy_Brief_Girls_Education_122121.pdf

Chicago

Patterson, Kristen P., Yusuf Jameel, Mamta Mehra, and Carissa Patrone. Girls’ education and family planning: essential components of climate adaptation and resilience. Project Drawdown, 2021. https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Drawdown_Lift_Policy_Brief_Girls_Education_122121.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Patterson |first1=Kristen P. |last2=Jameel |first2=Yusuf |last3=Mehra |first3=Mamta |last4=Patrone |first4=Carissa |title=Girls’ education and family planning: essential components of climate adaptation and resilience |publisher=Project Drawdown |date=October 2021 |url=https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Drawdown_Lift_Policy_Brief_Girls_Education_122121.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{patterson2021girls, author = {Patterson, Kristen P. and Jameel, Yusuf and Mehra, Mamta and Patrone, Carissa}, title = {{Girls’ education and family planning: essential components of climate adaptation and resilience}}, institution = {Project Drawdown}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Drawdown_Lift_Policy_Brief_Girls_Education_122121.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }