Abstract:Background: We are now in a world where every aspect of global public health is affected by climate change and as such, health interventions are increasingly required to include climate resilience as an outcome or impact in the planning and evaluation of programs. Since forty percent of the world’s population are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, the penultimate task is to make the transition to plan and design for adaptation and resilience. This transition is most acute for the 70-80% of the vulnerable that live in the global south. In this world, where every aspect of public health is affected by climate change, health interventions, whether embedded in larger development programs or as stand-alone projects, do not include resilience to climate impacts as an outcome. This has led to a patchwork of approaches often without clear connections between the nature of the climate related hazard, the specific health vulnerabilities of the population, the adaptation (interventions), and measurable and specific outcomes that enhance resilience and promote the sustainability of improved health. Objectives: This framework explicitly identifies climate effects and places sustainable resilience at the center of both the design and evaluation of health programs and projects. This TOSR will allow health program evaluators to systematically capture changes in risk, vulnerability, and resilience in natural and human systems. Methods: Case studies are used to illustrate evaluation with respect to risk reduction, resilience and the dynamic relationship between resilience and long-term sustainable impacts. Qualitative and quantitative assessment tools surface relevance, strategy, elements of systems resilience and the conditions that drive sustainable resilience. Results: Two case studies, malaria prevention and food security/nutrition illustrate this conceptual framework for evaluation.
Keywords: Climate Change and Planetary Health, climate resilience, evaluation, public health
