Global Climate Change Adaptation Sectors

Climate change is a stress that impacts different development sectors—including agricultural productivity; the performance of infrastructure such as roads, building, and dams; and the availability and quality of water and other natural resources that communities depend upon. Therefore, we need to understand how climate change affects each of those sectors. We need to understand how development practitioners approach those sectors so that we can communicate information about climate change in language that they can understand and use. USAID is developing guidance and simple briefing documents to help specialists in particular sectors understand why climate change may be a stress that could affect their work.

Climate Change and Food Security

Agricultural activities designed to improve productivity should incorporate programming around adaptation to climate change impacts such as altered temperature or rainfall regimes. Activities to support the integration of food security and climate change efforts may include collection of data such as changes in water table and soil carbon content, analytical tools, and technical assistance for partner country scientists and farmers to undertake climate-resilient and low-emission agricultural planning.

Climate Change and Health

Health decision makers in developing countries need knowledge and skills to understand and anticipate health-related climate impacts on key sectors such as health systems strengthening malaria and other infectious diseases, and community health, particularly the health of vulnerable populations including women and children.

Climate Change and Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH)

The effective planning and management of water and sanitation systems requires anticipating the potential effects of both climate-related stressors, such as less predictable rainfall and water flows, and non-climate stressors such as population growth, pollution, and conflict on the quality, quantity, and predictability of water resources.