By Albert Oppong-Ansah
Accra, July 16, GNA – Scientists and health experts have called for stronger links between climate and health research and policymaking to improve Africa’s response to climate-related health threats.
They said strengthening evidence-based policymaking was critical to addressing the continent’s growing health challenges arising from climate change.
The call was made at the launch of the Climate and Health Science and Policy Consortium in Africa, funded by the Wellcome Trust, in Accra.
Dr Brama Kone, Technical Officer at the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa, said limited access to reliable data remained a major obstacle to understanding the relationship between climate and health across the continent.
He said weather data were often available only in major cities with airports, leaving many secondary towns and rural communities without ground-level measurements despite being highly vulnerable to climate impacts.
“When you start with the data themselves, this is the first challenge we are facing in Africa,” he said, adding that the situation had improved with the use of satellite data but remained far below what was required.
Dr Ama Essel, Lead Negotiator on Health with the African Group of Negotiators to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said health had not received adequate attention in international climate negotiations.
She said Africa needed a clear long-term vision for climate and health, supported by evidence to inform national and international policy.
“We need quantified data that helps political leaders make decisions. What goes into your national climate plans comes from the national level first. We need to know what we want before we go globally,” she said.
Dr Essel called on the consortium to help build a unified African position by translating scientific evidence into common policy priorities for the continent.
Dr Yewande Alimi, One Health Unit Lead at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, urged researchers to produce evidence that directly informed policy and investment decisions.
She said Africa continued to face significant climate-related health burdens, citing ongoing cholera outbreaks in several countries.
“…over 1,500 cases of a deadly viral disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda and more than 600 deaths, and a rift valley fever outbreak also underway in Uganda.”
“Policymakers do not have time to read all those papers. They want to know where to put their money. Where should we put the intervention? How do we make sure vaccines are available? How do we invest in climate-resilient health infrastructure? Unless your research can answer that, it creates a gap,” she said.
Prof. John Gyapong of the African Research Universities Alliance said Africa should take a more proactive role in addressing the effects of climate change on public health.
“Africa cannot continue to wait. This problem is much bigger and affects us much more, even though we are not the ones contributing the most to it,” he said.
Mr Philip Kilonzo of the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance said available evidence on climate and health often lacked the specificity required to inform policy and resource allocation.
“Much of the available evidence talks in a generic sense about rising disease cases but does not clearly articulate what that rise means, what it costs, or which interventions actually work,” he said.
Mr Kilonzo called for closer collaboration between researchers and advocates to produce evidence that was clear, specific, costed and accessible to decision-makers across the health, water, agriculture, urban planningand finance sectors.
“We need to break it into messages that are clear, understandable, and easy to communicate,” he said.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
16 July 2026
Reporter: Albert Oppong-Ansah