Roger-Mark De Souza on Climate Adaptation and Reproductive Health in Latin America
Giving women control over their own reproductive health - how many kids they have, and when they choose to have them - can be transformative for women, families, and entire communities. In a recent interview with NexusMedia, Roger-Mark De Souza connects the transformative power of family planning to climate adaptation efforts in Latin America.
Giving women control over their own reproductive health - how many kids they have, and when they choose to have them - can be transformative for women, families, and entire communities. In a recent interview with NexusMedia, Roger-Mark De Souza connects the transformative power of family planning to climate adaptation efforts in Latin America. In Peru, for instance, where water shortages are prompting rural families to move to urban slums, families struggle to find new livelihoods. Too often, even though families need multiple incomes women have to forgo work to take care of children.
"They're not able to be economically productive," said De Souza. "They feel they have too many children, and they would like to be able to make decisions over their destiny." If, however, women can access the family planning they want, they can time and space their pregnancies, have the number of children they want, and contribute to their family's economic wellbeing. Ultimately, family planning is "quite a transformative approach that’s low-cost and has a quick return on investment," said De Souza. "And it’s what people want."
Contributor
Roger-Mark De Souza
Former Director of Population, Environmental Security, and Resilience
Environmental Change and Security Program
The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) explores the connections between environmental change, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. Read more
Global Risk and Resilience Program
The Global Risk and Resilience Program (GRRP) seeks to support the development of inclusive, resilient networks in local communities facing global change. By providing a platform for sharing lessons, mapping knowledge, and linking people and ideas, GRRP and its affiliated programs empower policymakers, practitioners, and community members to participate in the global dialogue on sustainability and resilience. Empowered communities are better able to develop flexible, diverse, and equitable networks of resilience that can improve their health, preserve their natural resources, and build peace between people in a changing world. Read more
