Dr Collins Timire from REACT’s CeSHHAR team recently attended a symposium run by LSTM’s Institute for Resilient Health Systems at Cresta Lodge in Harare, Zimbabwe. Here he describes his contribution.
In January this year, I attended an Institute for Resilient Health Systems (IRHS) symposium, where I was invited to deliver a presentation on Strengthening the health workforce to respond to health impacts of climate crisis in Nepal and Zimbabwe.
The symposium was held under the theme Advancing health systems resilience: research, preparedness and partnerships, and my talk centred on REACT’s work. It delved into the project’s six work packages and the progress made so far in implementing the project.
My presentation highlighted the climate crisis as a global health threat which is resulting in extreme weather events in both of our study settings – Zimbabwe and Nepal – as well as around the world. The weather events in turn, set in motion various public health challenges, e.g. heat-strokes, newborn complications and outbreaks of climate-sensitive diseases, such as cholera, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, dengue and tuberculosis. These conditions are not only dangerous for the sufferer but may also result in a surge of patients at health facilities, bringing to the fore the importance of resilient health systems that anticipate, prepare for, respond to and recover from climate threats, while also maintaining normal function.
The health workforce, a key component of resilient health systems, may be sub-optimally prepared to respond to the impacts of climate crisis. REACT aims to assess the preparedness and capacities of health system actors, and to use the results to co-create context-specific interventions that will be co-implemented, monitored and evaluated in collaboration with various stakeholders as part of community engagement and involvement.
Special thanks go to REACT’s co-PIs Professors Joanna Raven and Euphemia Sibanda and co-investigators Professor Stanley Luchters, Dr Fortunate Machingura and Dr Sungai Chabata for their support.
