SDG: 5 Gender equality

The challenge 

Climate change is increasingly recognised as a threat to children’s wellbeing, yet its implications for child protection remain poorly understood. Humanitarian agencies and child protection practitioners had growing concerns that climate hazards, particularly drought and extreme heat, could increase children’s vulnerability to sexual violence across sub-Saharan Africa. However, quantitative evidence on these links was scarce, making it difficult for governments and international agencies to integrate child protection into climate adaptation, disaster preparedness and humanitarian response. 

Working with policy partners, including the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, the Sprint set out to address this evidence gap. Its aim was to generate rigorous, policy-relevant evidence demonstrating the relationship between climate shocks and violence against children and adolescents, identify groups facing heightened risks, and explore the pathways through which climate hazards may increase vulnerability. 

The solutions 

The Sprint strengthened the evidence linking drought exposure to violence against children and adolescents in Southern Africa. Research led by Bothaina Eltigani, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, found that drought exposure was associated with a 46% increase in the risk of sexual violence among adolescents. The research also highlighted increased vulnerability among adolescent girls and those living in drought-affected areas experiencing severe food insecurity. These findings underline the importance of recognising child protection as part of the response to climate shocks. 

The team combined high-resolution climate data with child protection survey data, using advanced statistical and spatial modelling to investigate patterns of risk across different populations. Alongside its research, the Sprint developed policy-facing outputs and presentations to help translate the findings into practical insights for humanitarian agencies and decision-makers. 

The work also contributed to wider policy discussions on protecting children during climate emergencies, including through engagement with international humanitarian and development organisations. Collaboration with partners helped ensure that the evidence could inform discussions about prevention, preparedness and child-sensitive responses to climate shocks. 

The pathway 

The Sprint brought together expertise in social policy, climate science and computer science to examine how climate hazards relate to violence against children and adolescents. By combining climate records with child protection data, the team could investigate patterns across populations and explore how risks differed according to circumstances such as age, gender and food insecurity. 

A distinctive feature of the Sprint was its early and sustained engagement with policy partners. Rather than waiting until the research was complete, the team shared emerging findings and worked with humanitarian organisations and other stakeholders to shape accessible outputs and identify opportunities for policy use. This iterative approach helped keep the research relevant to practitioners’ needs, while allowing the team to adapt its communications to a changing political and humanitarian landscape. 

The Sprint also placed early-career researchers at the centre of the work. Students and emerging researchers contributed to analysis, publications and stakeholder engagement, gaining opportunities to take on responsibility and develop their research and policy skills through interdisciplinary collaboration. 

What happened next? 

By strengthening the evidence base connecting climate shocks with risks of violence against children and adolescents, the Sprint brought child protection into wider policy discussions about climate resilience, humanitarian planning and early warning systems. 

Its research gained further visibility through the publication of Bothaina Eltigani’s paper in The Lancet Planetary Health. Her Researcher Spotlight reflects on the Sprint’s contribution to her work and how she is building on its findings. The Sprint’s evidence has also supported continued engagement with humanitarian partners, including ongoing work to develop practical guidance on integrating child protection into preparedness and response. 

The work continues through the Oxford Martin Programme on Climate Shocks and Child Health, which brings together climate and child health researchers with humanitarian partners to investigate how climate shocks affect children and to develop evidence and practical approaches that can support decision-makers across Africa. 

The Sprint’s legacy also lies in the researchers and partnerships it helped develop. By creating opportunities for early-career researchers to lead and contribute to research and policy engagement, it built momentum for further work at the intersection of climate change, child protection and child health.