PACJA, AMFREF in a New Deal on Climate Change and Health

The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance and AMREF Africa have signed a memorandum of understanding, formalizing their partnership in addressing the intersection of climate change and health. Both organizations recognize the impact of climate change on health systems in Africa and are committed to implementing initiatives that support health resilience against climate change.

The signing ceremony took place during the High-Level Climate Change and Health Session, which was held on the sidelines of the Tenth Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa had the highest percentage (59.6%) of total disaster-affected populations in 2022, affecting human socio-economic lives.

Dr. Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director of PACJA, expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership, stating that it will strengthen their commitment to implementing initiatives that promote health resilience against climate change.

In 2022, there were 387 global disasters in total. This number was higher than the average number of disasters that occurred from 2002 to 2021 across all types including droughts, earthquakes, extreme temperatures, floods, landslides, storms, volcanic activity, and wildfires. Out of these 387 disasters, 79 of them occurred in Africa. South Africa alone experienced eight of these disasters.

The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has developed a strategy to address the impact of climate change on health. This strategy was developed by identifying and prioritizing critical climate and health issues at the national level. In June 2022, PACJA organized a meeting on climate change and health during the Commonwealth Heads of States and Government (CHOGM) summit in Kigali. This meeting provided a platform for open discussions and resulted in the creation of a working group focused on climate change and health.

To successfully implement this strategy, Dr Mithika highlighted the importance of multilateralism, citing the World Health Organization (WHO) as an example of how countries can collaborate on global health issues. Climate action is another issue that transcends national borders and requires international cooperation. To successfully implement the strategy, Dr Mithika emphasized the importance of Multilateralism and cited the existence of WHO as an example of how countries can collaborate on global health issues. Climate Action is another problem that transcends national borders and requires international cooperation.

“The COVID-19 pandemic exemplified how a health crisis cannot be resolved by one country alone. This highlights the need for collective action and collaboration, which is why SDG 17 is so important to PACJA. WE organization values partnerships not only at the global level but also at the grassroots level” Said  Dr. Mithika.

He continued saying that “We need to build North-south collaboration and South-south collaboration so that we can confront this issue of Climate change and Health”.

Desta Lakew, the Group Partnership and External Relations Affairs Director at AMREF has commented on the partnership by emphasizing the fact that women and children are the ones most affected by climate change and health issues. Therefore, it is crucial to involve women in the conversation. She also pointed out the importance of working with communities and stated that partnering with PACJA would enhance community intervention efforts in the domain of climate change and health.

The Partnership signed today is expected to foster cooperation and collaboration between the two organisations in the joint development of community engagement programmes that aim to raise awareness about climate change impacts.

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