India and Asian Development Bank to set up climate change and health hub in Delhi

Subject: Environment

Section: International Conventions

Context:

Having bagged the first WHO Centre for Global Traditional Medicine, to be set up in Gujarat, India is now all set to open a climate change and health hub in the national capital in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

WHO Centre for Global Traditional Medicine:

The World Health Organisation (WHO) outpost in Jamnagar (Gujrat) will aim to provide:
- Leadership on global health matters pertaining to traditional medicine;
- Ensure the quality, safety, efficacy, accessibility, and rational use of traditional medicine;
- Develop norms, standards, and guidelines in relevant technical areas; and
- Develop tools and methodologies for data collection and analytics.

WHO hub for climate change and health:

The new hub for climate change and health will facilitate knowledge sharing, promote partnerships and innovations, and also help countries beyond the G-20, especially developing countries.

Health system resilience is a priority:

Emerging infectious diseases:

There is a concern about the rising cases of zoonotic spillovers, and consequently emerging and re-emerging diseases at the G20 Health Ministers meet.
G-20 countries have also welcomed the work of the International Pathogen Surveillance Network, and the opportunity to work closely with the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence and its endeavor to globally expand communities of practice and establish knowledge exchange programmes that disseminate and share good practices.

Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH):

ATACH is a WHO initiative, an informal voluntary network for Participants to exchange views, share information, and enhance technical and political co-operation.
It is not a distinct legal entity, and it derives its legal status from WHO. Thus, it shall be administered by WHO, which provides its Secretariat.
ATACH works to realize the ambition set at COP26 to build climate resilient and sustainable health systems, using the collective power of WHO Member States and other stakeholders to drive this agenda forward at pace and scale; and promote the integration of climate change and health nexus into respective national, regional, and global plans.
Four thematic working groups will work to address common issues:

Financing the Health Commitments on Climate Resilient and Sustainable Low Carbon Health Systems.
Climate Resilient Health Systems.
Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems.
Supply chains.

International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN):

IPSN is a global network of pathogen genomic actors, brought together by the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, to accelerate progress in pathogen genomics, and improve public health decision-making.
Vision and Mission:
- A world where every country has equitable access to sustained capacity for genomic sequencing and analytics as part of its public health surveillance system.

WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence (PEI):

The World Health Organization (WHO) Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence is working towards a world where collaborative surveillance empowers countries and communities to minimise the impact of pandemic and epidemic threats.
Collaborative surveillance, a key concept within WHO’s framework to strengthen the global architecture for health emergency prevention, preparedness, response and resilience (HEPR), facilitates the systematic strengthening of capacity and collaboration among diverse stakeholders globally, both within and beyond the health sector, to enhance public health intelligence and improve evidence for decision-making.