International authorities and non-governmental organizations are spearheading an initiative to bolster the health sector's capacity to withstand climate change impacts.
The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is taking significant strides to address the impacts of climate change on its health system and communities. A key activity under the "Strengthening Climate Resilience of the Lao PDR Health System" project, led by Save the Children International in Laos and Health Care Without Harm Southeast Asia, is making a difference.
This five-year engagement between the organisations and the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Lao PDR aims to enhance the health sector’s ability to manage climate-related health impacts while reducing its environmental footprint. The project focuses on building resilience to climate risks and extreme weather events, ensuring that health facilities can continue to provide essential care during and after climate-related events.
The project's goals include minimizing the environmental footprint of the healthcare sector, reducing carbon footprint and managing emissions in healthcare facilities, and developing clean, safe, and climate-resilient health facilities across seven provinces in Laos.
To achieve these objectives, the initiative advances climate-health action through various means. HCWH SEA will lead the implementation of a nationwide assessment of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across 79 public healthcare facilities identified as vulnerable to climate risks. The assessment will provide valuable insights into the current emissions and help develop mitigation strategies.
Moreover, the project will develop tools such as the Climate Check Up Tool to help health personnel assess and reduce carbon footprints. It will also integrate climate data into health risk monitoring and service delivery, promoting cooperation, monitoring, and evaluation systems among health agencies to strengthen response capability.
The project also focuses on collecting and analyzing GHG emission data from health facilities, building the capacity of healthcare personnel on climate and health, and developing a system to support facilities in updating their carbon footprint assessments and developing mitigation strategies.
By combining mitigation efforts (emission reduction and sustainable facility management) with adaptation measures (building community and health system capacity and infrastructure upgrades), the project aims to reduce health vulnerabilities to climate change while contributing to Laos' broader climate targets and a sustainable, resilient health system.
The project's findings will contribute to the country's national climate mitigation targets, and the project's outcomes are relevant to topics such as Cities, Policy & Finance, Laos, and Southeast Asia. The inception meeting brought together representatives from the Ministry of Health, development partners, and technical experts to align on project goals and foster collaboration.
This initiative is designed to lead by example in tackling the health impacts of climate change while minimizing the environmental footprint of the healthcare sector. The project is being published through EB Publishing.
- The Lao People's Democratic Republic's climate change project, led by Save the Children International and Health Care Without Harm Southeast Asia, is targeting a reduction in the carbon footprint and management of emissions in healthcare facilities, contributing to the development of clean, safe, and climate-resilient health facilities.
- HCWH SEA is taking the lead in implementing a nationwide assessment of greenhouse gas emissions across vulnerable public healthcare facilities in Laos, with the aim of providing insights into current emissions and developing mitigation strategies.
- To address climatic risks and extreme weather events, the project is integrating climate data into health risk monitoring and service delivery, developing tools like the Climate Check Up Tool to help health personnel assess and reduce carbon footprints, and gathering GHG emission data from health facilities to build the capacity of healthcare personnel on climate and health.
