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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke-Senior Reporter
DELEGATES at the Climate and Health Africa Conference 2024 yesterday endorsed and adopted the Harare Climate and Health Africa Declaration, a blueprint that will guide African countries going forward.
The Declaration is a collective voice outlining high-level priorities and offering recommendations towards equitable strategies that will help build climate resilience, and people-centred systems for health.
The document prioritises building capacity for African-led research, training and knowledge generation on climate change. It also seeks to promote inclusive dialogue between science, policy and communities.
It recommends the establishment of equitable research partnerships and the reinforcement of capabilities of African researchers and calls for increased funding for these actions.
The declaration also emphasises the importance of community engagement and participation in climate and health initiatives and recognises the crucial role of local knowledge and traditional practices in building resilience.
It calls on policy makers to prioritise climate change as a public health emergency while reinforcing the health sector institutional frameworks for increased ability to protect, capacitate and involve health workers.
“As a continent on the frontlines of climate change, Africa should no longer be a passive recipient of global solutions, but a proactive architect of its own future systems for better health and well-being, shaped by further prioritised role given to scientific, local and traditional knowledge generation, scale-up of innovative solutions, and policy leadership,” reads the Declaration.
WHO Regional Office for Africa Director, Healthier Populations Cluster, Dr Adelheid Onyango, said the implementation of commitments made during CHAC 2024 were important going forward.
She said the WHO Afro was committed to facilitating the connections between the science, policy, and communities.
“We are talking about global goal adaptation. We want to go out there and help African facilities in the health sector, but also across the board, reduce vulnerability and improve our adaptive capacity. How are we going to do that? Make sure that health experts are properly tuned to go there, participate, and ensure that those desires of our hearts, those needs of our communities are actually brought home, because they know how to participate in a dialogue and to gain from it,” she said.
Handing over the Harare Declaration, Professor Guelaio Cisse from the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS) emphasised the importance of team work.
“This cannot be done just by the scientists, it’s going to be teamwork, it’s going to need all the stakeholders, both to properly define the questions, but also then to implement and intervene and to make it into policy. The declaration captures the essence of the conference, but it also acknowledges the multi-sectorality of the problem. The lessons from the last three days are that we really need to work across disciplines, cultures, countries and across comfort levels in order to actually bring solutions,” he said.
In his closing remarks, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora said the diverse composition of the conference had ensured inclusive discussions culminating in the Declaration.
“The momentum generated by this conference will reverberate for many years to come. This is the time now for the health sector to play a greater role in the climate change response, to deploy the strategies and tools that we have developed over centuries. We have successfully used these tools to control threats such as HIV, TB, and diseases of all times such as smallpox and typhus. We need to win this battle. To work tirelessly to protect people against climate change, the greatest threat to their health in our time now,” he said.
Dr Mombeshora said the conference had served as a vital stepping stone in preparation for COP 29, adding that the unveiling of the Harare Declaration compelled all nations to unite in addressing the adverse effects of climate change on earth.
Online Reporter