UNITAR Trains African Ministry Officials on Climate Change Diplomacy and Health

5 - 7 November 2014, Nairobi, Kenya – Climate change and its direct impacts are projected to pose some of the most pertinent and extreme risks to human livelihoods in coming decades. Risks of severe ill-health, mortality and morbidity due to climatic change increase in likelihood with greater magnitudes of warming, and many of these risks constitute challenges particularly for the least developed countries and vulnerable communities, given their limited abilities to cope.

UNITAR, in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and with the technical support of the World Health Organization (WHO), organized a three-day workshop on "Climate Change Diplomacy and Health" in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop was conducted within the Global Program: Adaptation to climate change in the health sector financed by the GIZ on behalf of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany. It aimed to increase the visibility of the interlinkages between climate change and health and to strengthen the cooperation between national Ministries of Environment and Ministries of Health on this important issue. The workshop was designed to facilitate in-country preparations for the upcoming UNFCCC COP20 Conference in Lima, Peru.

A total of twenty-seven participants, coming from the Ministries of Environment and Ministries of Health of a variety of African countries, took part in the workshop. Facilitated by trainers from UNITAR and the WHO, participants actively discussed the UNFCCC negotiation process, undertook practical exercises to strengthen their negotiation skills, and shared their experiences on how health risks may be better addressed under national policy making and adaptation and / or mitigation implementation processes, and also the UNFCCC climate change negotiation process.

Participants acknowledged the need to recognize and where-possible include reference and commitments to address health under the UNFCCC, and agreed that strengthened adaptation measures on a national level, particularly in the field of health, are urgently needed in order to respond effectively to the risks posed by climate change in their countries. 

UNITAR looks forward to continuing the fruitful cooperation with GIZ and WHO with future training activities on climate change diplomacy and health.

Photo credit: GIZ Thailand, Gloria Muthoka