WHO: Regional plan of action for SIDS in the African and South East Asian regions

In 2017, at the 23rd Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Bonn, WHO launched a Special Initiative on Climate Change and Health in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), in collaboration with UNFCCC and the Fijian Presidency of the COP23. The initiative recognizes that SIDS are on the frontline of climate change and are facing a range of acute and long-term risks, including extreme floods, storms, drought, sea level rise, and increased risks of various diseases. This plan of action is for the period 2019-2023, and corresponds with the implementation of the initiative.

This effort aims to provide national health authorities in SIDS with the political, technical and financial support, and the evidence to:

• - Better understand and address the effects of climate change on health, including those related to the main determinants of health (e.g. food, air, vectors, water and sanitation).
• - Improve the climate-resilience and environmental sustainability of health services.
• - Promote the implementation of climate change mitigation actions by the most polluting sectors (e.g. transport, energy, food and agriculture). Actions should maximize health co-benefits, both within and outside SIDS.

The initiative also strives to transform health services in SIDS away from a model of curative services with escalating costs, and towards one based on disease prevention, climate resilience and sustainability. The effort will also implement approaches that promote working in a more integrated way across different health programmes (e.g., environmental health, worker’s health, health systems strengthening, emergency preparedness and response, food security and nutrition), and with other partners.