To additional improve the local weather resilience of well being methods within the Caribbean, the Pan American Well being Group (PAHO), supported by the Inexperienced Local weather Fund (GCF), is fostering entry to sources wanted to reply to climatic threats in seven Caribbean international locations. They’re Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, Belize, and Trinidad and Tobago.
With a price range of €$776,400, the challenge is targeted on establishing operational nationwide committees and producing baseline knowledge by way of vulnerability and adaptation assessments and nation profiles. The challenge is anticipated to culminate this yr. Consultants are helping the international locations in estimating their well being sector’s carbon footprint and making use of well being co-benefit measuring instruments like CLIMAQ-H to assist international locations to maximise the advantages of tackling local weather change and air air pollution collectively. The software estimates the well being and associated financial features achieved by Member States by implementing actions and measures to mitigate local weather change.
To date, stakeholder conferences/workshops have been held in Guyana, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The GCF Readiness Mission enhances the EU/CARIFORUM Local weather Change and Well being Mission (2020-2025) and goals to strengthen technical and institutional capacities of Ministries of Well being and improve collaboration with different sectors to implement mitigation and adaptation methods and enhance frameworks to cut back emissions and strengthen local weather resilience of well being methods.
The GCF challenge started in-country work in Saint Lucia in July 2023 and held the primary inter-ministerial Local weather Change and Well being Workshop in October. The assembly included contributions from the Ministry of Well being Wellness and Aged Affairs and PAHO/WHO and a various array of stakeholders participated, together with numerous ministries, companies and civil society organizations. The overarching message to the stakeholders represented was clear and unequivocal – The pressing want to guard public well being from the in depth impacts of local weather change.
In November 2023, a workshop was held to strengthen local weather resilience of the well being system in St. Kitts and Nevis by integrating local weather change issues into well being coverage and observe. This challenge enhances different initiatives in St. Kitts and Nevis together with the implementation of the PAHO Sensible Hospitals Initiative, the Caribbean Motion Plan on Well being and Local weather Change, in addition to different worldwide agreements. The necessity for a complete nationwide coverage on knowledge sharing was highlighted by the members as a important success issue for collective motion on local weather change.
Equally, in Guyana in February 2024, the stakeholder session there noticed some 40 well being professionals convened to debate actions being undertaken at each the nationwide and world (Inexperienced Local weather Fund, GCF) ranges to construct Local weather Change Resilient Well being Techniques there. The session additionally served to achieve important suggestions on the gaps that exist to combine local weather become the well being sector. This led to the event of the Phrases of Reference for the formation of a Well being Sector Local weather Change Committee.
In Trinidad and Tobago in April, stakeholders representing numerous authorities establishments and numerous ministries mentioned the combination of well being and local weather change matters into each inter and intra-ministerial planning for local weather change motion. They highlighted the organisations, ministerial departments and companies that had been already implementing actions to construct resilience to the impacts of local weather change.
Haiti hosted the primary assembly of the Intersectoral Committee on Local weather Change and Well being on the finish of June and prioritized the mapping of the present state and stock of current paperwork on local weather change and a name for proposals to fund analysis packages associated to local weather change.
Different outputs of the GCF challenge are to create a local weather change and well being knowledge observatory and implementation roadmap, execute a web-based coaching course for nationwide local weather change representatives, healthcare professionals and members of the general public, improve public consciousness and outreach on well being and local weather change and develop and submit a multi-country idea be aware on well being adaptation and/or mitigation motion to the GCF for funding on the finish of 2024.
