Assessing SEWA's Gender-Sensitive Responses to Climate-Induced Heat Waves in India

Climate shocks in India have been increasing in both frequency and duration, resulting in drastic changes to health outcomes and livelihoods. From November 2022 to May 2023, the SIPA workshop team partnered with the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) to support SEWA’s climate change programming. Through a combination of expert interviews, desk research, and field visits, the SIPA team developed 1) an actionable framework to assess the impact of climate shocks on different communities and inform needs-based programming, 2) two comprehensive profiles outlining SEWA's Green Villages energy interventions and urban worker communities, and 3) a final report. The three-part Climate Shock Framework includes a data-intensive tool, decision matrix, and user guide. The Green Villages Profile includes an overview of Green Villages interventions' benefits and constraints to scale. The Urban Profile documents the climate impacts faced by urban communities in Ahmedabad and an overview of current SEWA programming, policy advocacy, and interventions for these workers. The SIPA team's final report provides a detailed path forward for how SEWA can build upon the deliverables to enhance its efforts in data aggregation, external partnerships, and strategic planning to ultimately achieve climate programming at scale. The team hopes that its deliverables, at the intersection of health and livelihoods for marginalized women, will help SEWA strategically build community resilience to climate shocks amongst its members.