African scientists have decried the weak political commitment, and inadequate financing in the climate change and health nexus.
Speaking during a webinar by the USAID-funded Building Capacity for Integrated Family Planning (FP) and Reproductive Health (RH) and Population, Environment and Development (PED) Action (BUILD) Project; Prof Brame Kone who is the technical Officer in charge of Climate Change and Health at the Africa regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO/AFRO) in Congo Brazzaville claimed that Africa lacks political willingness to move the health agenda forward.
“A good example is the recently concluded African Climate Summit (ACS). Its Nairobi Declaration had a very weak commitment on matters of climate change and health nexus,” said Kone.
“Climate crisis is first and foremost a health crisis and this needs to be understood and funds need to be made available to tackle this challenge,” he added.
Noting the emergence of lethal strains of disease-causing pathogens amid shifts in climate patterns, Kone emphasized the need for African governments to intensify climate action at the community level to minimize deaths and pressure on health facilities.
The webinar held that mainstreaming climate action in national health policy frameworks, combined with political goodwill, innovative financing, research, and innovations, will be key to enhancing the resilience of Africa’s public health systems amid disruptions linked to extreme weather events.
The climate health stakeholders held that the loss and damage fund at Conference of Parties (COP28) needs to be more agile and flexible to address climate change adaptation emergencies.
According to Leah Aoko from African Research Impact Network (ARIN), the Nairobi Declaration exposes the African Heads of State and Government who have not realized the importance of having health in the climate change agenda.
“Our preliminary analysis of the Nairobi Declaration coming out from the first African Climate Summit held from 4-6 September in Kenya’s capital shows that Africa has an opportunity to strengthen the health systems to make them resilient to the impacts of climate change given the devastating effects of floods for instance in Libya,” she said.
Melvine Otieno, the founder of Planetary Health Eastern Africa Hub and Lecturer at the University of Eldoret, noted that there exists great opportunity for communities to understand the linkages of the prevailing climate change impacts and the health systems.
“From one or two interviews conducted at the community level, it was observed that there is inadequate understanding of how climate change and health interplays and the meaningful interventions that need to be put in place,” he observed.
Otieno added that the vulnerable communities only understand that when flooding occurs, displacement is the only effect of climate change. But are oblivious to effects such as diseases that come along with flooding and malnutrition when there are prolonged droughts.
According to a study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the African region contributes to a relatively small percentage of global gas emissions compared to other regions like Asia, Europe and North America.
The IPCC report indicates that Africa accounts for approximately 4 per cent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes.
The webinar was moderated by Dr Bernard Onyango the Senior Research and Policy Analyst and BUILD Project PED Director, African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP).
