Seed Global Health

We are hiring a Grants Officer ! The position is a full-time position based in Malawi. Read the full job description below Interested candidates please submit your resumes and cover letter through our website: https://lnkd.in/eNAep4cq Please share this opportunity with your networks!

There is an urgent need to strengthen and adapt health systems to protect communities from climate-related shocks.   Following the launch of the Belém Health Action Plan (BHAP) on Health Day at COP30, two key reports have been published by the World Health Organization and COP30 Brazil Presidency to support its implementation ⬇️   🌎🩺 The COP30 Special Report on Health and Climate Change: https://lnkd.in/gB4pQudh This technical report highlights the need for immediate and coordinated action to protect health and save lives from the impacts of climate change. It details interventions already in place to guide other governments and specifically calls on them to: 📑 Integrate health objectives into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs); 🏦 Harness the financial savings from decarbonization to fund health adaptation and workforce capacity; 🏥 Invest in resilient infrastructure, prioritizing health facilities and essential services; and 👥 Empower communities and local knowledge systems to shape responses that reflect lived realities.   🌎🤝 The COP30 Special Report on Social Participation in Health and Climate: https://lnkd.in/eaRQ6QcA   This companion report provides guidance on social participation, governance, and community engagement as critical components for successfully implementing the BHAP. Effective adaptation requires the active involvement of communities in designing, implementing, and monitoring health policies. Together, the two reports provide extensive recommendations to translate the BHAP’s objectives into practice. Following adoption by over 40 countries at #COP30 on Health Day, political momentum must now be sustained as we move from rhetoric to action.

🌊Floods, 🔥heat, 🌩️storms threaten hospitals and clinics worldwide. Together, we can build climate-resilient health systems that deliver care when it’s needed most. Learn more & join the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (#ATACH): bit.ly/3JwqCZa #COP30

Extreme heat and poor air quality as a result of climate change endangers workers and economies - and health workers are at the forefront of this challenge.    At #COP30 our Senior Director of Policy, Marionka Pohl, spoke at Wellcome Trust and The Rockefeller Foundation’s "Hot Work: Building Worker and Business Resilience in a Warming World" session at the TED Countdown House in Belém.   The discussion centred on solutions to protect those on the frontlines and Marionka emphasized three critical points:    🔹 Countries urgently need stronger data and coordination to address risks to health facilities and health workers before shocks occur. In Malawi, we’re working with the Ministry Of Health Malawi and the World Health Organization on a Rapid Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment - creating a model other governments can use to strengthen preparedness.   🔹 Health workers need climate-ready training. During Cyclone Freddy, Seed-trained family medicine teams kept facilities running and saved lives when systems collapsed. Countries like Zambia and Uganda are also embedding climate-health skills into national health curricula to prepare frontline workers.   🔹 Prevention is protection. Extreme heat caused 512 billion lost work hours in 2023 and could cost the global economy $2.4 trillion by 2030. Investing in health and the health workforce protects people while driving economic stability and growth. And businesses have a pivotal role in this adaptation.   In our work with ministries of health and frontline providers in Africa we see daily how climate change is reshaping the delivery of care. By investing in health workers countries are investing in their strongest climate adaptation - saving lives, strengthening economic development, and protecting security.   Because resilience starts with people.    And when we safeguard health workers we safeguard everyone.   Thank you to the other panellists for this important discussion: Alan Dangour (Director of Climate & Health, Wellcome Trust), Emmanuel Normant (VP for Sustainable Development, Saint-Gobain), Marina Belén Romanello, PhD HonMFPH (Executive Director, The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change), Bijal Brahmbhatt (Managing Trustee, Mahila Housing Trust) and Alessandro Massazza (Senior Policy & Advocacy Advisor, United for Global Mental Health). 

After thirty COPs and three Health Days, we finally have an action plan - the Belém Health Action Plan (BHAP) - for governments to address climate and health 👏 Launched today at COP30 Brazil and already backed by 40+ countries! This is the kind of commitment-into-action we need - because whether you believe in climate change or not, it’s claiming lives, disrupting economies, and destroying communities. We cannot wait to adapt. The adaptation measures in the BHAP will protect lives and livelihoods against the impacts of climate change. We especially welcome the strengthened language on health workers in the final text. Health is how we experience the climate crisis. And health workers feel those impacts first. They stand as our first line of defense. Yet even as they protect us all, they continue to be underrecognized, underfunded, and overstretched. They are a key adaptation, and our team at Seed Global Health fought hard for their strengthened inclusion. Because a skilled, supported health workforce is one of the most effective and overlooked climate adaptations we have! As countries begin implementing the roadmap and integrating it across sectors, it will serve not only as a pathway to saving lives, but also to protecting economies and advancing adaptation. Because health, climate, and economic resilience are inseparable. We cannot respond in silos - integrating health and climate action through the BHAP benefits lives, livelihoods, and our shared future. Now, the funding must follow. It was galvanizing to see today’s announcement by the Climate and Health Funders Coalition - 35 global philanthropic funders including Wellcome Trust, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Rockefeller Foundation, Gates Foundation and many others - which pledged $300 million to support climate and health action, accelerate solutions, and better coordinate funding. While this brings momentum, it will be critical that this and other commitments represent new money to fill the void and not a repeat of the $1B at COP28 of which > $800 million was precommitted, recycled and earmarked. Pledges, future promises, or announcements of pre-allocated funds aren’t going to cut it. They’re not enough to finance the action we need. Simple, transparent, and sustainable financing mechanisms that bridge the gap between health and climate - debt-for-health swaps, social impact bonds, and insurance schemes - can all help mobilize financing so countries can adapt. By Governments, funders, multilaterals and banks… These funds are not costs nor tradeoffs in a finite pool of funds but investments that save money, lead to economic growth and jobs alongside saving lives. We must welcome today’s progress - but we can’t stop now. We have to keep pushing for action, increasing funding, and delivering for people around the world whose health, families, and livelihoods are affected by the climate crisis.

“Climate change is worsening the exact problems that we seek to solve.” At Newsweek’s #COP30 event, Seed Global Health CEO and WHO Special Envoy Vanessa Kerry, MD MSc warned that Bill Gates’ recent comments on climate action risk creating a “dangerous” false sense of security. In a wide-ranging conversation with Jeff Young, she outlined how climate change is accelerating disease, food insecurity, poverty and economic loss, and why adaptation funding is now essential. Our panels in Belém also spotlighted cooling tech innovation, methane-reduction in agriculture, and the need for unified global metrics as leaders confront the realities of a warming world. ✍️ Katherine Fung | #ClimateChange Read more: https://lnkd.in/eWd_t93t

The Belém Health Action Plan has been adopted at COP30! 👏 This is a historic moment - putting health at the center of climate action. The plan provides a detailed roadmap of adaptation measures to protect lives and livelihoods against the impacts of climate change, including: 🚨 Early warning systems 🤝 Improving collaboration across sectors and health systems 👩🏾⚕️ Ensuring health workers are equipped with adequate training and funding to respond to climate impacts We are pleased to see the inclusion and strengthened language on health workers within the plan. Our team worked hard to make sure this was included. It is vital that the health workforce is not only recognised, but also supported and funded as a vital tool to build resilient health systems in the face of climate change. As an early endorser of the Belém Health Action Plan we will now push for a concrete roadmap to move the plan from adoption to implementation. Congratulations to all involved in the development of the plan! 🎉