Dear HIFA colleagues,
We have highlighted on HIFA many times the importance of awareness of the general public about the current and long-term health impacts of climate change, and the responsibility of health professionals to be informed and to inform. We have noted that humans are peculiarly insensitive to long-term threats such as climate change (as well as smoking, inactivity, nuclear war, pandemics and many other risk factors for disease). We have asked how we can better meet information needs (of the public, health workers and policymakers) so that there is a solid understanding of the issues. And yet to date we have failed, as shown for example by the actions of the current Trump administration. I would like to propose we address this challenge as a sponsored HIFA Project in 2025: www.hifa.org/projects
This WHO webinar (below) promises a greater understanding *among participants* about the impacts of climate change on maternal, newborn and child health. But the key question is how to promote greater understanding among the public, health workers and policymakers.
I have registered for the event and invite you to do the same: https://who.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_suVfRCcQSPiRr0zWJOeY_w#/registra...
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From: mncah <mncah@who.int>
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2025 9:24 AM
Subject: Webinar: addressing the impacts of climate change on maternal, newborn and child health and building climate-resilient societies.
The fourth dialogue of PMNCH’s Ready, Set, Implement Dialogue Series [ https://pmnch.who.int/news-and-events/events/ready-set-implement ] will be taking place virtually on Thursday 27th February, 13h00 – 14h30CET, focusing on Addressing the impacts of climate change on maternal, newborn and child health and building climate-resilient societies.
https://pmnch.who.int/news-and-events/events/item/2025/02/27/partner-eve...
Reducing mortality and bolstering the health of women, children and adolescents remains one of the most critical challenges to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 3.1 (reduce the global maternal mortality ratio) and SDG 3.2 (end preventable deaths of newborns and children under five). Climate change is threatening decades of progress of improvements in maternal, newborn and child health, further widening the gap to reach the SDG targets. Pregnant and lactating women, newborns, children, and adolescents are particularly affected by climate change due to their unique stages and needs in the life course [ https://jogh.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/jogh-14-03018.pdf ]. Extreme weather events also disrupt access to sexual and reproductive health services and lead to increased gender-based violence and child marriage [ https://www.unfpa.org/publications/taking-stock-sexual-and-reproductive-... ].
With the renewed global commitment enshrined in the 77th World Health Assembly resolution (WHA77) on accelerating progress on maternal, newborn and child mortality [ https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA77/A77_R5-en.pdf ], it is crucial to ensure policies, financing and interventions address this intersection.
This high-level dialogue, organized in collaboration with the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH), will bring together policymakers, healthcare and climate leaders, donors, and experts to:
• Share the latest evidence and existing gaps on the impacts of climate change on maternal, newborn and child health
• Identify and discuss effective policies, interventions and projects that can enhance climate mitigation and adaptation for maternal, newborn and child health, with a focus on country-level implementation.
• Explore intersectoral action and financing mechanisms which can be leveraged to increase alignment and investments to safeguard maternal, newborn and child health in the climate crisis.
• Provide actionable recommendations and a clear call to action to address maternal, newborn and child health in climate policies and financing, and integrate climate change in maternal, newborn and child health policies and financing to ensure mothers, babies, children and future generations are not left behind and accelerate progress toward achieving SDG 3.1 and 3.2.
We invite you to join the dialogue by registering here. We also encourage you to disseminate the event through your networks by using this social media toolkit.
We look forward to seeing you join!
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Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org