DARE – Climate change hazards, risks and vulnerabilities assessment in schools in Pakistan: piloting a localised participatory assessment

This action-oriented implementation research will collaboratively contextualise the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) and Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training’s assessment and preparedness toolkit in Pakistan and pilot the newly-adapted Climate Risk School Assessment Tool (CRSAT) for identification and mapping of hazards inside and outside school communities.

Specifically, this action-oriented participatory assessment seeks to answer:

• What changes does contextualisation of the CRSAT in Pakistan require? How do these changes vary across different parts of Pakistan?
• What do school communities (teachers, parents, community and local authorities) identify as hazards, risks and vulnerabilities to their school environments and what capacities and barriers do they identify in managing these?
• How do these factors vary across urban and rural contexts?
• How do they relate to the particular needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups, including people with disabilities and ethnic minorities?
• How do school communities experience the feasibility, accessibility and usefulness of the Pakistan CRSAT? How can this be further developed?
• What do the experiences with piloting the Pakistan CRSAT imply for scaling of climate risk awareness and assessment in Pakistan’s education sector?

Climate change is already exacerbating the frequency, severity and duration of climate emergencies. This imperils lives and livelihoods, and causes loss, damage and disruption to education systems. Education is widely recognised as a critical enabler of climate action in key international agreements. In the Constitution of Pakistan, education occupies an important place where the State is responsible for eradication of illiteracy and provision of free and compulsory education.

The Pakistan School Safety Framework offers policy guidance, sets standards for the implementation of Comprehensive School Safety at all levels and calls for the establishment of school-level disaster management committees. Despite ample evidence on the importance of community engagement and empowerment in localised efforts to adapt to climate change impacts, there is no clear, contextually appropriate, localised and participatory risk assessment tool or guidance on implementation.

Despite many national plans and policies for education, climate change and disaster, risk, reduction (DRR) providing the foundation for climate resilient education service delivery, implementing these policies into action at national, regional and local level remains a huge challenge. It is therefore critical to design and pilot scalable and evidence-informed tools to address policy implementation challenges.

Piloting and adapting this Climate Risk School Assessment Tool (CRSAT) will help equip urban and rural schools in Pakistan with a clear and practical method to undertake vital assessments of climate change related hazards, risks and vulnerabilities. This tool, if proved suitable for scaling and embedding in school-level disaster management will address a key objective of the Pakistan School Safety Framework (PSSF): identification and mapping of all hazards inside and outside the school community. It will also help school communities identify challenges and build capacities to develop anticipatory short- and long-term response and adaptation action plans.

More broadly, the study will generate empirical evidence on local hazards, risks and vulnerabilities faced by school communities, their capacities and barriers to effective management. The study will provide insights into processes of tool contextualisation, learnings about tool acceptability, feasibility and value, and highlight key considerations for scaling climate risk assessment in educational settings in Pakistan.

Evidence generated will support policy decision-makers to include an accessible, participatory, and inclusive climate risk assessment tool into the existing PSSF and provincial Education Sector Plans. In this regard, a policy brief developed collaboratively with organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs) highlighting the study’s findings, along with policy recommendations for the responsible government ministries and departments, would ensure relevant government stakeholders understand their role in implementation of evidence-based climate-resilient education policies and programmes.

• Visit the Data and Research in Education, Research Consortium (DARE-RC)