The World Health Organization's (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) has launched a new research agenda to improve understanding of how climate change-induced migration and displacement affect health outcomes across the region.

The Western Pacific Region is the most populous region of WHO, with almost two billion residents, including the small island nations of Fiji, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands, which are at risk from climate change. But no one is quite sure of the number of people displaced by climate change-induced extreme weather, leading to the crippling of traditional economies, encroachment on communities, and coastal erosion.

Although awareness of these interrelated concerns is increasing, significant knowledge gaps remain. “There is a need for more understanding, more clarity, more commitment, and more depth in understanding how climate change affects patterns of migration and displacement, and how migration and displacement, in turn, affect health outcomes,” WHO's Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health Director, Sandro Demaio, stated in a webinar to launch the initiative.

Most of the existing studies are based in high-income areas. Dr Santino Severoni, WHO Geneva's Director of the Health and Migration Programme, said there is "limited evidence" on anxiety and trauma, depression, and resilience among people displaced by climate-related events, and that more evidence was needed for children, older adults, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and Indigenous communities.

For the Pacific sub-region, WHO has asked countries to focus on research around cultural loss as small island states battle for their survival. Visa status and labour exploitation are identified as areas of under-research in the Asian sub-region. Brian Hall, Director of the Center for Global Health Equity at NYU Shanghai, said, “Most countries do not report statistics on the migration status of maternal and child health, immunization, and chronic disease levels in micro-populations; we are flying blind.”

One of WHO's key recommendations is for communities to take a leading role in the research process from the outset (including setting research questions), and for the lived experience of young people on the move to be recognised as research expertise and a factor to be taken into account when informing priority setting.

The research agenda is designed to incentivise countries to produce science-based evidence, allocate funding, and develop effective health interventions while formulating their national climate and health policies.