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About The Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health

The Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH; “the Alliance”) works to realize the ambition set at COP26 to build climate resilient and sustainable health systems, using the collective power of WHO Member States (“Member States”) and other stakeholders to drive this agenda forward at pace and scale; and promote the integration of climate change and health nexus into respective national, regional, and global plans.

Secretariat

WHO serves as the Secretariat of the ATACH. Secretariat support is provided in accordance with the WHO Constitution and General Programme of Work, WHO’s Financial and Staff Regulations and Rules, WHO’s manual provisions, and WHO rules, policies, procedures and practices.

The Secretariat reserves the right not to implement any ATACH activity which it determines gives rise to undue financial, legal or reputational liability or is contrary to WHO policies, regulations and procedures.

The role of the Secretariat is to:

  • Serves as the interface between the Alliance and its Participants.
  • Oversee and conduct the day-to-day administrative business of ATACH, in consultation with the Steering Group;
  • Appoint Conveners and Working Group Chairs;
  • Approve the establishment of Working Groups and their respective terms of reference;
  • Develop the workplan of the ATACH, including the workplans of its working groups in consultation with the Steering Group;
  • Organize the ATACH General Meeting;
  • Chair the Steering Committee meetings;
  • Review applications to participate in ATACH, which shall include conducting due diligence and risk assessment on Participant applications if non-State actors, corresponding with all applicants and confirming admission of all new Participants.
  • Facilitate engagement of all Participants and the development of the ATACH strategy in the interests of effective collaborative work;
  • In consultation with the Steering Group, lead periodic reviews of the role, functioning and impact of ATACH and initiate, consider and approve amendments to the present Terms of Reference, as appropriate, with a view to improving the functioning of ATACH;
  • Monitor and evaluate activities and processes of the Alliance, making amendments as necessary, in consultation with the Steering Committee, to optimize overall Alliance functioning and impact;
  • Coordinate correspondence with Participants, as required, to facilitate participation and collaboration of all Participants.
  • Coordinate the preparation and distribution of documentation for the General Meeting (e.g. agenda, meeting reports, publications);
  • Develop a central repository of information and documents relevant to the ATACH;
  • Identify and encourage high-level advocates of climate resilient and low carbon sustainable health systems (e.g. Ministers of Health, Ministers of Environment, heads of national delegations to the UNFCCC, public figures) to raise awareness and political outreach on the ATACH in different health, climate change and sustainable development mechanisms.
  • Maintain and regularly update the ATACH website (hosted by WHO).

Steering group

The Steering Group comprises up to 12 members, who are appointed by WHO. These members consist of the Secretariat, the Co-conveners, and the Chairs from each of the Alliance’s working groups. The selection process will strive for balanced representation of the Alliance Participants, with respect to gender, age, geographical area, and organization type. The Steering Group will operate on the basis of consensus. With the exception of the Secretariat, the duration of the term of appointment of the Steering Group members shall be for an initial term of two years for the conveners and one year for the chairs of the working groups, with the possibility of renewal once.

The responsibilities of the Steering Group are to:

  • Provide the overall strategic direction, in consultation with WHO, for the operative work of the ATACH;
  • Support WHO in the organization of the General Meeting and its agenda;
  • Ensure coordination across working groups and provide recommendations of potential additional working groups to be established; and
  • Endorse the ATACH workplan.
  • The Steering Group will meet (virtually or in person) at least every 6 months to discuss progress, cross-cutting issues and emerging priorities.

Convenors

Convening Government institution representatives from the United Kingdom and Egypt, as COP26 and COP27 Presidents, will co-convene ATACH general meeting for the first 2 years, to provide momentum and leadership to the Alliance. WHO, as Secretariat to the ATACH, plays its convening role on a permanent basis. Subsequent co-conveners from Government institutions will be selected by WHO.

Conveners from Government institutions will promote continued momentum, identify opportunities and support the Alliance to meet the agreed purpose, objectives and functions, by (but not limited to):

  • Facilitating engagement with Member States, UN Agencies and other key stakeholders;
  • Engaging potential new Participants by encouraging commitments to the Initiatives on Climate Resilient and Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems.
  • With the support of the Secretariat, convening Alliance meetings
  • Actively participating in the Steering Group. 

Working groups

Working groups may be established by the Secretariat in consultation with the Steering Group. Working Groups are set up to exchange information and collaborate on agreed specific tasks/projects in line with the ATACH’s objectives, mission and functions. Working Groups are accountable to the Steering Group and through the Steering Group to the Secretariat. The Terms of Reference for all Working Groups are approved by the Secretariat in consultation with the Steering Group. Any subsequent change to the Terms of Reference will also be subject to the approval of the Secretariat.

Participation in ATACH Working Groups will be open to any interested Participant. WGs will meet at least every six months.

The co-chairs of the Working Groups will be appointed by WHO in consultation with the Convenors and will rotate as decided by WHO.

Climate Resilient Health Systems 

Mission

Contribute to the attainment of the overall mission of the ATACH, with a specific focus on building climate resilience and adaptation to present, emerging and future health impacts and threats of climate change.

Co-chairs of the ATACH Working Group on Climate Resilient Health Systems for the period 2022-2024:

  • Health Canada
  • Ministre de la Santé, Côte d'Ivoire

Main Objective

Through coordination and collaboration, the ATACH Working Group on Climate Resilient Health Systems strives to support Member States, including those that have signed the COP26 Health Programme commitments on building climate resilient health systems, to progress and drive the climate reliant health systems agenda forward and to promote accountability.

Key objectives:

  • Identify existing technical knowledge and tools for conducting climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments (V&As) and developing health components of national adaptation plans (HNAPs) and make these available to Member States and ATACH partners;
  • Identify, disseminate, strengthen, and advocate for evidence and knowledge on key topics related to climate resilient health systems (e.g., health impacts from climate change, technologies for climate resilient health systems and facilities and opportunities to promote low carbon sustainability, and effectiveness of interventions);
  • Identify and disseminate lessons and best practice from country and partner experiences, and support learning;
  • Identify country needs to implement their CRHS commitments and facilitate access to technical support; and
  • Facilitate access by the health sector to climate change funding for health and ensure health sector’s capacity to develop project proposals on climate change and health is effectively strengthened.

Monitoring:

Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems

Mission

Contribute to the attainment of the overall mission of the ATACH, with a specific focus on mitigating and building climate resilience and adaptation to present, emerging and future health impacts and threats of climate change.

Co-chairs of the ATACH Working Group on Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems for the period 2022-2024:

  • Health Care Without Harm
  • Ministry for Health and Medical Services, Republic of Fiji

Main Objective

Through coordination and collaboration, the ATACH Working Group on Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems strives to support Member States, including those that have signed the COP26 Health Programme commitment, on building sustainable low carbon health systems, to contribute to national net zero goals, and to promote accountability.

Key objectives:

  • Identify existing technical knowledge and tools for measuring the baseline greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of health systems and facilities and make these available to Member States and ATACH partners;
  • Identify, disseminate, strengthen, and advocate for evidence and knowledge on key topics related to low carbon sustainable health systems (e.g., benefits of reducing emissions in health care, technologies for low carbon sustainable health systems and facilities and opportunities to promote low carbon sustainability, and effectiveness of interventions);
  • Identify and disseminate lessons and best practice from country and partner experiences, and support learning;
  • Identify country needs to implement their LCSHS commitments and facilitate access to technical support;
  • Facilitate access by the health sector to climate change funding for health and ensure health sector’s capacity to develop project proposals on climate change and health is effectively strengthened; and
  • Foster collaboration amongst partners to address common challenges and bottle necks, especially where collective action is required to meet mutual goals, e.g., standards, access to finance, engaging and working with the private sector, etc.

Monitoring:

Supply Chains

Mission

Recognizing that supply chains contribute to the majority of greenhouse gas emissions from health systems, the ATACH working group on Supply Chains will specifically focus on emission reduction in the supply chain. It will seek and promote solutions and collaborative action in order to ensure clean, green and sustainable health systems. In this way the ATACH working group on Supply Chains contributes to the attainment of the overall mission of the ATACH.

Co-chairs of the ATACH Working Group on Supply Chains for the period 2022-2024:

  • National Health Service (NHS), England
  • Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh

Main objective:

Through coordination and collaboration, the ATACH working group on Supply Chains strives to support Member States and other stakeholders, including those that have signed the COP26 Health Programme commitments on building low carbon and sustainable health systems, to address specific challenges in the supply chain and procurement, to progress and drive the climate resilient and low carbon sustainable health systems agenda forward and to promote accountability.

Key objectives:

  • Identify existing technical knowledge products and tools for building low carbon and sustainable supply chains and making them available to Member States and ATACH partners;
  • Identify, disseminate, strengthen, and advocate for evidence and knowledge on key topics related to low carbon and sustainable supply chains (e.g., measuring and reducing carbon emissions from supply chain, sustainable criteria and standard for products and services, life cycle assessment, creating collective demand for sustainable products and supplies);
  • Identify and disseminate lessons and best practice from country and partner experiences in reducing the emissions from supply chain, and support learning;
  • Identify country needs to implement their commitments on low carbon sustainable health systems as they relate to supply chain and facilitate access to technical support;
  • Facilitate access by the health sector to climate change funding for health and ensure health sector’s capacity to develop project proposals on climate change and health is effectively strengthened; and
  • Identify opportunities for collective action to contribute to and drive transformation in behaviour, principles, and standards with a broad range of actors.

Monitoring:

Financing

Mission

The ATACH WG on Financing contributes to the attainment of the overall mission of the ATACH, with a specific focus on using the collective power of Member States and key stakeholders to identify opportunities and understand and tackle barriers to accessing sustainable finance and resource mobilization, to scale-up investments in climate and health. Resource mobilization refers to both funding and technical assistance that may be required by countries to be able to develop the plans and assessments included in their commitments.  Financing will also be needed for countries to implement those plans.

Co-chairs of the ATACH Financing working group for the period 2022-2024:

  • Germany’s Federal Foreign Office
  • World Bank

Objectives

Through coordination and collaboration, the ATACH Financing working group strives to supports Member States, including those that have signed the COP26 Health Programme commitments on sustainable low carbon health systems, to effectively access funding for projects and mobilize finance to implement plans for climate change and health objectives.

Key objectives

  1. Reducing barriers to funding by delivering a shift in the international financial architecture available for climate change and health: This objective focuses on areas where a global shift can be delivered through the collective power of Member States and other key financial institutions and partners, as appropriate. It reflects collective interest of the ATACH FIN-WG as well as context specific themes which may be more applicable to smaller groupings of Member States.
  2. Maximizing investments in health: This objective would ensure value for money by applying a climate lens and integrating climate resilience and sustainability in health financing to ensure available funds are used as efficiently and equitably as possible.

These objectives will be supported by the following levers:

  1. Monitoring: Track progress and performance of domestic, donor and multilateral finance agencies in mobilising resources to meet country needs to build climate resilient and low carbon sustainable health systems country identify; identify and track progress in addressing the barriers to different finance types; and monitor evolutions in use of financial innovations for climate and health objectives and outcomes.
  2. Knowledge sharing and analytics: This lever provides a forum for alliance participants to share expertise, knowledge and experience gained from analytics to inform access and use of finance for health and climate activities.
  3. Coordinating access to technical assistance: This lever would include support for the design of programs for adaptation and mitigation and for developing funding proposals.

Monitoring:

Climate Action and Nutrition

Mission

Contribute to the attainment of the overall mission of the ATACH, with a specific focus on the critical nexus of climate change and nutrition.

Co-chairs of the ATACH Working Group on Climate Action and Nutrition for the period 2022-2024:

  • Ministry of Health and Population of Egypt
  • Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)

Main Objective

Through coordination and collaboration, the ATACH I-CAN WG strives to help foster collaboration to accelerate transformative action to address the critical nexus of climate change and nutrition.

Key objectives:

  • Build a strong alliance across nutrition and climate communities;
  • Articulate a common, compelling narrative around climate and nutrition;
  • Develop an evidence base on integrating nutrition and climate action; and
  • Strengthen existing efforts to take action and address gaps.

Monitoring:

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