Amref Health Africa and Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) have signed a strategic partnership to help mobilise funding for climate-resilient and low-carbon healthcare systems across Africa.
The agreement, signed during the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), brings together Amref’s health and development network across the continent and HCWH’s experience in sustainable healthcare.
The partnership will focus on turning climate and health commitments into practical investments, including support for local research, climate-smart healthcare facilities and training for health professionals, policymakers and climate negotiators.
It was formalised during a high-level UNGA81 roundtable that brought together governments, climate funds, philanthropies and civil society organisations to explore ways of increasing investment in African health systems.
Turning priorities into action
For Amref, financing is a critical part of the climate-health challenge.
Group Chief Executive Officer, Dr Githinji Gitahi, said African countries already had climate and health priorities but needed resources to turn those priorities into action.
“Africa does not lack climate and health priorities; what is missing is financed delivery,” he said.
He said the partnership would strengthen collaboration with governments, financing institutions and technical partners to translate climate commitments into measurable health outcomes, particularly through stronger primary healthcare.
The organisations will assess climate risks and carbon footprints across health systems, support climate-smart facility planning and strengthen the capacity of healthcare workers and policymakers.
They will also document solutions already being developed in African countries, with the aim of adapting and expanding approaches that can work elsewhere on the continent.
The work will build on Amref’s Climate and Health Negotiators’ Curriculum, launched in September 2025, and the Centre for Policy and Research on Climate Change and Health at Amref International University.
The centre focuses on climate-health data systems, health workforce resilience, health economics and financing, climate-sensitive diseases, loss and damage, gender and equity.
Climate pressures are already being felt
Amref Health Africa Partnership Director, Corazon Aquino, said the partnership comes at a time when climate change is already affecting the health and wellbeing of communities across Africa.
“Climate change is already shaping the health and wellbeing of millions of people across Africa,” she said, pointing to droughts, floods, emerging disease patterns and food insecurity.
She said the scale of the challenge meant that no single organisation, government or sector could address it alone.
“It will take all of us working together to build the resilient health systems and resilient communities that our future depends on.”
Aquino said discussions at UNGA81, including those around preparedness for the anticipated El Niño season, were only the beginning of the work.
She said the discussions represented an early step in putting the new partnership between Amref and Health Care Without Harm into action.
Africa, she said, must not only respond to the climate crisis but also play a role in shaping the solutions, investments and partnerships that will determine a healthier future for the continent.
Making healthcare more sustainable
HCWH brings to the partnership its Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) network, which has 135 members across 11 African countries.
The network works with healthcare institutions to reduce their environmental footprint and prepare for climate impacts.
HCWH also works with groundWork, Friends of the Earth South Africa, which coordinates the GGHH network in Africa.
groundWork has contributed to research on the health effects of coal-fired power generation in South Africa and supported skills development in the health sector.
HCWH Chief Executive Officer Emily Bancroft said the partnership would combine Amref’s community reach and leadership across Africa with HCWH’s experience in sustainable and resilient healthcare.
“By bringing together Amref’s deep community reach and leadership across Africa with our expertise in sustainable, resilient health care, we can build and scale solutions in Africa, for Africa,” she said.
Looking towards COP32
Aquino said the partnership would also provide an opportunity to strengthen Africa’s voice in global climate and health discussions.
With COP32 scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa, she said Africa had an opportunity to ensure that its priorities, evidence and lived experiences help shape the global climate and health agenda.
She also pointed to the Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) 2027 (https://share.google/KWgrBNJ0V8E1ZpjE6) as an important platform for bringing together leaders, practitioners, communities and partners to continue the work.
The aim, she said, is to move discussions from commitments to practical outcomes and ensure that the next generation inherits health systems that are stronger, more resilient and better prepared for a changing climate.
For Amref and Health Care Without Harm, the partnership provides a platform to connect climate finance, research, healthcare infrastructure and skills development as African health systems prepare for growing climate pressures.
Amref, headquartered in Kenya, provides health and development services to more than 20 million people annually in at least 30 African countries.
