Setting research priorities within climate change to address key gaps in maternal, child and adolescent health: A focus on low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle-East

Climate change (CC) is now the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are particularly vulnerable to CC, however the global evidence in relation to (health and nutrition) risk relationships in LMICs remains limited and interventions related to adaptation and building resilience fragmented. To shed light on this pressing issue, key climate and health-related research priorities and gaps were drawn from prior exercises, including a Gap map, undertaken with a LMIC focus and formulated into a set of (123) research questions mapped against type of CC hazard, health outcome, implementation setting (urban/rural) and context (gender and conflict). These preliminary questions were shared with key experts in the field and additional research questions were sought from (27) participants invited to a hybrid workshop on “Research Priorities for CC and Health in LMICs” held in Dubai, UAE in August 2023. Workshop participants ranked questions from ‘not important’ (0) to ‘very important’ (3), an average score was calculated for each question, and questions were further divided into three groups from ‘most important’ to ‘medium importance’ to ‘low importance’. Following this exercise, participants engaged in plenary discussions and generated additional priority themes/areas/questions to consider, generating a comprehensive set of refined and context-specific priority research questions of relevance to women and children’s health and nutrition. Most of the research priority questions focused on interventions and implementation activities, accountability, best practices, and capacity building, with a focus on gender sensitivity and engagement of women. Identifying and understanding health impacts/outcomes/risks due to climate change followed, with specific and specialized themes such as extreme (heat) temperatures, nutrition and mental health. As part of a series of workshops, results of these collective workshop outputs will include a collaborative scientific report for publication, while also feeding into other similar and more global initiatives.