Climate Change, Women’s Mental Health and Gender-Based Violence: An Umbrella Review

This project will conduct a JBI umbrella review of evidence on the relationships between climate change, women’s mental health and gender-based violence. Climate-related exposures will include long-term environmental change and acute events such as extreme heat, floods, droughts, wildfires and storms. The review will also consider indirect pathways involving displacement, food and water insecurity, livelihood disruption and interruption of health and protection services. The primary objective is to synthesise findings from completed systematic reviews and meta-analyses examining the effects of climate change or climate-related events on women’s mental health, gender-based violence, or both outcomes. The review will compare the scope, methods and findings of eligible reviews to determine where conclusions converge, where they differ and where important evidence gaps remain. A secondary objective is to assess the extent, distribution and characteristics of African evidence represented within the included reviews. This will include identifying the African countries, populations, climate exposures and health outcomes covered, as well as areas where Africa-specific findings can be extracted. Eligible evidence syntheses will be systematic reviews and meta-analyses published from January 2021 to the final search date in 2026. They must synthesise empirical primary research involving women or girls, or report findings that can be disaggregated by gender. Reviews will be eligible if they examine mental health outcomes, gender-based violence outcomes, or both in relation to climate change or climate-related events. Scoping reviews, narrative reviews, protocols, commentaries and individual primary studies will be excluded from the formal umbrella review. Review selection, critical appraisal and data extraction will be conducted by two reviewers using predefined criteria and JBI guidance. Methodological quality will be assessed using the JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses. Data will be synthesised at the review level using structured tables and narrative synthesis. Overlap in primary studies across the included reviews will also be examined to avoid treating repeatedly synthesised evidence as independent evidence. Expected outputs include a structured overview of the available systematic review evidence, an assessment of its methodological quality and consistency, and a map of African representation within the evidence base. The review will identify under-researched populations, climate exposures, mental health outcomes and forms of gender-based violence. It is expected to inform future research priorities and support gender-responsive climate and health policies, preparedness strategies and resilience interventions in Africa.