From droughts in East Africa to floods in Southern India, the impacts of climate change and natural hazards include death and illness, damage to property and infrastructure, disruption to basic services and the loss of livelihood opportunities.

The most marginalised people are among the hardest hit in any crisis, with children and adolescents in poverty often the most affected. Natural hazards can displace children, caregivers and service providers, as well as destroy school buildings, health facilities and transport infrastructure. Parents may also pull their children out of school to support the wider household, through unpaid domestic work and/or paid labour.

Such immediate impacts on a child's wellbeing are well known. But how do natural hazards experienced during childhood affect future life stages into adolescence and beyond? What are the implications of natural hazards for child and adolescent poverty trajectories? With the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction a few weeks away, there is an opportunity now to examine the true impact climate change and natural hazards have on the systems and services central to child and adolescent well-being.

Drawing on ODI’s recent research on 'Child poverty, disasters and climate change: investigating relationships and implications over a child’s life course', our panellists discuss the effect of natural hazards on the different life stages of children and adolescents living in poverty.