“We sincerely thanks to the Republic of Indonesia particularly to Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Health for hosting this wonderful event so that we all able to meet here to discuss about the linkage of climate change adaptation and health sectors.” Said Mr. Nasir Hasan, the team leader for environmental health at WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific, during the closing ceremony of a Thematic Working Group on Climate Change and Health meeting that just took place from 9-12 December 2013 at JW Marriott Hotel, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Yes, I have to agree with him that the event was professionally organized that allowed all delegates to get involved in cross country learning discussions in particular about putting health issues into the framework of adapting to climate change.
This Thematic Working Group on Climate Change and Health was aimed to discuss the outcomes of COP 19 in Warsaw in particular on climate change and health issues, to socialize the latest work of WHO on climate change and health, discuss and formulate a roadmap for the strengthening of regional collaboration in the development of regional and national action plans addressing health implications of climate change, to involve potential new members for this group meeting, and to identify potential funding opportunities.
I was fortunate to be able to attend this working group as an observer on behalf of Center for Environment and Population Health, Griffith University. There were about 19 countries attended this meeting included country members of Regional Forum on Environment and Health for Southeast and East Asian Countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam; and other countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kiribati, Nepal, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, and Vanuatu.
In this meeting, WHO representative indicated that health is the top priority issue in relation to climate change in 95% of Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This however, they further explained that only 73% of those countries included health interventions within their adaptation plans and less than 30% had adequate health vulnerability assessment and health adaptation plans. “Health sector was absent in NAPA (National Action Plan for Adaptation) process”, they added.
Having realized about this gap, WHO emphasized its efforts on ensuring that health sector of each country is ready to get involved in the process of developing NAPA. These efforts such as development of guideline to protect health from climate change through health planning, undertake regional workshops to develop Health National Adaptation Plans (H-NAP) and development of operational framework to build health system resilience to climate change.
During the sharing and discussion session, each country shared their current state in relation to climate change and health. “The likely impact on human health can be determined by consideration of the role played by climatic factors in the present day”, said Prof. Nguyen Huy Nga, the Director General of Center for Disease Control Ministry of Health of Vietnam. He further shared about the increase of dengue cases in Vietnam from 42,013 in 2001 to 104,465 in 2007, and to 110,000 in 2010. “Not only dengue, asthma patients are increased, and so with cholera and malaria”, he then added.
From Indonesia’s perspective, Dr. Sonny P. Warouw from the Ministry of Health of Republic of Indonesia said that there are 5 health priority issues in relation to climate change. They are vector borne diseases (dengue and malaria), water borne diseases (diarrheal diseases), upper-respiratory infection diseases, malnutrition cases and disaster injuries. To tackle the health adverse effects in Indonesia, the Government has put effort to strengthen the health system this for example by activating Ministerial Regulation on coordination team of adaptation in health sector, Ministerial Regulation on adaptation strategy for health sector on impact of climate change, and Ministerial Regulation on risk factor on health related to climate change. He also added that the health adaptation is now being developed integrated within the National Action Plan document in Indonesia.
Ms. Siriwan Chandanachulaka, Director of Health Impact Assessment, Departement of Health of Thailand said that in Thailand 4 health indicators are included into their draft of Climate Change Master Plan. These are (1) Number of death and injuries due to climate extreme event, (2) Number of under five children with malnutrition, (3) Proportion of health risk area on health effect related to climate change, and (4) Proportion of health cost on health effect related to climate change. She further said that this draft is to be approved by the Cabinet in Thailand next year.
Ms. Sonam Lhaden Khandu from National Environment Comision of Bhutan, shared her country’s experience concerning climate change implications on health sector. “A pilot project of health adaptation to climate change is now being implemented in Bhutan with three focus area including risk assessment and integrated surveillance to enhance effective management of climate sensitive and health risks, improve capacity of community and health institutions, and emergency preparedness and disease prevention measures”, said Ms. Sonam.
Almost similar with Bhutan, in Samoa to deal with climate change, health system was strengthened through a comprehensive disease surveillance system, community based vector control, and multi-stakeholder water quality monitoring. Meanwhile, in Vanuatu health system strengthening was applied through application of core public health programs such as primary health care and preventive service (including malaria) as well as disease surveillance system.
In this meeting, National Adaptation Plan Global Support Program (NAP-GSP) was introduced. This program is aimed to support LDCs to advance their national adaptation plans. The focuses of NAP-GSP are coordinated technical assistance and promote regional cooperation to leverage national efforts with regional public and private partners. NAP-GSP will play role as a catalytic factor in building global efforts in collaboration with multi lateral development partner and promoting synergies across countries. Lastly, this program initiates the creation of global exchange culture and peer-to-peer learning for strengthening the capacities of country participants.
In relation to this, Mozaharul Alam, the Regional Climate Change Coordinator UNEP, said that strengthening capacities is not like providing magic pills. There are several steps need to be undertaken to support this effort. These are (1) Multi-stakeholder framework, (2) Use of national experts, (3) Institutional capacity-building needs, (4) diversified learning, and (5) Encourage gender inclusion.
Until I wrote this article, the final recommendations have not been circulated yet. This however, there were several important points discussed during the final session of the group meeting which I would like to share here. In general, the overall recommendation is to promote the integration of environment and health considerations within the climate change adaptation frameworks of each country participants.
To achieve this integration, public health engagements should be strengthened into the current climate change adaptation development processes at national, regional, and international levels. This should be followed by establishment or strengthening the health component of National Adaptation Plans, promote health considerations and reporting on health and environmental co-benefits of mitigation measures, access to either multi-lateral or bilateral funding and technical support to ensure the implementation of the work plan of the TWG CC & H, promote and raise awareness on any relevant reports and research studies in Asia and the Pacific region, and strengthening health resilience through improvement of health services delivery and facilities. Last but not least, cross-boundary partnership and collaboration should be strengthened in particular on sharing data and information to support knowledge acquisition and management concerning health and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Ms Tantri from Ministry of Environment Republic of Indonesia was acting as the madam chair during the closing plenary session. She closed the TWG by inviting all country participants to work in partnership across the countries to strengthen the health sector in each country to respond to the implications of climate change. She added that to achieve this, an effective collaboration between the sector of environment and health in each country is fully required.
After the closing, all participants were able to visit the landmark of Jakarta city, the National Monument, to see the hospitality of Jakartans and visit Thamrin City Mall to do some small shopping to buy some souvenirs for their love ones back home (END).
