Launch of the ATACH Operational Strategy
Categories: Climate-transformative leadership and governance, Climate-smart workforce, Health and climate research, Climate resilient and low carbon infrastructures, technologies, and supply chain, Climate-informed health programmes, Sustainable climate and health financing, Ministries of Health, Health care professionals, Health care facility managers, Public health professionals, Surveillance officers, Government officials (other sectors)
image credit: WHO/ATACH As the World Health Organization (WHO) hosted Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH) enters its fifth year, it is shifting operational focus from climate and health action planning to implementation. Four years ago, the primary challenge was centred on building political commitment and establishing shared frameworks, now the Alliance will transform those commitments into concrete actions.
The key actions of this strategy are organized around four cross-cutting priorities:
Moving Closer to Countries: ATACH will strengthen its regional presence by placing dedicated focal points in WHO Regional Offices. It plans to hold at least two regional meetings per year and will pilot a new ATACH Catalyst Fund.
Building Implementation Capacity: A new ATACH Capacity Accelerator will be launched, featuring three main tracks:
An ATACH Executive Fellowship programme for advanced practitioners providing a university-level degree in climate and health
A Country Partnership Programme that pairs member countries for sustained peer-to-peer collaboration.
Implementation Clinics hosted within Communities of Practice to provide expert input on specific technical challenges.
Unlocking Climate Finance for Health: ATACH will develop a health and climate finance navigator to help Health Ministries identify and access funding. It will also leverage WHO's accreditation to the Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund to potentially host a dedicated finance support function for countries.
Sustaining a Community through Action: launching new thematic Communities of Practice that will become the central organizational architecture for all technical work, including Task Teams and Technical Meetings.
In addition to the ATACH Capacity Accelerator, ATACH will be working very closely with Türkiye, as President of COP31, to ensure that the Antalya Health Initiative on Dynamic and Resilient Health Systems (AIR) is promoted as an ATACH mechanism that focuses on implementation and showcases country experiences and lessons learnt, while contributing to the development of an implementation framework that can be widely promoted
ATACH has now grown into a pivotal global platform where health ministries, intergovernmental bodies, technical experts and the wider community convene to accelerate the health sector’s response to climate change. ATACH now brings together over 100 countries and over 100 partners with this Operational Strategy focused on translating national plans into action, mobilizing finance, and building capacity for countries.
This Operational Strategy was developed using inputs from the country needs assessment process, consultations and surveys completed by the ATACH Membership with the overall framework provided by the ATACH Secretariat. This collaboration was led by the team at the Centre for Sustainable Medicine at the National University of Singapore with substantive guidance from the ATACH Steering Group.
Read the Operational Strategy here