IDRC and The Rockefeller Foundation partner to strengthen climate and health financing in Senegal and Uganda

The joint USD1.4 million (CAD1.96 million) grant, facilitated through The Rockefeller Foundation’s public charity RF Catalytic Capital, was announced on October 22, 2025, at the Pan-African Conference on Environment, Climate Change and Health in Kenya. The initiative builds on both countries’ leadership in advancing climate and health agendas in Africa.

In Senegal, USD700,000 (CAD980,000) will be invested through the African Population and Health Research Center in partnership with the Centre de Suivi Écologique. It will support the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene to strengthen institutional and technical capacity for climate-health governance, identify adaptation priorities and develop fundable investment cases aligned with national climate and health goals.

“Our ambition is clear — to make climate resilience a structural component of our health system,” said Codou Badiane Mané, climate and health focal person in Senegal’s Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene. “This requires concrete mitigation measures, stronger integration of climate data and strategic planning to protect the health of our populations. This project will help strengthen planning and coordination across sectors and stakeholders to unlock the financing and partnerships needed to achieve this vision.”

In Uganda, USD700,000 (CAD980,000) will support the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Makerere School of Public Health. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, this effort will strengthen coordination and develop an investment case for implementing the country’s Health National Adaptation Plan (2025–2030).

“This project comes at a critical time as Uganda begins implementing its Health National Adaptation Plan,” said Didacus Namanya, climate and health focal person in Uganda’s Ministry of Health. “It will help strengthen and build resilience in the national health system against climate change adversities, ensuring sustained health access and security for vulnerable communities. These efforts are essential to advancing SDG 3, the Uganda National Development Plan IV, and the Health Sector Strategic Plan 2025-2030 aspirations of healthy lives and well-being for all.”

The initiative is part of a broader effort by The Rockefeller Foundation and IDRC to support climate-health governance, financing, research and action across the continent — ensuring that countries can anticipate, prepare for and respond to the health challenges posed by a warming planet.

“Across Africa, people like those in Senegal and Uganda are on the frontlines of the climate crisis — facing rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and growing threats from vector-borne diseases,” said Manisha Bhinge, vice president of the Health Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Through this partnership, we are supporting both countries to access and deploy the financing needed to protect communities, strengthen health systems, and build resilience against heat and other climate-related health risks.”

"With the growing evidence about the toll exerted by climate change on population health, and associated costs for governments and vulnerable populations, health authorities remain woefully unequipped to effectively utilize climate financing to build resilient health systems,” said Montasser Kamal, director of Global Health at IDRC. “This project is so timely because it will help accelerate the capacity of health systems' decision-makers to synthesize and utilize evidence to access climate finance in their respective countries, through building bridges between the now far-apart health and climate finance sectors."