Reflections on Climate Change and Public Health in Africa in an Era of Global Pandemic

Global Pandemic ◽

The study examined the impact of climate change on public health provisioning in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to recognising the multifarious influence of climate change on health, it argues that the quest for global health security can only be achieved against the backdrop of concerted mainstreaming of climate change response into public heath provisioning, especially in the developing world. Adapting to climate change and mitigating its impact would logically require integrating it into public health planning, programming and interventions. Therefore, if health security entails provisioning and catering to the full range of health needs of people, climate change given its undoubted implications for health should be in the forefront of health security globally. Despite the global discourse of climate change and health security, tangible actions and programmes at different levels are needed to achieve the goals of good health and effective health security. This is no less the case now that the pandemic has challenged and stretched health institutions and provisions. However, the complex and intertwining effects of climate change and its manifold nexus with public health and health security can easily be apprehended through the systems perspective. There is the need for both radicalization of the public health system in Sub-Saharan Africa and concerted efforts across disciplines and actors to achieve effective climate change mitigation and adaptation and thus further strengthen health security.

Inequity in climate change mitigation and adaptation capacities: The case for Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1307/6/11/112027 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 6 (11) ◽

pp. 112027

Author(s):

Richard U U Iinswe ◽

J E Otu ◽

J K Ukwayi

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Mitigation ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Change Mitigation

Climate Change, Land, Water, and Food Security: Perspectives From Sub-Saharan Africa

Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems ◽

10.3389/fsufs.2021.680924 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

Author(s):

Samuel Appiah Ofori ◽

Samuel Jerry Cobbina ◽

Samuel Obiri

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Decision Making ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Average Temperature ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Perpetrators And Victims ◽

Mitigate Climate Change ◽

Water And Food Security

The current and projected warming of the earth is unequivocal with humans playing a strong role as both perpetrators and victims. The warming on the African continent is projected to be greater than the global average with an increased average temperature of 3–6°C by the end of the century under a high Representative Concentration Pathway. In Africa, the Sub-Saharan region is identified as the most vulnerable to the changing climate due to its very low capacity to adapt to or mitigate climate change. While it is common to identify studies conducted to assess how climate change independently impacts water, land, or food resources, very limited studies have sought to address the interlinkages, synergies, and trade-offs existing between climate change, water, land, and food (WLF) resources as a system in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The climate change and WLF security nexus, therefore, seeks to address this shortfall in literature and subsequently serve as a relevant source of information for decision-making and policy implementation concerning climate change mitigation and adaptation. In this study, 41 relevant studies were selected from Web of Science, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and institutional websites. We provide information on the independent relationships between climate change and WLF resources, and further discuss the existing inter-linkages between climate change and the WLF security in SSA using the nexus approach, with recommendations on how decision making and policy implementations should be done using the climate change and WLF security nexus approach.

Assessing the Climate Resilience of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A Metric-Based Approach

Land ◽

10.3390/land10111205 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 1205

Author(s):

Douglas Sono ◽

Ye Wei ◽

Ying Jin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Central Africa ◽

Cape Verde ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Climate Resilience ◽

Resilience Index ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Negative Impacts

The impacts of climate change have resulted in the emergence of resilience as the de factor framework for countries seeking to capture the differential and uneven ability to prepare, react, respond and cope with volatile and rapid changes of climate-related stresses. Despite being considered by many researchers the most vulnerable region to the negative effects of climate change, the climate resilience of Sub-Saharan Africa has not been extensively studied. Using countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a study area, this paper constructed a pragmatically based resilience metric called the composite national climate resilience index (CNCRI) that can be used as a tool for the policy word. The inherent variables used to construct the CNCRI were justified and used to measure the resilience of countries in SSA based on five different dimensions. The result indicates that the CNCRI score, 1.05 (least resilient) to 44.8 (most resilient), and the island countries of Mauritius, Seychelles, and Cape Verde are comparatively more resilient than the rest of the countries in the study area. Regionally, Southern Africa is more resilient compared to East, West, and Central Africa. The vulnerability and readiness metric suggested that Cape Verde is the only country in SSA to have low vulnerability and high readiness, while most countries have high vulnerability and low readiness, making them the least resilient countries needing urgent mitigation and adaptation actions. Lastly, finding from this study could provide the policy world with insight for improving the overall ability to prepare and respond to the negative impacts of climate in the study area.

Challenges of healthcare delivery in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa

Iberoamerican Journal of Medicine ◽

10.53986/ibjm.2020.0018 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 100-109

Author(s):

Bamidele Johnson Alegbeleye ◽

◽

Rana Kadhim Mohammed ◽

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Systems ◽

Healthcare Delivery ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

African Countries ◽

Health Security ◽

Public Health Systems ◽

Public Health Infrastructure ◽

Health Infrastructure ◽

Introduction: Public health security is concerned with infection prevention and control worldwide. These measures are the concern of all and sundry to ensure prevention of any outbreaks of diseases that has epidemic potential. Africa may be uniquely positioned to have the most severe and under-detected outcomes related to COVID-19 infection. This article seeks to highlight such challenges of healthcare delivery systems in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. The communique also suggests possible strategies for improvement in such settings. Method: We identified relevant articles to date using a manual library search, journal publications on the subject, and critically reviewed them. Results: We identified and exhaustively discussed the main limitations to public health security in sub-Saharan Africa as follows i) Continuing deterioration of the public health infrastructure for disease control, ii) The changing outlooks of contagious diseases, iii) Private sector reforms like the managed care, iv) Relatively weak health care systems, and v) Poor organizational structures. Conclusion: Most Africans are eager to see the desired transformation in our public health systems. Unfortunately, the political will to invest in public health infrastructure is lacking. Also, the system is characterized by human resources shortage and diverted resources, which significantly impacted the provision for emerging COVID-19 pandemic –related care. Interestingly the monumental breakthroughs in research development for bio-therapeutics and vaccines in African countries appear a mirage even with extensive past study experience with such products from China and the Western world. Finally, notwithstanding these challenges in our public health systems as elaborated, the facts are that enormous capacities exist that can be harnessed in African countries for the COVID-19 preparedness and response.

Building a new platform to support public health emergency response in Africa: the AFENET Corps of Disease Detectives, 2018–2019

BMJ Global Health ◽

10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002874 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (10) ◽

pp. e002874

Author(s):

Ben Masiira ◽

Simon N Antara ◽

Herbert B Kazoora ◽

Olivia Namusisi ◽

Notion T Gombe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Workforce ◽

Health Workers ◽

Rapid Response Team ◽

Public Health Emergency ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Public Health Workforce ◽

Health Security ◽

Field Epidemiology ◽

Public health emergency (PHE) response in sub-Saharan Africa is constrained by inadequate skilled public health workforce and underfunding. Since 2005, the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) has been supporting field epidemiology capacity development and innovative strategies are required to use this workforce. In 2018, AFENET launched a continental rapid response team: the AFENET Corps of Disease Detectives (ACoDD). ACoDD comprises field epidemiology graduates and residents and was established to support PHE response. Since 2018, AFENET has deployed the ACoDD to support response to several PHEs. The main challenges faced during ACoDD deployments were financing of operations, ACoDD safety and security, resistance to interventions and distrust of the responders by some communities. Our experience during these deployments showed that it was feasible to mobilise and deploy ACoDD within 48 hours. However, the sustainability of deployments will depend on establishing strong linkages with the employers of ACoDD members. PHEs are effectively controlled when there is a fast deployment and strong linkages between the stakeholders. There are ongoing efforts to strengthen PHE preparedness and response in sub-Saharan Africa. ACoDD members are a competent workforce that can effectively augment PHE response. ACoDD teams mentored front-line health workers and community health workers who are critical in PHE response. Public health emergence response in sub-Saharan Africa is constrained by inadequacies in a skilled workforce and underfunding. ACoDD can be utilised to overcome the challenges of accessing a skilled public health workforce. To improve health security in sub-Saharan Africa, more financing of PHE response is needed.

Climate change challenges and adaptations at farm-level: case studies from Asia and Africa ◽

Sustainable land and water management approaches in sub-Saharan Africa: farm-level analysis of climate change mitigation and adaptation from sub-Saharan Africa.

10.1079/9781780644639.0146 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 146-167

Author(s):

J. Ndjeunga ◽

M. A. Zarafi ◽

A. Nikiema ◽

P. S. Traore ◽

A. Amani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Management ◽

Climate Change Mitigation ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Land And Water Management ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Management Approaches ◽

Change Mitigation ◽

Level Analysis

Reducing Climate Change Vulnerability in Sub-Saharan Africa Cities: Policy Prospects for Social Innovation and Microfinance

Environmental Science: Current Research ◽

10.24966/escr-5020/100019 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Dumisani Chirambo ◽

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Local Governments ◽

Social Innovation ◽

Social Systems ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Local Planning ◽

City Governments ◽

Climate Change Vulnerability ◽

Africa might not achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) because climate change will exacerbate poverty and inequality in the region. Moreover, many African cities are characterised by poor urban planning, gaps in public services and infrastructure and settlement in hazard-prone areas leading to increased climate change vulnerability as city governments/local governments fail to mainstream climate change mitigation and adaptation into local planning. However, social innovations are practices that bring about changes in attitudes, behaviour, or perceptions, resulting in new social practices, new institutions and new social systems,

COVID-19 preparedness: capacity to manufacture vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics in sub-Saharan Africa

Globalization and Health ◽

10.1186/s12992-021-00668-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Bisi Bright ◽

Chinedum Peace Babalola ◽

Nadia Adjoa Sam-Agudu ◽

Augustine Anayochukwu Onyeaghala ◽

Adebola Olatunji ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Local Development ◽

Rapid Test ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

World Health ◽

Main Body ◽

Global Alliance ◽

Health Security ◽

Resource Limited ◽

Abstract Objective The COVID-19 pandemic is a biosecurity threat, and many resource-rich countries are stockpiling and/or making plans to secure supplies of vaccine, therapeutics, and diagnostics for their citizens. We review the products that are being investigated for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19; discuss the challenges that countries in sub-Saharan Africa may face with access to COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutics, and diagnostics due to the limited capacity to manufacture them in Africa; and make recommendations on actions to mitigate these challenges and ensure health security in sub-Saharan Africa during this unprecedented pandemic and future public-health crises. Main body Sub-Saharan Africa will not be self-reliant for COVID-19 vaccines when they are developed. It can, however, take advantage of existing initiatives aimed at supporting COVID-19 vaccine access to resource-limited settings such as partnership with AstraZeneca, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation, the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation, the Serum Institute of India, and the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool. Accessing effective COVID-19 therapeutics will also be a major challenge for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as production of therapeutics is frequently geared towards profitable Western markets and is ill-adapted to sub-Saharan Africa realities. The region can benefit from pooled procurement of COVID-19 therapy by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in partnership with the African Union. If the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of patients who are severely ill is found to be effective, access to the product will be minimally challenging since the region has a pool of recovered patients and human resources that can man supportive laboratories. The region also needs to drive the local development of rapid-test kits and other diagnostics for COVID-19. Conclusion Access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for COVID-19 will be a challenge for sub-Saharan Africans. This challenge should be confronted by collaborating with vaccine developers; pooled procurement of COVID-19 therapeutics; and local development of testing and diagnostic materials. The COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call for sub-Saharan Africa to build vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics manufacturing capacity as one of the resources needed to address public-health crises.