Health systems resilient to climate change sought in SE Asia

Member countries of the WHO South-East Asia Region including India today vowed to build health systems able to cope with climate-related shocks and stress.
Health ministers and senior health officials from 11 countries -- India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste -- unanimously endorsed the Male Declaration to tackle the public health risks caused by climate change.
"Today's declaration demonstrates the commitment of the South-East Asia region's member countries to take effective and immediate action," Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia, said.
Climate change is happening and is a risk to public health, she said.

"Whether from greater severity and intensity of extreme weather events, changes in the spread and abundance of disease-carrying vectors such as mosquitoes, or changes to the physical environment that cause displacement or threaten livelihoods, climate change is already having an impact across our region," Singh said.
The declaration being adopted at the 70th Regional Committee session of the WHO South-East Asia Region -- the region's highest decision-making body -- builds on recent initiatives at country, regional and global levels to tackle the public health risks caused by climate change.

It is accompanied by a Framework for Action to be implemented between 2017 and 2022, and calls on UN agencies and other international organisations, development partners, philanthropic agencies, academic and civil society organisations to mobilise human, financial and technical resources for this purpose.

A progress report would be presented at the 75th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia in 2022.
Building health systems resilience to climate change requires buy-in from all stakeholders, Singh said.
"The core action points include establishing and strengthening climate change and health information systems and research; integrating climate risks with national disaster risk management; enhancing health sector preparedness for climate-related events.
"By fully implementing these and other initiatives, health systems can protect vulnerable populations across the region against health risks caused by climate change," the regional director said.
WHO South-East Asia Region is committed to supporting member countries as they strive to strengthen health systems to deal with one of the 21st century's most pressing issues - climate change, she said.

"We know what must be done. We can and must act now to meet the immense and increasing public health risks caused by climate change," Singh said.