Unlocking climate financing to strengthen health systems resilience in low- and middle-income countries

Climate change presents a dire threat to global public health, exacerbating emergencies, increasing the risk of pandemics and destabilizing human wellbeing. Despite the fact that nearly 3.3 billion people worldwide are classified as highly vulnerable to climate change, the allocation of climate funds for health initiatives remains critically low. Globally, a mere 0.5% of multilateral climate finance is directed towards projects specifically aimed at safeguarding or enhancing human health. Further, the funds that are available are siloed. For example, funds for energy transitions and substitution are not linked to health sector resilience, and funds for water conservation are rarely linked to water, sanitation and hygiene interventions by the health sector. Significant under investment and missed opportunities to integrate solutions severely hamper countries' capacities, particularly those in the low- and middle-income brackets, to effectively tackle the escalating risk posed by climate change to health.

The overall goal of this project is to strengthen the capacity of health decision-makers to access and effectively utilize climate financing to build resilient health systems, fostering cross-sectoral collaboration and maximizing health co-benefits from investments in other sectors in Uganda and Senegal. The research teams will analyze barriers and enablers for mobilizing climate-health finance and develop toolkits for supporting health decision-makers to access climate finance in their respective countries. Lessons from this project will offer a comprehensive understanding of climate financing pathways and their alignment with national priorities for building health system resilience in low- and middle-income contexts.