The second Health and Climate Change Symposium jointly organized by Tree Adoption Uganda and the Ministry of Health took center stage on the 15th of October, 2024 at the Makerere University School of Public Health Auditorium under the theme, “Leveraging community strengths for climate resilient health systems in Africa.” This also served as a Pre-COP 29 event.

This year’s symposium built on the successes of the inaugural symposium that was held in November 2023 ahead of COP 28 (That was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates). These successes were highlighted by Crispus Mwemaho, the Co-Founder of Abayuuti Climate Action Network who also doubled as the Master of Ceremonies for the event. 

Some of these included but are not limited to: developing the COP 28 position paper that was presented by Uganda’s negotiators at COP 28, having health as a target in the global goal of adaptation and locally, the developing and launching of the Health National Adaptation plan (H-NAP). These, he said, were evidences of fruitful discussions on the need to forge solutions to pressing climate and health concerns from the inaugural Symposium.

Mwemaho’s position on the urgent need for climate action to avert a myriad of disasters was re-echoed by Dr. Charles Batte, the Founder and Executive Director of Tree Adoption Uganda. Apart from acknowledging that the extreme weather events like high temperatures and floods had become rampant, he argued that these had to be brought in check to minimize further damages otherwise, we would continue counting heavy losses.

“Extreme weather events contribute significantly to loss of lives, to ill health across the country and damage the infrastructure that is meant to provide quality healthcare to people in our communities and that is why action is needed,” he observed.

Dr. Batte also applauded the Government of Uganda and pointed out that they have actually been intentional about creating an enabling environment to ensure that when it comes to challenges and threats posed by climate change, the waters are baled when they are still ankle-deep. This, he believed, was a key step towards mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change on health.

“Government’s efforts are underscored by the National Climate Change Policy enacted in 2015, the Climate Change Act of 2021 and also recently in the National Development Plan III, the National Health Policy and the Health Sector Strategic Plans that we have seen increasingly integrate climate and health concerns or issues,” he said.

The second Health and Climate Change Symposium achieved great success as a position paper from the nexus of Climate Change and health for the COP 29 that was set to take place in Baku Azerbaijan was developed. This was shared with the Ministry of Water and Environment and was incorporated into Uganda’s final position paper for COP 29.

The Symposium was co-hosted by Ministry of Health, Uganda and supported by other partners like Regenerate Africa, Reproductive Health Uganda, Makdarta, and Youth Initiatives for Youth Action, Next Media, AirQo and Population Services International.