The health sector has been an active part of defining and implementing the national climate action policy. The National Coordination Body for the One Health Approach, based at the National Institute of Public Health, was set up to coordinate the development of two fundamental instruments: the National Plan for Health Adaptation to the Effects of Climate Change and the Strategy for the Development of an Ecologically Sustainable Health System. The photo shows the Institute’s participation in the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28), as a member of the national delegation. The sector is also working, for example, on the definition of a study to better understand the impacts of extreme temperatures on the Cape Verdean population.

In recent decades, climate change has occupied a very important place in the context of global health, particularly because of its impact on sustainable development. Climate change causes significant and severe problems for the health of populations, increasing morbidity and mortality and social inequalities.

These impacts are of great relevance to Cape Verde, like all other Small Island Developing States (SIDS), due to the associated vulnerabilities, so building resilient and sustainable national health systems is a real challenge.

In order to meet the challenges of climate change, Cape Verde is a signatory to a number of international and regional commitments, including ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, ratification of the Paris Agreement, the Librevile Declaration on Health and Environment in Africa, the Luanda Commitment – Strategic Alliance on Health and Environment in Africa, the adoption of the Operational Framework Resolution for Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change and the Declaration that places greater emphasis on SIDS.

A series of measures have been implemented to operationalise these commitments in the health sector. In terms of multisectoral coordination, the National Coordination Body for the One Health Approach was created, based at the National Institute of Public Health, which has led various processes, including coordinating the drafting and implementation of plans related to health and climate, including the National Hospital Waste Management Plan, research into the impact of climate on the prevalence of infectious diseases, the training of field epidemiologists to strengthen the area of environmental surveillance, the organisation of workshops related to Climate Change and Health, among others, providing added value in overcoming challenges and strengthening response capacity.

The country has two fundamental instruments aligned with the NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution), namely the National Plan for Health Adaptation to Climate Change (PNASMC 2023-2027), to guide the sector’s activities over the next five years, and the Strategy for the Development of an Ecologically Sustainable Health System, both recently drawn up by a team of qualified international and national consultants, as well as experts from the World Health Organisation, who reflected the most up-to-date guidelines on the subject in the plan.

The adoption of these plans is the result of the Cape Verdean government’s commitment to the Presidency of the World Climate Change Conference at its 26th session, COP 26, to i) carry out a baseline assessment of greenhouse gas emissions in the main facilities of the national health service; ii) draw up and publish an action plan that defines strategies for developing a sustainable, low-carbon health system. The assessment of the emissions baseline is part of the assessment of the health sector’s vulnerability to climate change, which covers other parameters, providing elements that make it possible to draw up more adjusted response scenarios.

Authors

Maria de Luz Mendonça,
Master in Health and Development, Specialist in Public Health and Occupational Medicine and President of the National Institute of Public Health

Júlio Rodrigues,
Postgraduate in Science for Development, Master in Public Health and Public Health Physician (julio.M.Rodrigues@insp.gov.cv)