ICAP

Climate Change

Climate Change

Climate change is having a profound and escalating impact on health around the world. Events such as cyclones, tornadoes, and flooding are predicted to become more common and severe, along with slower-moving changes such as drought, extinction of pollinators, and temperature extremes. These not only increase the risk of economic stress and forced displacement but also reduce access to health care services. Natural disasters, for example, can physically disrupt roads to health facilities or damage health infrastructure. Health care workers may also be displaced or unable to work effectively due to damage to their own households. Natural disasters can also negatively impact communities financially, thus reducing their ability to pay for health care. As governments mobilize to address disasters, effective responses to climate-related disruptions in health systems have not always been a priority, but need to be.

European Union 2019/Photographer: Christian Jepsen

 As it continues to seek to address the major health threats facing people around the world, ICAP has increasingly set climate change-related health issues in its sights.

ICAP’s Solutions 4 Sustainability (S4S) project, conducted in collaboration with the Columbia University Climate School, evaluated the response of the health system in Mozambique to the catastrophic cyclones that battered the country in 2019.

 Climate change is also exacerbating health threats that emerge from pressures on the global ecosystem.  A new approach – One Health – seeks to account for the connection between the health of animals, people, and the environment. The One Health approach focuses on public health challenges related to zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food safety, and much more.

A trailblazer in this approach, ICAP has been incorporating a One Health approach in many of its technical and research projects. And, in a landmark effort capacity -building effort, ICAP has helped develop the One Health Workforce Academies website, a global portal to support training of health care professionals in One Health core competencies