COP26 Side Event - Removing barriers to health and education

On Monday 8^th November, MSI Reproductive Choices, UNFPA and the Margaret Pyke Trust co-hosted a side event at the UN’s Climate Change Conference (COP26) on Removing barriers to health and education: an essential climate adaptation and resilience strategy.

While navigating the climate crisis, it is essential that women and girls on the frontline of climate change have sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights. With access to a quality education and reproductive choice, women and girls can take part in finding gender-responsive climate solutions.

At our collaborative side event, global experts, ministers, and youth advocates joined a high-level discussion on why removing barriers to family planning and girls’ education is crucial to accelerating climate adaptation and resilience.

The event was moderated by Nima Elbagir, CNN international correspondent, and featured a short film on MSI Reproductive Choices’ work to deliver reproductive choice in the climate-affected region of Joal in Senegal. Speakers included:

• Siméon Sawadogo, Minister for Environment, Green Economy and Climate Change, Burkina Faso
• Mr Flemming Møller Mortensen, Minister for Development Cooperation and Minister for Nordic Cooperation, Denmark
• Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, UNFPA
• Mr Jan Wahlberg, Ambassador for Climate Change, Finland
• Luísa Celma Caetano Meque, President of the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD), Republic of Mozambique
• Speakers from YOUNGO Nigeria, UN Youth Advisory Group on Climate: Sudan and CARE International and more

Watch the event in English below and in French on Vimeo.

By ensuring people living on the frontline of the climate crisis can access reproductive choice, we can protect the health, lives, and futures of women living in the communities suffering the most from its impact.

Read more about the impact of the climate crisis on reproductive rights and how we can protect access to choice, via our blog post.

It costs as little as £6 per year – or 2 pence per day – to protect someone’s access to sexual and reproductive healthcare. Support MSI's life-changing work here.