Scientists from across Africa have emphasized the need for placing vulnerable communities at the forefront when addressing the interconnecting challenges of climate change and health as they bear the brunt of the effects.
Speaking during a webinar on ‘Prioritizing Health in Climate Change Action in Africa’ that was organized by the USAID-funded Building Capacity for Integrated Family Planning (FP) and Reproductive Health (RH) and Population, Environment, and Development (PED) Action (BUILD) project on Tuesday, Melvin Otieno environmental health scientist said there is an opportunity to strengthen the health systems in the communities to make them resilient to the impacts of climate change.
“When we talk about devastating floods, earthquakes, prolonged periods of droughts that are often seen in arid and semi-arid areas, we are looking at these vulnerable communities who don’t link these effects to the kind of diseases and invasive species that may affect them,” said Otieno.
Otieno added that there is a great opportunity for the communities to understand the linkages of climate change impacts and the health systems because, from one or two interviews they have conducted at the community level, they have observed that there is an inadequate understanding of how climate change and health interplay and the meaningful interventions that need to be in place.
Otieno who is also the founder of Planetary Health Eastern Africa Hub added that what the vulnerable communities understand is that when flooding happens, displacement is the only effect of climate change but forget about the effects of diseases that come along with flooding and malnutrition when there are prolonged droughts.
“There is a huge opportunity for us to put in place and implement policies around research in terms of climate change and health, we need to explain the scientific reports to the most affected people who really need this information,” added Otieno.
She calls upon a joint funding mechanism that will help them see more projects and collaborations around climate change and health nexus in Africa.
“We need to leverage even indigenous knowledge that supports climate change and health interlinkages. These are aspects that can only be done when we are working with communities in our various initiatives that are jointly funded,” she adds.
According to her, many people suffer the effects of climate unknowingly like the deteriorating air quality across African cities where she says that very few people are able to make that interlinkage.
In addition, Otieno called for the Global North to come up with funding mechanisms that reach to the community levels to bridge the knowledge and understanding gap by building the capacities of practitioners around this area.
“There is a need for resilient health systems, there is really limited understanding on how climate change and health can be included in mainstream national policies,” she adds.
Otieno reiterated the importance of knowledge sharing which is a crucial need for knowledge transfer when talking about academics and researchers.
“We need to stop working in silos and have that interlinkage and connection that will enable us to present our cases in policy dialogues such as webinars,” said Otieno.
The planetary health Eastern Africa hub aims to stimulate regional community building and also provide education for transformative action and influence policy in our greatest climate change scenario.
She further says that the Planetary Health Alliance is working to bridge the political gap between climate change and health in Africa by developing an education toolbox for universities.
The toolbox will be launched soon and will be useful for institutions in East Africa and beyond who want to incorporate planetary health and climate change into their curriculum.
“We realized that there is a gap in knowledge especially among students at the university level, and there was a need for synergizing the One Health and planetary health concepts so that it can be embedded into the educational curriculum as a course or a unit,” added Otieno.
She adds that it is important to involve communities in climate change discussions and knowledge sharing among academics, policymakers, and researchers.
The moderator of the Webinar, Dr Bernard Onyango, Senior Research and Policy Analyst and BUILD Project PED Director • African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) said the BUILD Project brings together southern leadership and organizations from Africa, Asia, and the USA that, together, have proven technical expertise in promoting cross-sectoral interventions in Population-Environment-Development (PED) and in advocating for voluntary family planning (FP) and capacity strengthening. He said the consortium partners in the BUILD Project include United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), Leadership for Environment and Development Southern and Eastern Africa (LEAD SEA), PATH Foundation Philippines Inc (PFPI), FHI360, and the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).
Source: Africa Science News