From Matam to Dhaka, women on the front line of climate change : focus on the Women's Health Conference in Paris

On 26 September 2025, the Women's Health Conference, organised at Paris Cité University in partnership with Harvard, Stanford and the National University of Singapore, highlighted a global health issue: the effects of climate change on women's health, particularly in the face of extreme temperatures.

This scientific meeting provided an opportunity to highlight several research projects carried out as part of the SPRINT (Strengthening Preparations and Resilience in Temperature) project, an interdisciplinary programme dedicated to women's resilience to extreme temperatures in Senegal (SPRINT-Sen) and Bangladesh (SPRINT-Ban).

Professor Valéry Ridde presented the results of research conducted in the Matam region, entitled ‘Consequences and coping strategies of women facing extreme temperatures’.

Dr Jean-Marc Goudet presented the SPRINT-Sen project protocol and a scientific poster on the mental health of women facing extreme temperatures. Fieldwork revealed that the effects of climate change are not limited to physical and health issues: heat, excessive domestic workloads and precarious living conditions increase stress, irritability and psychological distress.

Dr Nazmul Islam presented the SPRINT-Ban component, conducted in collaboration with the Sajida Foundation, which focuses on implementing a community intervention to address the impact of climate change on mental health in vulnerable neighbourhoods of Dhaka.