New insights into countries' climate and health financing needs
The World Health Organization, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, recently concluded an assessment of country needs in mobilizing financing for climate and health solutions. This assessment shed light on country priorities, funding sources, common challenges and opportunities in accessing and mobilizing financing for climate change and health interventions.
The assessment consisted of qualitative interviews with 8 countries across all six WHO regions, conducted in late February 2024. The results of the assessment will help the ATACH and key financing stakeholders in the international climate and health community better understand countries' priorities and key investment opportunities to better support countries in accessing and mobilizing financing for climate change and health.
Notably, common challenges experienced by countries include:
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Operational challenges, including difficulty in coordinating multi-sector issues across government bodies, especially the Ministry of Environment and a lack of responsive budgeting and planning functions for climate and health needs.
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Politics, policy, and capacity challenges, including lack of awareness among senior political actors about the urgency of climate change and health issues, and health considerations omitted from national climate change policy.
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Global engagement challenges, such as health system adaptation efforts considered "soft" with limited bankability, and limited understanding of available international financing and how it can be accessed.
Key opportunities to enhance countries' access to climate and health financing include:
- Localized engagement, including building capacity of government and local partners to develop proposals and investment cases for climate and health.
- Advocacy and policy, including advocacy efforts to raise awareness and gain buy-in from senior members of Ministries of Health, Environment, and Finance and implementation of globally and locally relevant mechanisms to bring disparate actors together for joint-action and decision-making.
- Data and evidence, including developing models that clarify pathways to access financing for governmental and nongovernmental actors, quantifying the cost of inaction and the return on investment for climate and health investments and providing evidence of the linkage between climate change and pressing public health issues.
Findings of this assessment were presented at the ATACH Global Meeting in March 2024. A more detailed summary of findings is presented in a slide-deck accessible on the WHO website, and from the Financing Working Group page on the ATACH Community of Practice.