How can social accountability mechanisms enhance community-led responses to climate-related health challenges in rural and urban Malawi?

Malawi and other African countries are increasingly facing extreme climate events, marked by heavy floods, extreme heat, droughts and consequent outbreaks of infectious diseases, food insecurity and mental illnesses. Limited interventions however exist to support vulnerable communities adapt to climate-related health challenges. Understanding local vulnerability, integrating experiential or indigenous knowledge and promoting community-led adaptation are essential to strengthen climate resilience. Despite efforts to promote community engagement in global health, many initiatives in low- and middle-income settings remain driven by researchers, government or non-government organisations, inadvertently reinforcing epistemic injustice. My previous research in Malawi has further revealed how power holders often employ community engagement to legitimise their agendas, rather than respond to community needs. Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), this research will co-design a novel approach of enabling communities to initiate dialogue and demand accountability from stakeholders to collectively adapt to climate-related health challenges. I will integrate participatory evaluation methods including citizen science ethnography, reflective workshops and in-depth interviews to enable community members to analyse their experiences of initiating dialogue with stakeholders to adapt to climate related-health challenges. Study outcomes shall contribute both methodologically and theoretically to enhance community-led adaptation to climate-related health challenges and epistemic justice.