The Kenyan health system faces worsening everyday stress and challenges, but also acute shocks associated with extreme weather. Global heating will lead to droughts, famines and increases in infectious diseases, meaning there will be more patients to treat in health facilities that are ill-prepared for surges in patient volume and additional extreme weather conditions that will affect patients and health workers. 

 The effects of climate change are also not evenly distributed: certain subsets of the population and different regions will be more vulnerable to disease and injury than others. Population vulnerability depends on factors such as population density, food availability, level of economic development, income level and distribution, local environmental conditions, pre-existing health status, and the quality and availability/access of public healthcare. ​ 

This project aims to help local communities both analyse and manage the risks associated with extreme weather. This will include developing hyper-local, highly accurate, predictions of change to local climate conditions, as well as managing risk through processes of risk reduction, risk preparedness and risk off-setting. 

The project is managed jointly across KEMRI-Wellcome Trust and Oxford University who, in partnership for over 25 years, have undertaken world-class research in health policy and systems research, epidemiology and population health, community engagement and health economics. 

We aim to engage local people at every stage to reflect their needs and priorities in the research. This will be a wholly collaborative approach, involving diverse stakeholders and acting with support from local county governments.