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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
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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
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2
Hulme et al. 2001; Desanker and Magadza 2001
Nicholls et al. 1999
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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).
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WWF Climate Change Program
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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)
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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
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