Solutions Panorama

Setting up Cross-Sectoral Initiatives
in Climate-Change-Hotspot Zones
There are three main types of climate-change
hotspots: 1) river and deltas, 2) semi-arid
regions, and 3) glaciers and river basins.
These hotspots are areas that often cut
across national boundaries and have limited
political representation. As a result, they
are not a focus of direct policy action, which
has important implications for sustainable
development, the well-being of local
populations, and women’s health, particularly
their sexual and reproductive health. As
part of the Global Strategy for Women’s,
Children’s and Adolescent’s Health, a high level
collaborative initiative on human health and
wellbeing could be set up in each hotspot. The
North East Health Sector Strategic response
plan in Nigeria has done just that in a bid to
coordinate and provide healthcare services
to vulnerable and multi-dimensionally poor
persons in the area.
Learn more: climate-l.iisd.org
Increase Access to Medicine with
Social Business Interventions
In communities where many people have little
or no access to medication for undertreated
conditions, an initiative in Kenya linking
commercial partners in the pharmaceutical
industry with government agencies or
non-profit organizations has helped lowincome
patients access the medicine they
need. These alliances, known as social
business interventions, are implemented at
the community level, involving community
health educators, who play a pivotal role
linking patients with healthcare providers and
medicine for non-communicable diseases, such
as hypertension and diabetes.
Learn more: who.it
Remove the Burden of Water
Collection
By 2020, Unilever aims to empower 5 million
women by strengthening women’s rights, skills,
and opportunities across the value chain. To
achieve this goal, the company stresses the
importance of integrating women’s economic
empowerment throughout its brands. Unilever’s
Sunlight brand is partnering with Oxfam and
TechnoServe to develop Water Centers run by
women entrepreneurs in Nigeria, which provide
rural villages with a sustainable supply of clean
water for domestic tasks. This gives women,
who would otherwise be spending much of their
day collecting water, time to focus on other
tasks, including income and food generation,
and grants entire communities a sustainable
source of clean water.
Learn more: womendeliver.org
Organize Young People to Advocate
for Sexual Rights
Civil society organization Elige – Red de
Jóvenes adopted a new pact on the health,
sexual rights, and empowerment of girls,
adolescent girls, and young women in Latin
America and the Caribbean. This pact
proposes 14 imperative commitments and
possible actions regarding empowerment and
participation, promoting rights, public policies,
cooperation and investment, and social and
cultural transformation. It was endorsed
by parliamentarians from six countries of
the region – Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It urges
key actors to commit to making contributions
to improve the living conditions of girls,
adolescent girls, and young women in Latin
America and the Caribbean by complying with
the 2030 Agenda.
Learn more: womendeliver.org
WOMEN DELIVER 2016 CONFERENCE: SOLUTIONS PANORAMA 130