Early Lessons from Implementation of Climate Change and Human Health Study in Zambia

Early Lessons from Implementation of Climate Change Adaptation Projects in South-Eastern Africa, Organised by IISD, IIED and SSN.Maputo, MozambiqueApril 24 and 25, 2007

Dr. George B. KasaliTechnical Manager

Energy and Environmental Concerns for Zambia (EECZ)

kasali_george@yahoo.com

Defining Health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. [WHO, 1946]

focus on whole populations broad definition of health population health depends not only on the

provision of good healthcare services but also on the physical, social, cultural and economic environment people live in.

Location: Country – ZambiaDistricts: Lundazi and Mazabuka

Project: Country Study of Adaptation to Climate Change and Human Health in Zambia

CONTEXT Initiated by IIED out of concern for the

following: Zambia has a GDP of USD 400 per

capita, with over two-thirds of the population living under the national poverty line.

60% of the households had been severely food-insecure since the 1990s.

The vulnerability of families is aggravated by the increasing AIDS pandemic weakening the public sector and threatening long-term national development.

Context cont’d

Cholera and other waterborne diseases, such as dysentery, are endemic.

Malaria causes about 15% of maternal deaths, 40% of infant deaths and 46% of outpatient morbidity.

All the above compounded and confounded by: Consecutive seasons of drought and floods

since 2001. In 2004/2005 prolonged drought affected

over half of the country’s provinces, leaving an estimated 1.2 million people in need of food assistance.

In 2006/2007 severe flooding has affected over 1.4 million people and damaged infrastructure worth millions of dollars.

Objectives

Key project objective was to provide evidence-based scientific information for decision-making on adaptation of human health to climate change.

Activities

Review and analyze secondary information and data on human health and climate variability in Zambia

Conduct a case study analysis of the impacts of climatic hazards (droughts and floods) on human health, with emphasis on specific diseases.

Compile a report and hold a stakeholder workshop to derive policy actions and future research needs.

Duration, Budget and Sponsors of Project

The project duration was two years

Funding was 5,000 pounds sterling

Funded by International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) of London.

Innovative Elements of Project

Currently, official Ministry of Health data dates from 1998, however analysis of climate-health interactions requires long-term data with a time-span of 20 – 30 years.

Health data dating back to 1970s was found in discarded files dumped in drawers, cupboards and store-rooms of health facilities.

Data dating back to 1940s was also found stashed in national information archives of Zambia

Innovative Elements of Project Cont’d

Climate disasters are usually location specific and official personnel take time to reach these areas, therefore, information was also compiled from:

Newspaper reports, TV clips and NGO-networks such as the Red Cross Society.

Issues - Opportunities

Funding chances can be enhanced if:• Project targets diseases with global impacts

such as HIV/AIDS• Project targets specific population groups

such as children or incorporates health issues into such sectors such as agriculture or gender

This year Ministry of Health has become quite receptive to climate change issues-due to a policy statement by Minister of Health.

Issues – Opportunities Cont’d

The National Vulnerability Assessment Committee under SADC have become an important source of data on impacts of floods and droughts as they conduct food security assessments on a yearly basis. Health data is also included.

Issues – Concerns and Challenges

Initial resistance of health personnel to climate change issues due to initial national focus on climate change mitigation alone.

Inadequate technical skills for analyzing the linkage between human health and climate variability

Difficulties in extrapolating findings from community level to national and global scales

Divergence of data values depending on source.

Early Lessons Learnt

Zambia has the health data for quantifying relationships between climate variability and human health, except time and resources are needed to mine it.

There are more diseases than malaria and diarrhoea that are sensitive to climate.

Human health adaptation to climate change carries both local and global benefits due to the pandemic nature of diseases and the globalization of labour and commodity markets.

The climate-health models that are solely based on climatic data, such as MARA, can be validated with actual health data in Zambia.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Zambia and Africa present very good models for studying climate-health interactions as confounding factors are relatively few.

There is need to preserve the currently discarded data of the 1970s and 1980s in Zambia

There is very high demand for policy-oriented and multi-scaled research on climate-health interactions in developing countries.

It is imperative to provide training in methods for quantifying the link between climate variability and human health. Zambia is also besieged with climate-hazard induced outbreaks of livestock diseases. Some of these are zoonotic.

A holistic approach to climate change adaptation in the health sector is mandatory as the main determinants of health are outside the health sector.