Development of a Health National Adaptation Plan for Togo

Climate change increasingly poses a threat to public health, particularly in Togo, where climate impacts such as heatwaves, floods and droughts, are already significant. In this context, it is of utmost importance to adequately plan the adaptive capacity of the Togolese health sector to make it more resilient to climate change.

This is one of the aims of the ProSanté project (Strengthening the health system – reproductive health and sexual rights), implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH together with the Togolese Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene (MHPH) and financed by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The general objective is to improve the health of the Togolese population, and adaptation to climate change is a cross-cutting theme of this project. The project at hand addressed this priority by drawing up the National Adaptation Plan for the Health Sector (HNAP).

This Plan was based on the Vulnerability and Risk Analysis for the Health Sector, whose final report was completed by adelphi and its partners in January 2020 and which made it possible to identify the impact of climate change on the health sector in Togo and subsequent recommendations. The Plan also follows closely the World Health Organisation’s Operational framework for building climate resilient health systems (2015) and the UNFCCC’s Technical guidelines for the national adaptation plan process (2012).

To achieve this goal of developing the HNAP, a team made out of representatives from the GIZ ProSanté and the MHPH, together with an expert from adelphi and national consultants, was set up, following a collaborative and participatory approach. The HNAP team first agreed on a strategy (especially regarding the integration of the international technical guides), then held discussions with key stakeholders and moderated a workshop on adaptation options. Subsequently, the team developed a draft of the HNAP and conducted a validation workshop to discuss and finalise the plan.