Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

World

Climate change and health in small island developing States: Regional Plan of Action for SIDS in the African and South East Asian Regions

Attachments

This Plan of Action was developed during the Third Global Conference on Health and Climate Change which was organized as a regionally dispersed conference with a focus on SIDS. The Conference was held in Mauritius, specifically for SIDS from Africa and South East Asia Region, on 21-22 March 2018. Participants included Ministers of Health and Ministers of Environment and high-level officials from Mauritius (host country), Cabo Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Sao Tome e Principe, and Seychelles. This Plan of Action is for the period 2019-2023.

Background

  1. In 2017, at the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC in Bonn, WHO launched a Special Initiative on Climate Change and Health in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), in collaboration with UNFCCC and the Fijian Presidency of the COP23. The Initiative recognizes that SIDS are in the front-line facing a range of acute and long-term risks, including extreme floods, storms, drought and sea level rise; and increased risks of water-, vector- and food-borne diseases.

  2. The initiative aims to provide national health authorities in SIDS with the political, technical and financial support, and the evidence to:
    Better understand and address the effects of climate change on health including those mediated via climate change impacts on the main determinants of health (e.g. food, air, water and sanitation, vectors);
    Improve the climate-resilience and environmental sustainability of health services;
    Promote the implementation of climate change mitigation actions by the most polluting sectors (e.g. transport, energy, food and agriculture) that maximize health co-benefits, both within and outside SIDS.

  3. The initiative will also aim to lead the way in transforming health services in SIDS away from a model of curative services with escalating costs, and towards one based on disease prevention, climate resilience and sustainability. It will also implement approaches that promote working in a more integrated way across different health programmes (e.g., environmental health, worker’s health, health systems strengthening, emergency preparedness and response, food security and nutrition), and with other partners.

  4. This Plan of Action is for the period 2019-2023, and corresponds to the implementation of WHO Special Initiative on Climate Change and Health in SIDS in the African and South-East Asian Regions of the World Health Organization.