Maintaining Essential Services after Natural Disasters (Maintains) Programme-Phase 1

Extreme weather events, or climate shocks, such as floods, wildfires, heatwaves, or droughts, can have major impacts on public health and nutrition status, and on the functioning of health systems in low- and lower middle-income counties. Demand for health and nutrition services grows when these events result in physical injury and psychological trauma, and increase exposure to infectious diseases and undernutrition. Because of this, there is a need to improve the evidence base on how health can expand and adapt in response to these shocks and every day shocks such as industrial action. The Maintaining Essential Services after Natural Disasters (Maintains), FCDO funded research programme that started in 2019, delivered by The Centre for Humanitarian Change (CHC), in partnership with Oxford Policy Management (OPM), was designed to do just that: improve shock responsiveness in Kenya and Uganda. While the programme is sadly coming to a close at the end of June 2021, 2 years earlier than anticipated due to UK aid funding cuts, a lot of key findings in in two working papers are available right now for governments to adopt. CHC is working on fundraising to continue this important work.