Unpacking the role transdisciplinary research in strengthening health systems resilience and adaptation to climate change health risks in Africa.
The SRI has united global leaders in research, government, civil society, and business to advance meaningful progress towards sustainability. The SRI Congress offers an exceptionally inclusive and inspiring global platform for co-creating state-of-the-art solutions and innovations and building a coalition of those willing to achieve a sustainability transformation.
The world’s temperature has already increased by over 1.2°C, with significant health implications such as cardiovascular and respiratory challenges, poor nutrition, mental health, and increased spread of infectious diseases. The United Nations has depicted climate change as the ‘defining issue of our time.’ Climate change shocks are expected to occur over time, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations.
If no additional actions are taken, substantial increases in morbidity and mortality are expected over the coming decades, potentially causing breakdowns in health systems. While there is growing evidence of health adaptations to climate variability and change in Africa, the relationships between climate change, overexploitation of nature and health impacts, including vector-borne and zoonotic disease risks, remain complex.
This complexity has attracted a transdisciplinary perspective on climate change and health to address these varied challenges in pursuit of collective actions to build climate-resilient health systems. Therefore, as an evolving field of research, climate change and health have become of interest to various academic disciplines. However, the challenge remains to coordinate various disciplinary research in developing solutions and strategies to improve health systems’ resilience to climate change.
The goal of this roundtable discussion was to provide an arena to present research findings from various academic disciplines which utilised adaptation and mitigation mechanisms to safeguard human health from the consequences of climate change. The discussion advocated a coordinated, comprehensive, multi-sector, and systemic approach to climate-resilient development in Africa’s health systems.
The discussion reported findings from studies set in countries across Africa, carried out by various academic disciplines, which utilised adaptation and mitigation mechanisms to safeguard human health from the consequences of climate change. Fellows advocated for a comprehensive, multi-sector, and systemic approach to strengthening Africa’s health system resilience in the future. The session consisted of early-career researchers from Africa's low- and middle-income countries conducting transdisciplinary sustainability research.
The discussion advocated a coordinated, comprehensive, multi-sector, and systemic approach to climate-resilient development in Africa’s health systems.
The hybrid session covered a series of case studies on adaptation and mitigation actions that can be used to build and strengthen health system resilience to climate change health risks in Africa. The fellows drew on experiences and interventions that cover climate change and gender inequalities, social and behaviour change, nature-based solutions, built environment and climate financing from African countries, including Botswana, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Malawi, and Cameroon. The fellows will later synthesise the outcome from the roundtable to generate an article for publication and a policy brief for policymakers.
The FAR-LeaF speakers were:
Dr Vincent Pagiwa, chair (Botswana): Challenges and Opportunities for Climate Change and Health Policies & Financing in the African Region
Dr Samson Mhizha (Zimbabwe) Transdisciplinary Resilience Building in a Family Reunification Model among Street-Involved Children.
Dr Ebenezer Amankwaa (Ghana): Building Resilient Hospitals: Indoor Air Quality in Naturally Ventilated and Air-conditioned Hospitals in Ghana
Dr Brighton Chunga (Malawi): Towards Anticipatory Action for Climate Change Adaptation: Predicting Extreme Scenarios for Water Resources in Malawi
Dr Joseph Siewe Fodjo (Cameroon): Blackfly Control for Onchocerciasis Elimination in Cameroon: Prioritizing Sustainable, Eco-friendly Approaches
Dr Nkechi S. Owoo (Ghana). Understanding Climate Adaptability and Consequences in Ghana: Religious Fatalism, Gender Roles, and Mental Health Considerations
