Climate-Smart Health Systems Collaborative

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About the Climate-Smart Health Systems Collaborative

While countries are taking steps to develop climate smart-health systems (CSHS), they still need more practical knowledge and resources to establish and maintain these systems. Governments across many countries have expressed the challenge of accessing practical, implementation-related knowledge on climate change in the health sector. The CSHS collaborative promotes peer-to-peer learning among JLN member countries and selected non-JLN countries to address this challenge. It helps strengthen governments’ capacity by enabling policymakers to learn from each other through the sharing of lessons and innovations, solving common problems, and co-producing knowledge on building climate-smart health systems. With facilitation by experienced resource experts, practitioners, and domain experts, the Collaborative brings together mid- to senior-level government practitioners from 21 countries. The goal is to support access to knowledge, cross-country learning, and capacity building on climate change adaptation, resilience, and mitigation in the health sector, as an integral part of country efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Why Building Climate Smart Health Systems is Important for advancing UHC

Climate change poses a serious threat to human health, and its effects will only worsen as the global crisis escalates. Extreme temperatures and weather events Moreover, climate change disrupts food and water access, alters infectious disease patterns, undermines maternal and child health and countless other health .^[1] Climate change also exacerbates health risks linked to poor, air quality, and . Also, climate-related extreme events particularly heavy rainfall, floods, landslides, strong winds and extreme heat threaten healthcare delivery, disrupt access to health facilities, interrupt supply chains and cause direct damage to health facilities and other physical infrastructure. By 2050, according to World Bank modeling, climate change could cause an estimated 21 million additional deaths from just five health risks, further straining healthcare systems. These risks disproportionately burden vulnerable populations, hindering progress towards Universal Health Coverage. Building climate-smart health systems is crucial for mitigating these impacts and safeguarding human health amidst the changing climate.

^[1] World Bank, https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health/brief/health-and-climate-change

Co-Developed Resources and Shared Learnings:

The Collaborative anticipates that its outputs will include knowledge exchanges and webinars, co-created knowledge products, and a vibrant community of practitioners. For 2024–2025, the knowledge products prioritized for co-production will focus on governance, financing, and data and accountability. Under governance, members will prepare a how-to guide for implementing climate and health governance across multiple levels and within appropriate institutional structures. For financing, members expressed interest in knowledge products on making the case for investment in climate and health, as well as a repository of costing, budgeting, and Public Financial Management (PFM). Regarding data and accountability, members indicated interest in co-developing a toolkit to help analyse multiple data sources from various sectors and enable policy actions based on this integrated data. They requested an expressed interest in a repository of guides to support climate-smart health facilities.

Participating Countries

Bahrain, Belize, Bhutan, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam

Partners

Australia DFAT, USAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, partners of the Health Climate, Environment and Disaster Program (HCED) at the World Bank Group beyond the JLN, The Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator with Results for Development, the Government of Japan.