NDF Supports Climate Change and Health in Asia

NDF provides 4 million EUR to strengthen the national and regional capacity of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam to cope with adverse health impacts of climate change. The project will be co-financed and implemented by Asian Development Bank and executed by the Ministries of Health in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in the target countries.

The following project outputs are planned:

1) Knowledge and understanding of the relationship between climate change and human health are improved.
2) Human resource skills in coping with climate change adaptation in the health sector are strengthened.
3) Knowledge products are shared and advocacy promoted. 

It is widely anticipated that climate change will spread communicable diseases in the region and pose new threats to public health and it is recognised that the Mekong belong to the most vulnerable regions in the world.

The project will contribute to poverty alleviation indirectly by reducing the vulnerability of the poor and disadvantaged groups (women, children and ethnic groups) to climate change induced diseases. The expected improvement in the beneficiaries’ health status will enhance their productivity. Although the main focus of the proposed project is on the health sector, the project also seeks to establish and reinforce linkages with other sectors, such as water and sanitation, agriculture and environment. This approach links it directly to the work planned with the World Bank under NDF C74 Climate Change and Health. Through these two projects NDF seeks to catalyse exchange between institutions and continents on this important topic.