Extreme heat is affecting poor people’s health and living conditions, especially in densely populated urban areas.
Through this project, Women for the World (WfW) seeks to mitigate heat damage in urban poor neighbourhoods, increase climate change awareness, and mainstream community-led processes in Yangon, Myanmar. The project adds to existing community-driven housing efforts already underway in Yangon by WfW in collaboration with the Yangon Region Government.
While Cities Alliance received many proposals on the topic of cooling strategies, the WfW Community-led Heat Mitigation project stood out because it fits within a larger initiative (community-driven housing efforts) and includes both community and government engagement. In addition, its partnership between organisations and government reduces gaps between top-down approaches and the realities of on-the-ground implementation.
One component of the project draws on innovative and engaging citizen science activities, such as conducting neighbourhood heat assessments with an inexpensive thermal monitor to collect temperatures on street level. Using both tangible evidence and experienced/perceived data, this step can help inform scientific arguments surrounding issues related to heat mitigation.
A significant output of the WfW project will be the implementation of four pilot programs. These programs will be developed by the community with the support of architects and climate experts, together sharing ideas for sustainable and affordable measures to mitigate heat. These programs may include planting shade trees, creating community gardens, securing water, constructing passive building designs, and replacing rooftop materials. Along with relevant literature, WfW will create video clips for the project demonstrating qualitative changes and results over the course of its implementation.
This 1-pager project profile provides information on the context and approach, as well as the grant size and the project duration.
