"Climate change is not a risk; it is a reality." This stark declaration framed the discussions at the Climate and Health Finance Dialogue as part of the 77th World Health Assembly, an annual event held in Geneva to decide on the organisational policies and programme budgeting of the World Health Organization (WHO).
For our clients—multilateral development banks, finance institutions, NGOs, and philanthropic organisations — in attendance, the event underscored the urgent need to address the intertwined climate change and health crises with a multisectoral response. For us in attendance, the event highlighted the need for clear strategies and processes to ensure the important themes touched upon can be actioned promptly and effectively.
Key insights that SRI gained surround the need to invest proactively, the importance of a gendered approach, and the huge potential of funding waiting to be utilised.
Consequences Outweighing Costs
The dialogue emphasised that the costs of inaction on climate change far exceed those of proactive measures. Investing in resilient health infrastructure is crucial, especially in vulnerable regions. Not only should we feel it as a moral obligation, but there is a strong economic case for investing in climate and health. Brazil's Special Advisory on International Affairs (Aisa) of the Ministry of Health, Ambassador Alexandre Ghisleni, emphasised that when the whole infrastructure of a 10-million-person state needs to be rebuilt after compounding climate and health disasters, how do you begin to comprehend the repeated costs? Severe weather events, increased food insecurity, and health crises like malaria and cholera are escalating, demanding immediate attention and investment, and we need to step up to the challenge. To read more on the interdependencies of climate and health, please follow the link to a former blog that I wrote for SRI Executive on our website.
https://insights.sri-executive.com/between-the-lines-healthcares-answer-to-climate-change
The Gender Lens
The dialogue also highlighted the gender-specific impacts of climate change. Women comprise 70% of the global health workforce and are disproportionately affected by water scarcity and other climate-induced challenges.
The Honourable Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Health Minister of Malawi, emphasised the irreversible impact of a sick mother in a household. Although women and girls are disproportionately affected, the impact of a bedbound mother affects everyone in the family. Addressing these gender-specific vulnerabilities is essential to providing stability and equity for all going forward.
In March 2024, SRI Executive hosted a webinar for International Women’s Day exploring the link between climate and gender dynamics. The key message was that climate change is not gender-neutral. The panellists warned against gender becoming a ‘tick-box’ exercise, with Tariye Gbadegesin, CEO of Climate Investment Funds, highlighting that the key to inclusive climate finance is not a matter of creating more requirements but rather evolving frameworks that better serve women.
As a female-founded organisation with a majority female workforce, gender equity is close to our hearts and is a focal point in all our work, with 49% of our placements in 2023 women. In the growing space of climate and health, we aim to aid our clients in incorporating intersectional feminist values, from our search services to leadership development.
Global Political Commitment and Financial Responsibility
Since COP28, the global community has shown increasing commitment to climate and health. COP28’s Health Day was pivotal, with 123 country signatories to the Climate Health Declaration. Since then, $1 billion has been mobilised for climate and health initiatives. Partnerships came up strongly as a critical mechanism for achieving the commitments in the Declaration.
The Role of Partnerships
The Netherlands has been a leading advocate for the Climate Health Declaration at COP28, demonstrating that impactful climate action requires intersectoral collaboration and cross-border partnerships.
Mozambique’s data-driven, cross-sectoral approach to climate resilience was highlighted as a model of effective national response despite high vulnerability indices. However, H.E. Dr. Armindo Daniel Tiago, the country's Minister of Health, challenged the use of language framing Mozambique as a successful adaption by reframing the ‘success’ as a ‘survival process.’ This highlights the stark reality of the situation: although lessons learned benefit the rest of the world as a model, we cannot disassociate the learnings from a nation's suffering. From cyclones in Malawi to heatwaves in Bangladesh, the stories from the panel were a sobering reminder of the need for resilient health systems and the importance of global solidarity.
Financial Strategies and Innovation
The dialogue also explored innovative financial mechanisms. Partnerships between development banks are creating new funding avenues to address the frustrations and inefficiencies experienced by many developing countries trying to access funding.
Tala Al-Ramahi, Chief Strategy Officer of Reaching the Last Mile, highlighted philanthropic organisations' crucial role in bridging funding gaps and fostering innovation by providing access to initial funding for countries and organisations. Currently, only 2% of philanthropic funding goes towards climate and health issues, demonstrating immense potential for growth going forward.
SRI Executive’s Global Director of Search, Ursula Gallagher, attended the World Health Assembly and commented on how the philanthropic sector showed a strong willingness to align on common objectives and raise awareness of climate as a health threat. By evaluating philanthropic effectiveness and taking a data-driven approach, faster and more flexible funding could deliver healthcare that adapts to the climate crisis.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7202272902799310849/
The Path Forward
Preparation and understanding the root causes of health problems is key. This was emphasised by Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister for Bangladesh, stating, ‘Are we going to treat the disease or the symptoms of the disease?’ This concept not only applies to global health but also to organisational health. We need to ensure our organisational structures and cultures operate healthily to allow us to be agile in the changing and pressurised environment of global development. Conducting a self-evaluation of your organisation’s processes and structures, or bringing in an external consultancy to support one, can allow effective diagnosis and treatment of organisational ailments. Addressing these internal limitations allows organisations to tackle the intersecting health and climate crisis threat with agility.
Looking ahead, the dialogue stressed the importance of not giving up. Involving youth, fostering partnerships, and maintaining a glass-half-full outlook are essential to driving progress. Vanina Laurent-Ledru – Director General of Foundation S, stated that we ‘cannot let perfect be the enemy of good,’ hinting that any action is better than no action.
The upcoming G20 Health Working Group in Brazil will advance the climate and health agenda, culminating in COP30 in 2025. As we rally behind this momentum, let us learn from each other and share our knowledge. SRI has a strong background in aiding organisations that are directly adapting to climate-related challenges. We continue to learn and adjust both our best practices and recommendations to meet the shifting context in which our clients operate.
The Call to Collective Action
Climate change is a real and active threat. The need to turn rhetoric into action is paramount. The event highlighted the necessity of integrating climate resilience into health strategies and the importance of collaborative, evidence-based approaches. The panels emphasised that many systematic changes regarding access to funding still need to be addressed, however, there is hope as climate and health become a priority. SRI Executive remains committed to supporting these efforts, leveraging our expertise and network to drive meaningful change in the development space with our partners. Together, we can navigate these challenges and build a sustainable, healthier future.
