Operationalizing Climate-Health Governance: Rwanda’s Technical Working Group
Categories: Access to climate change funding for health, Climate Change & Health Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessments, Health National Adaptation Plans, Country experience, Africa, Climate Resilient Health Systems, Action Line 1: Surveillance and monitoring, Action Line 2: Evidence-based policy strategy and capacity building, Climate-transformative leadership and governance, Health and climate research, Integrated risks, monitoring, early warning, and GHG emissions tracking, Health systems wide resilience
Country: Rwanda
Rwanda’s Climate Change and Health Technical Working Group (TWG) Credit: Ministry of Health, Rwanda Context
Climate change poses a growing threat to health in Rwanda and across Africa. Rising temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events are already increasing the burden of malaria, cholera, malnutrition, and respiratory illnesses. Yet in many countries, climate risks are being responded to through environmental agencies, disconnected from public health institutions. Health systems, often on the frontlines of these crises, are left underprepared.
Rwanda is choosing a different path—one that integrates climate science and health system planning from the ground up. This approach aligns with global calls to action, such as those made at COP26, and is firmly rooted in Rwanda’s national policy frameworks. The revised Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy (GoR, 2022) prioritizes health under Strategic Objective Three: “to ensure social protection, improved health and disaster risk reduction that reduces vulnerability to climate change impacts.” Likewise, the Health Sector Strategic Plan, Phase V (2024–2029) (2024–2029) identifies climate change as a cross-cutting priority under “Pillar 4: Health Security and Public Health Emergency Management”, calling for proactive measures to reduce climate-related health risks.
These policy commitments are not just rhetorical; they are already been translated into action. Rwanda has implemented public health focused environmental interventions such as vehicle emission checks, car-free days, urban car-free zones, and tax incentives for electric vehicles. These measures reflect a broader national strategy to reduce health vulnerabilities through integrated climate action.
To effectively translate these commitments into coordinated, evidence-based action, Rwanda recognized the need for a dedicated governance mechanism within the health sector—one that can convene multi-sectoral expertise, guide strategic planning, and operationalize climate-health priorities nationwide.
Implementation process
The solution:
In 2024, Rwanda’s Ministry of Health (MoH) launched a Climate Change and Health Technical Working Group (TWG) to fill this gap. The TWG is the first national-level health sector initiative of its kind in Rwanda, bringing together a multisectoral coalition of experts to address climate-related health risks and drive coordinated policy and program development. It reflects Rwanda’s proactive approach to climate action in health—an approach that bridges sectors, mobilizes evidence, and translates political commitments into operational results.
The new Climate Change and Health TWG is tasked with supporting the Ministry of Health in assessing local climate-related health risks, identifying key adaptation priorities, and designing evidence-informed policies. Its work will also support the implementation of multisectoral strategies to build a climate-resilient and low-carbon health system. It brings together technical expertise in public health, climate science, infrastructure, agriculture, water and sanitation, and disaster risk reduction- all working together to identify gaps, pilot interventions, and scale up effective solutions.
Transformative steps:
To date, the TWG is already making advancements considering evidence building, data innovation, capacity development, and operational coordination.
- Evidence building:
TWG partners, alongside the Ministry of health, have initiated Rwanda’s first two climate and health vulnerability assessments. The vulnerability and adaptation (V&A) assessment focuses on identifying the burden of climate-sensitive diseases, evaluating sectoral risks, and proposing national adaptation strategies. Further, the Health Facility Vulnerability Assessment evaluates the resilience of Rwanda’s health infrastructure to climate-related shocks. These assessments, alongside a number of upcoming ones, are foundational for developing the country’s first Health National Adaptation Plan (HNAP).
- Data innovation:
One of the TWG’s early achievements is the integration of climate data into the national Health Management Information System (HMIS), allowing for real-time insights on the linkage between climatic variables and health outcomes. In parallel, the Ministry has adopted the DHIS2 Climate and Health Analytics Platform (CHAP), which entails predictive tools that uses temperature and rainfall data to forecast malaria incidence, such as the WHO EWARS-csd This tool supports local teams in allocating resources, designing timely responses, and reducing disease burdens in high-risk areas.
- Capacity building:
With guidance and support from the TWG partners, the Ministry is strengthening national expertise in climate-health analytics. In May 2025, the MoH hosted the Second National Conference on Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Modeling, bringing together international technical experts and public health officials to build local capacity in data-driven forecasting and spatial analysis for climate-related diseases in Rwanda.
- Operational coordination:
The TWG is actively supporting the Climate Change and Health Desk within the Ministry of Health. It provides input on tools, research proposals, resource mobilization and technical reports, ensuring that climate-health activities are grounded in national priorities and coordinated across sectors.
Lessons learned
Rwanda’s climate and health TWG represents a bold step to building climate resilient and low carbon sustainable health systems. It is not only a strategic move to safeguard national health, but also a model for how countries can operationalize the intersection of climate and health in real, actionable ways. By involving professionals and experts from diverse fields, the TWG brings a broad range of perspectives on climate impacts and adaptation strategies across sectors, enriching the understanding of the climate-health nexus. This multidisciplinary approach has proven valuable as both a learning platform and advocacy tool, helping to illustrate the links between climate and health beyond the traditional institutional boundaries.
Challenges
Several challenges emerged during the implementation process. These included:
- complexities in integrating datasets from different sectors, highlighting the need for improved data governance;
- difficulties in securing dedicated climate-health funding due to global reductions in public health resources;
- and the continuous effort required to coordinate stakeholders with varying mandates and operational priorities.
- Additionally, gaps in local expertise for advanced climate-health analytics highlighted the importance of sustained capacity development.
Rwanda continues to proactively address these challenges through targeted capacity-building, strengthened governance structures, and enhanced multisectoral collaboration.
Success factors
The success of Rwanda's Climate and Health TWG hinged on several critical factors. High-level political commitment and alignment with national policy frameworks provided consistent support, elevating the visibility and importance of climate-health actions. Early achievements in data innovation, such as the adoption of the Climate and Health Analytics Platform (CHAP) and the integration of climate data into the national Health Management Information System (HMIS) demonstrated tangible value, building momentum and increasing stakeholder buy-in. The deliberate engagement of multiple sectors—including health, climate science, agriculture, infrastructure, water and sanitation, and disaster risk reduction—enabled the development of more comprehensive and effective solutions. Furthermore, establishing a dedicated Climate Change and Health Desk within the Ministry institutionalized climate-health coordination, providing clear leadership and facilitating effective operational management.
Recommendations
Based on Rwanda’s experience, countries operationalizing climate-health governance should focus on securing long-term, dedicated financing for climate-health integration. This could include strategic partnerships and leveraging international climate financing opportunities. Investing in building robust local expertise is essential, with a focus on developing national capacity for advanced climate-health analytics and forecasting. Establishing effective, standardized data governance frameworks is critical to ensure timely integration and use of multisectoral climate and health data. Finally, it is important to institutionalize successful innovations and approaches, embedding them within national systems to ensure sustainability and scale.
Key resources
For countries looking to implement similar climate-health strategies, the following resources are recommended:
- Ministry of Health, Rwanda (2025). Health Sector Strategic Plan V (2024–2029)
- Government of Rwanda (2022). Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy
- World Health Organization (2023). Operational framework for building climate resilient and low carbon health systems
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