Commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (UNDP BCPR), under the Climate Risk Management Technical Assistance Support Project (CRM TASP), this report addresses climate risks and risk management capacity in the health sector in Nicaragua. Building upon the CRM TASP general framework, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) developed a more detailed methodological framework for assessing climate risks and identifying climate risk management options in Nicaragua, as well as in six other Latin American and African countries (Dominican Republic, Honduras, Kenya, Niger, Peru and Uganda). As the poorest country in Central America, Nicaragua faces massive development challenges; for example, Nicaragua’s health sector suffers from low expenditures and staff levels, infrastructure shortages and low capacity for dealing with climate-related health impacts. This is one in a series of reports examining climate change adaptation in high-risk countries. According to the report, UNDP views climate change assessments as becoming ‘the lynchpin of national responses and adaptation strategies for many years to come’ and recommends that this knowledge be combined with ‘real preparedness and action at all country levels’. The climate risk assessments discussed in this report feed into a set of country-level projects and regional initiatives that will inform the practice of climate risk management by building an evidence base for understanding how climatic risks are likely to unfold. Every year in Nicaragua (which has a tropical climate) cyclones, floods and droughts claim dozens of lives and affect tens of thousands of people. According to this report, climate change could increase these impacts. Key recommendations for climate risk management include:

improve water management, flood control and reforestation
expand and improve health services
run awareness-raising and education campaigns
strengthen community organisations
invest in climate and health data monitoring and early warning
integrate climate risk considerations into health policy documents
institutionalise cooperation between health and climate agencies
strengthen governmental capacities
establish and implement a comprehensive climate risk management programme.