Statement by the Acting UN Resident Coordinator on the commemoration of World Health Day 2022

Director of Ceremonies

Honourable Ministers of Health and Environment and Tourism

WHO Country Representative and Representatives of other UN agencies

Representatives of other development partners

Senior Ministry of Health and other government officials

Health workers present

Members of the media

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen

Good morning

World Health Day has been observed annually on 7 April, since 1950, to commemorate the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. This year’s theme, Our Planet, Our Health, serves as a timely reminder of the inextricable link between the planet and our health, as the burden of noncommunicable and infectious diseases rises alongside growing incidence of climate-related challenges.

Climate change is manifesting in increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, changing rainfall patterns, and more frequent and severe extreme weather conditions. WHO estimates that more than 13 million annual deaths globally are due to avoidable environmental causes, including the climate crisis.

With direct consequences for the key determinants of health, climate change is negatively impacting air and water quality, food security, and human habitat and shelter. The knock-on effect of the burden of heart and lung disease, stroke and cancer, among others, is evident from statistics that point to Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) representing a growing proportion of Africa’s disease burden.

In the African Region, NCDs are set to overtake communicable diseases, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional conditions combined, to become the leading cause of death by 2030. COVID-19, along with spiraling obesity, diabetes and hypertension rates, compounds the challenge, highlighting the urgency of a multi-sectoral response.

During the past two decades, most public health events have been climate-related, whether they were vector- or water-borne, transmitted from animals to humans, or the result of natural disasters. For example, diarrhoeal diseases are the third leading cause of disease and death in children younger than five in Africa, a significant proportion of which is preventable through safe drinking water, and adequate sanitation and hygiene.

However, one in every three Africans faces water scarcity, while about 400 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa alone lack basic access to drinking water. About 45% of all child deaths are also associated with malnutrition, which is known to be linked to diarrhoea.

Meanwhile, a global warming  is seeing mosquitos spread diseases further and faster than ever before, with serious consequences for African countries which reported 94% of the 229 million malaria cases globally in 2019. Deaths due to malaria in Africa accounted for about 51% of all malaria deaths worldwide.

In 2018, African health and environment ministers endorsed the 10-year Libreville Declaration on Health and Environment in Africa, signed in 2008. This is a WHO-supported framework aimed at promoting government investment in addressing environmental problems that impact human health - such as air pollution, contamination of water sources, and ecosystem damage.

Under this Declaration, , the United Nations in Eswatini, support the country to conduct vulnerability, situation and needs assessments, and to create Health National Adaptation Plans (H-NAPs). We also support the country to submit National Adaptation Plan (NAPs), comprising essential public health interventions, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Government, civil society, nongovernment organizations and communities need to work together, empowering one another to ensure the continued delivery of essential health services during future extreme events, while containing the growing incidence of environment- and lifestyle-related diseases.

We cannot afford to lose sight of the fundamental truth that the climate crisis, the single biggest threat facing humanity today, is also very much a health crisis.

 I Thank You All for Your Attention