Organization of 2023 Clim-Health Africa meeting
DATE
26th – 28th July 2023
About Workshop
Clim-Health Africa, established in 2013, is a multi-stakeholder initiative bringing togetherAfrican technical institutions and international partners to guide and strengthen the public health resilience of African countries and communities. It intends to serve as a virtual hub, where expertise is shared in order to develop the capacity of African health and climate communities, institutions, practitioners and partners to understand and integrate climate change challenges into policy, socio-economics, planning and programming.
In 2017, a roundtable of Clim-Health Africa consortium discussed key emerging issues, including (1) the emphasis on early warning systems (EWSs) than other uses of climate information such as real-time climate monitoring, (2) the need to engage climate change and health work in Disaster Risk Management Coordination mechanism and (3) the need of more capacity building to allow climate service development and uptake in a
comprehensive, multipronged, and strategic approach.
Six years after Clim-Health Africa roundtable of 2017, the present meeting will provide an opportunity to review operational research and weather forecasting programs implemented so far for early warning of climate-related disasters, food insecurity and epidemic prevention in Africa. It will also address the challenges faced by professionals in the field of health emergency in terms of emergenciesā prevention using weather information and will outline avenues of collaboration between Clim-Health Africa consortium and the emergency actors in Africa.
Finally, the meeting will discuss the capacity building needs for the multisectoral work necessary to properly take into account the climate dimension in the resilience of health systems as stated by the COP26 health initiative to which 24 African countries have already subscribed out of 65 worldwide.
This workshop is funded by the Welcome Trust as part of the project entitled āBuilding the Climate Change and Health Field: Placing Health at the Centre of the Global Climate Negotiationsā.
Objectives :
The meeting will allow partners to discuss emerging issues and how to make climate services and the Clim- Health Africa Network more responsive to both emerging policy agendas and user needs in Africa.
The specific objectives are :
1. Discuss Clim-Health membersā initiatives in Afro region from the decade 2015- 2025 related to climate information and services for health action, climate and health security and emergency preparedness and, climate and health capacity building for better resilience of the health sector, including food security and nutrition;
2. Plan Clim-Health Africa community and emergency partners integrated work agenda for the 5 coming years, including the raising of the health voice in the
negotiations on climate at UNFCCC-led COPs;
3. Plan a fund-raising strategy to implement the 5 years agenda in a way that contributes to relevant priorities and initiatives and commitments at regional and country level (e.g. climate resilient health systems).
Expected Outcomes:
– Scope of work for Clim-Health Africa and partners on policy and operational research priorities, including emergency preparedness and response for the period 2023-2028
– Work collaboration and short-term agenda initiated between Clim-Health Africa consortium and other partners toward CoP28 in Abu-Dhabi
– Draft concepts note for fund raising to support the five years scope of work
– Strengthened linkages and synergies between members, policy makers, donors and other stakeholders of the Clim-Health Africa network