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AFRICAN UNION UNION AFRICAINE UNIÃO AFRICANA FIFTH SESSION OF AFRICAN UNION CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF HEALTH WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA 17-21 APRIL 2011 (CAMH5-XII) THEME: THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA OVERVIEW OF THE THEME 1. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT 1 a. Decision on the theme The theme “the impact of climate change on health and development in Africa” was adopted by the 1st meeting of the Bureau of CAMH4 held on 20th May 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland. b. Justification on the theme Africa is a continent under pressure from climate stresses and is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Many areas in Africa are recognized as having climates that are among the most variable in the world on seasonal and decadal time scales. Climate change scenarios for Africa indicate future warming across the continent ranging from 0.2°C per decade (low scenario) to more than 0.5°C per decade (high scenario)1.This warming will be greatest over the interior of semiarid margins of the Sahara and central southern Africa. Floods and droughts can occur in the same area within months of each other. These events can lead to widespread disruption of socio-economic well-being. The following are some of the potential consequences of climate change: i. Diseases The impact of climate change on health status is different in developing as against industrialized countries. In developing countries, rising temperatures and humidity have facilitated the spread of many vector borne infectious diseases including malaria, dengue and encephalitis. The increasing prevalence of and mortality from these infectious diseases has had several negative consequences: decreasing economic productivity, increasing medical costs, and taxing already tenuous health care systems in poor countries. The rising frequency of extreme climatic events such as floods and droughts, render developing countries with increasingly less time to recover. These problems will be exacerbated by the inability of many communities to cope with increased disease burden. In many African urban settlements, population expansion has outpaced the capacity of municipal authorities to provide civic works for sanitation and other health delivery services. If settlement conglomerations such as those envisaged for West Africa and the eastern seaboard of South Africa develop, vulnerable populations will cover entire regions, not just isolated areas2. ii. Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition Most of Africa relies on rain-fed agriculture. As a result, it is highly vulnerable to changes in climate variability, seasonal shifts, and precipitation patterns. Any amount of warming will result in increased water stress. Roughly 70 percent of the population lives by farming, and 40 percent of all exports are agricultural 1 2 Hulme et al. 2001; Desanker and Magadza 2001 Nicholls et al. 1999 2 products3. One-third of the income in Africa is generated by agriculture. Already compromised fish stocks depleted are under threat by rising water temperatures. Crop production and livestock husbandry account for about half of household income. The poorest members of society are those who are most dependent on agriculture for jobs and income4. All this worsens food insecurity and increases the number of people at risk of hunger and malnutrition. This increases the vulnerability of increasingly larger populations to ill health, consequent upon a compromised nutritional status. iii. Biodiversity loss Biodiversity is an important resource for African people for both consumptive (food, fiber, fuel, shelter, medicine, wildlife trade) and non-consumptive (ecosystem services and the economically important tourism industry) purposes. Given the heavy dependence on natural resources in Africa, many communities are vulnerable to the biodiversity loss that could result from climate change. About 25–40% of animal species in national parks in sub-Saharan Africa expected to become endangered5. If species continue to decline in number at the present rate, pharmaceutical companies will find it harder to develop new drugs and agriculture will lose an irreplaceable source of potential new crops, further compromising the ability of the continent to respond to the health challenges. iv. Human and animal migrations Semi-arid areas of the Sahel, the Kalahari, and the Karoo historically have supported nomadic societies that migrate in response to annual and seasonal rainfall variations. Nomadic pastoral systems are intrinsically able to adapt to fluctuating and extreme climates —provided they have sufficient scope for movement and other necessary elements in the system remain in place. While migration (human and animal) could increase the vulnerability of both the host and migrant population to ill health especially communicable diseases including zoonosis, the prolonged drying trend in the Sahel since the 1970s has demonstrated the adaptive limitations of such groups to climate change: they cannot simply move their axis of migration when the wetter end already is densely occupied and permanent water points fail at the drier end. The result has been widespread loss of human life and livestock, and substantial changes to the social system6. v. Water supply 3 WRI, 1996 Odingo 1990; FAO 1999 5 Boko et al. (2007), Christensen et al. (2007). 6 WWF Climate Change Program 4 3 There is an increasing water stress for many countries and it is estimated that 75–220 million people will face more severe water shortages by 20207. Africa is likely to face increasing water scarcity and stress with a subsequent potential increase of water conflicts as almost all of the 50 river basins in Africa are transboundary8. Inadequacies in water supply affect health both directly and indirectly. Directly, water shortage forces the population to utilize unhygienic sources which could serve as a vehicle for a host of infectious diseases while also compromising their ability to maintain the hygiene level necessary to promote health. Indirectly, inadequate access to water compromises certain key economic activity such as fishing and negatively affects a variety of other key determinants of health. 2. IMPORTANCE OF THE THEME In Africa, the health sector is the one in which human and social development has recorded at best marginal progress. Therefore worsening morbidity and mortality rates, especially due to infectious diseases which could be consequent to climate change would make the achievement of the health-related MDGs more difficult. Furthermore the already weakened health system in most African countries is unlikely to cope with the additional costs burden which global warming and climate change could facilitate. African countries need to give special attention to the management of the adverse effects of climate change on health with a view to: (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) 7 8 Making evidence-based, climate-informed and sound decisions to implement a set of preventive actions to reduce population vulnerability and mitigate the additional burden posed by the major climate-sensitive diseases according to their respective epidemiological circumstances; Anticipating, preparing for and responding to the health consequences of extreme weather events, particularly by strengthening the functioning of health, early warning and emergency preparedness systems; Developing applied research in order to better understand population vulnerability and the health implications of climate change. Various stakeholders should consider the significant co-benefits for tackling climate change and consider the consequent economic development that can result from mitigation and adaptation policies in sectors such as environment, energy, transport, population, health and agriculture. Ibid 5 Ashton 2002, De Wit and Jacek 2006 4