ENBEL and partners organise a session named “Interventions to reduce the impacts of extreme heat on health in Africa: a set of case studies across the continent and an interventional framework” at the Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress 2022 (SRI2022) held online and onsite in Pretoria, South Africa, June 20-24, 2022.

Extreme heat is already having major impacts on health in Africa, especially in vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, newborns, urban populations in informal areas, and outdoor workers. While evidence is accruing on heat-health impacts in Africa and modelling studies are beginning to document the likely size of future health impacts with global warming, little research has been done on which interventions can reduce these impacts. Of particular note, no interventions have assessed whether interventions can reduce the impacts of heat exposure on maternal and newborn health, of evaluated the effectiveness of passive housing adaptation technologies such as ‘’cool roofs’’. Identifying effective interventions is urgent as this information could inform research prioritisation and services programming as additional climate financing becomes available. This session reports findings from studies set in five countries across Africa that are amongst the first studies on heat adaptation on the continent, specifically a behavioural change interventions to reduce heat impacts, ‘’cool roof’’ interventions, water availability in schools in areas with hot climates, and an Early Warning System that centres around Indigenous practices to reduce heat burden. These examples of interventions illustrate the ability of translating knowledge generated into solutions that involve the public and private sector, as well as researchers and communities. Taken together, the body of knowledge presented in this session has the potential to guide future research actions and inform initiatives to scale-up packages of adaptation solutions to reduce heat-health impacts that span behavioural changes, Indigenous practices, access to cool water, and passive cooling technologies in households and health facilities. Intersections of these interventions with mitigation initiatives are also discussed. Finally, we present a framework for classifying interventions and an approach to selecting an optimised package of services in different settings.

Speakers:

Siphesihle Maseko, Session Host, Team SRI

Caradee Wright, Chief Specialist Scientist, SAMRC (ENBEL)

Ijeoma Solarin, MPH, Researcher, Wits RHI

Vincent Pagiwa, Research Fellow, University of Botswana (ENBEL)

Jan Hugo, Dr, Lecturer/Researcher, University of Pretoria

Gloria Maimela, Director Wits RHI

More information and registration