Africa’s Climate Change Strategy to have Strong Health Component – AU Official

The impacts of climate change on health in Africa will form part of the Continental Climate Change Strategy being developed under the leadership of the African Union Commission (AUC) according to the AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Ms. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace.

Stressing the relevance and timeliness of the subject, Ms Tumusiime told participants to Second Pan-African Climate and Health in Africa workshop which opened at the UN Conference Centre in Addis Ababa today that these kinds of activities “pave the way for collective actions to address the multi-dimensional challenges posed by climate change.”

According to the Information and Communications Service of ECA, the Addis Ababa workshop is convened to review what has been achieved since the first workshop was held in Bamako, Mali more than 10 years ago.

The current workshop is being organised by the Ethiopian Climate and Health Working Group, in collaboration with the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), WHO Africa Regional Office, UNDP, the UK Meteorological Office, Exeter University, UK and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, USA.

In his opening remarks, Mr Josué Dioné Director, Food Security and Sustainable Development Division at ECA said the importance of the second workshop lies in the fact that it would help define Africa’s climate and health priorities.

“The compounding effects of climate-induced food insecurity on health are particularly dire in Africa, given the significant economic and social costs of hunger and malnutrition”, he said.

“And such effects are caused by climate variability and change not only at the local, but also at the global levels, as can be illustrated by the well-known situation where a country’s harvest fails in Africa due to drought or flooding, while food prices spike internationally due to climatic events in Russia, the USA or Australia”, he explained.

He called on participants to take advantage of the workshop to learn and develop newer initiatives and partnerships in climate and development work in Africa.

Most health indicators for Africa already point to a dire situation in several countries: inadequate infrastructure, insufficient health personnel, poor medical equipment and health information systems, unreliable supply chains for essential medicines, etc.

Now, the impacts of climate variability change are known not just to be negating recent progress made in the economic development of the continent, but are already exposing entire regions to famine and serious emerging health issues.

The Director of Health Promotion Cluster at WHO/AFRO, Dr. Nsue-Milang Diodada, made a detail presentation on the effects of climate change on health, which include:-

· dry conditions – respiratory diseases – aggravated by drought and dust, e.g. bacterial meningitis;
· wet conditions – vector-borne diseases including zoonoses – e.g. malaria, Rift Valley Fever;
· heat stress – of considerable concern for Africa’s rapidly urbanizing populations.
· droughts and floods that impact on nutrition, water resources, sanitation and diarrheal diseases, e.g. cholera.

A press conference on the Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on Health in Africa is scheduled at the end of the workshop on 6 April 2011 to be addressed by the Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to Ethiopia, H.E. Major-General Lungile C Pepani and Dr. Madeleine Thomson of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI).

 

This article was originally posted on Africa Sustainable Energy & Environment Platform

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