A new report by Kulima Integrated Development Solutions presents significant progress in understanding the health impacts of climate change in Mozambique.  It also makes valuable recommendations on integrating climate change into public health policy and Mozambique’s disaster risk reduction strategy.

A key challenge to a quantitative understanding of the links between climate change and human health across Mozambique is a lack of relevant data. This is largely due to lack of rural infrastructure, capacity and very low levels of climate change awareness outside of Maputo. The aim of this CDKN-supported project was to develop a preliminary, context specific assessment for determining climate change responses that would likely improve human health outcomes.

A central recommendation of the assessment is the development of a climate change and disease outbreak early warning and surveillance system. Such a system is critical for collecting data to build the evidence base required for effective awareness-raising, training programmes and the implementation of a credible health information system. It is a necessary prerequisite for implementing a research agenda on climate change and health issues and a potential national health climate change programme to focus on building climate resilience and strengthening public health systems. The assessment also highlights the need to build and strengthen both horizontal partnerships (among departments of the government at national level) and vertical coordination (between national, regional and local levels).

The assessment presents the final research findings of one of six work streams under the Government of Mozambique’s Climate Change and Development Combined Work Programme. The full report is available here.