Key Terms
Climate Change Key Terms
Adaptation
The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In some natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effect (IPCC 2018).
Adaptive capacity
The ability of systems, institutions, humans and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences (World Health Organization 2021; IPCC 2018). Adaptive capacity can be used as a mechanism for measuring resilience.
Climate hazard
Climate hazards are the physical phenomena in our environment, including how they are expected to change over time (IPCC 2018). Examples include changes in temperature land and sea, rainfall, extreme weather events (tropical storms, heatwaves, droughts, dust, flooding, etc.), sea level rise, thawing ice; and secondary cascading events (such as glacial lake outburst floods, landslides, wildfires, etc.).
Disaster
Severe alterations in the normal functioning of a community or a society due to hazardous physical events interacting with vulnerable social conditions, leading to widespread adverse human, material, economic or environmental effects that require immediate emergency response to satisfy critical human needs and that may require external support for recovery (IPCC 2018).
Exposure
The presence of people; livelihoods; species or ecosystems; environmental functions, services, and resources; infrastructure; or economic, social, or cultural assets in places and settings that could be adversely affected by climate change (IPCC 2018). Examples include low-lying islands and coasts (exposed to sea level rise), deltas and river valleys (exposed to floods) and steep hillsides (exposed to landslides, weather-related erosion).
Extreme weather event
The occurrence of a value of a weather or climate variable above (or below) a threshold value near the upper (or lower) ends of the range of observed values of the variable (IPCC 2018)
Health System
Consists of all organizations, people and actions whose primary intent is to promote, restore or maintain health (WHO, 2007)
Sensitivity
Refers to the characteristics of the system and/or people that make them more susceptible to being affected by a hazard (IPCC 2018). Examples include physical attributes, such as age, gender, (dis)ability, existing health conditions, socioeconomic status and education.
Resilience
The capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event, or trend, or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation (IPCC 2018).
Vulnerability
The risk of harm faced by individuals, communities, and societies in the face of hazards. Vulnerability is socio-politically situated; it is shaped by exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity (IPCC 2018).
Sexual and Reproductive Health Key Terms
Contraception
Contraception is defined as the intentional prevention of conception through the use of various devices, sexual practices, chemicals, drugs, or surgical procedures. (Source)
Gender Equality
The concept that all individuals (irrespective of their gender) have equal conditions, treatment and opportunities for realizing their full potential, human rights and dignity, and for contributing to (and benefitting from) economic, social, cultural and political development (Source: UNICEF 2017). Gender equality includes ensuring all people’s agency and decision-making power regarding their reproductive health and rights.
Gender-Based Violence (GBV)
Any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and that is based on socially ascribed (gender) differences resulting in physical, sexual, psychological, or economic harm. Examples include sexual violence, including sexual exploitation/abuse and forced prostitution, domestic violence, tracking, forced/early marriage, harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation, honour killings and widow inheritance (Source: UNICEF 2017).
Maternal Health
Focuses on the health and well-being of pregnant women, childbirth, and the postpartum period (Source: WHO). It includes access to prenatal care, skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetric care, and postnatal care to ensure safe and healthy pregnancies and childbirth experiences.
Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH)
The state of physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being in relation to sexuality and reproduction, not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction, or infirmity. (Source: Guttmacher)
Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR)
The right for all, whether young or old, women, men or transgender, straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual, HIV positive or negative, to make choices regarding their own sexuality and reproduction, providing they respect the rights of others to bodily integrity. (Source: UNICEF 2017)
