Climate Change
At CCUg, we recognize that climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the communities we serve—and its impacts are far from equal. The majority of households we support in Busoga sub-region already struggle with extreme poverty, and the added strain of extreme weather, prolonged droughts, flash floods, and unpredictable rainfall has deepened food insecurity, reduced access to safe water, disrupted livelihoods, and limited access to essential SRHR services. Women and girls bear the greatest burden, making climate change not only an environmental crisis but also a pressing social and economic justice issue that worsens existing gender inequalities and threatens development gains.
This is why climate justice is integrated into all our programmes, rather than treated as a separate initiative. Whether we are expanding access to SRHR and WASH services, strengthening livelihoods, or building safer communities, we deliberately consider how climate shocks affect the rights, choices, and well-being of women and girls. Our interventions are designed to build climate resilience in Busoga from the ground up and ensure that no one is left behind.
We also invest in generating local evidence on climate and health, and documenting lived experiences to inform our programmes, and policy recommendations. By equipping women and girls to adapt, lead, and shape solutions, we work toward communities that are not only surviving climate impacts but thriving in spite of them.
Current Work
EVIDENCE GENERATION, LEARNING AND DOCUMENTATION
In 2025, with support from the Population, Environment Risks, and the Climate Crisis (PERCC) initiative at the Population Council, we conducted a mixed methods case study assessing how extreme rainfall affects Adolescent Girls’ and Young Women’s (AGYW) access to sexual and reproductive health, rights, and choice (SRHRC) services in flood-prone island and shoreline communities of Mayuge District in Eastern Uganda.
The study was conducted in six flood-prone communities in Mayuge District, which included four lakeshore (Ntinkalu, Busunyi, Kityerera and Bwondha) and two island (Sagitu and Masolya) communities. Six government health facilities from these communities were included. These were Busuyi Health Centre II, Ntinkalu Health Centre II, Kityerera Health Centre IV, Bwondha Health Centre II, Masolya Health Centre III, and Sagitu Health Centre II.
The qualitative component included 25 in-depth interviews with AGYW aged 12-24 years and 13 Key informant interviews with health workers, Village Health Teams (VHTs), and youth leaders. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, incorporating inductive and deductive coding and triangulation across respondent categories.
The quantitative component reviewed 503 AGYW SRHR service records from 6 government health facilities regarding utilization of SRHR (STI/HIV testing, Family planning [FP], Antenatal Care [ANC], delivery, Postnatal [PNC], Post-Abortion Care [PAC]) in the past two years (2023 and 2024). Due to incomplete reporting—especially at lower-level facilities—the dataset was extrapolated using crude monthly estimates, resulting in a final sample of 29,841 AGYW service records. To account for missing data, we used crude estimates based on available monthly data, resulting in a final sample of 29,841 AGYW records across services and health facilities.
Surprisingly, quantitative findings revealed higher uptake of FP, HIV testing, and ANC services during wet months than dry months. Records of post-abortion care services were largely missing across facilities, although qualitative data revealed increased unsafe abortions during rainy seasons. Older AGYW (18–24 years) were more likely to use SRHR services compared to younger girls (12–17 years).
Qualitative findings further highlighted that extreme rains exacerbate existing individual, social, and health system barriers, resulting in poorer SRHR outcomes. HCWs also noted that no policies currently exist to ensure sustained access to SRHR services for AGYW during climatic shocks.
We recommend explicitly integrating SRHR into climate adaptation plans, training all HCWs on MISP for SRHR in humanitarian contexts, stockpiling SRHR commodities before and during rains, expanding NGO support in island communities, scaling digital health interventions and increasing community outreaches to sustain AGYW’s access to essential SRHR services during periods of extreme rains.