Building Climate-Resilient Health Systems: Lessons…

For the first time in 28 years, public health was on the agenda at the climate talks that took place under the auspices of the United Nations in Dubai. Climate Change poses significant threats to global health, especially in developing countries. The human family has never been better at fighting diseases, but the threats of climate change are making public health gains a lot harder and, in some cases reversing the world's hard-earned progress.

The broader public health effects of climate change go beyond infectious diseases and national boundaries. In the Global South, heatwaves have pushed temperatures beyond what communities can survive, wildfires in the Global North have left people breathing hazardous air and floods have contaminated drinking water sources from around the world sparking an unprecedented number of deadly cholera outbreaks.

In Sierra Leone, the 2017 mudslide that took the lives of hundreds of people raised the alarm of the country's vulnerability to extreme storms brought by climate change. The need for integrated and innovative climate and health strategies in enhancing climate resilience in peripheral health units, including tackling the energy crisis and the provision of hybrid ambulances have never been more urgent.

Objectives:

This side event will spotlight the innovative "climate-health" approach of the Government of Sierra Leone in responding to the worsening effect of climate change on health in the country.

The event will also present an opportunity for global knowledge sharing on strategies for climate-resilient health systems, strengthen collaboration and partnerships between Governments, Private Sector and international organization in addressing climate related health issues and the importance of scaling up investment for resilient climate-health systems.