Regenerate Africa, in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MoH), convened a virtual multi-stakeholder consultation on Tuesday to fast-track the integration of health into Uganda’s third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0). The session brought together government officials, civil society, academia and development partners to review health in NDC 2.0, identify critical gaps, and co-create measurable, actionable recommendations for the next round of national climate commitments.
Organisers said the dialogue — aligned with Uganda’s Health National Adaptation Plan (HNAP), the COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health and the WHO Operational Framework for Building Climate-Resilient Health Systems — is intended to ensure health considerations are central to climate policy and financing going forward.
“The 150 governments which have endorsed the COP28 UAE Declaration on Health and Climate Change committed to pursuing ‘taking health into account, as appropriate, in designing the next round of nationally determined contributions,’” said Ms. Nakuya Niona K. Ssebukulu, Gender, Health and Environment Lead at Regenerate Africa.
She added that NDCs are the practical bridge between international climate commitments and delivering results at national level, and stressed that “building health explicitly into those national climate plans ensures countries maximise every opportunity to protect and promote the health of their own population with the climate actions they take and the climate investments they make.”
Why NDC 3.0 matters
Uganda’s NDC 2.0 (submitted in 2022) recognised climate risks to key economic sectors and flagged the health sector as highly exposed, assigning it a vulnerability rating of 3.67 and a risk rating of 3.33. It also identified health among 13 priority adaptation sectors and proposed a range of adaptation and mitigation actions — from integrating climate considerations into national health plans and developing district climate-health profiles, to strengthening early-warning and surveillance systems, and transforming national and regional referral hospitals into climate-smart facilities.
However, stakeholders at the consultation noted important shortfalls in NDC 2.0: the absence of measurable health targets, inadequate dedicated financing, and weak monitoring systems that largely focused on malaria while leaving gaps in sexual and reproductive health (SRHR), mental health and pollution-related risks. Participants argued NDC 3.0 is a timely opportunity to close those gaps by aligning NDC text and indicators with Uganda’s HNAP and global climate-health frameworks.
Co-creating measurable targets
The consultation sought to translate high-level priorities into concrete, sector-specific objectives, targets and indicators that can be embedded in NDC 3.0. Key proposed actions discussed included:
- integrating climate risk and vulnerability assessments into national and district health planning;
- improving links between emergency medical call systems and national disaster response;
- strengthening health infrastructure resilience (climate-smart hospitals); and
- implementing integrated interventions across water, sanitation, education, social protection and SRHR.
Speakers also highlighted mitigation co-benefits of cross-sector measures — for example, regulating energy use in buildings to reduce heat stress and indoor air pollution; promoting active transport and clean fuels to improve air quality and physical activity; and investing in renewable energy and wastewater treatment to lower disease burdens and mental health risks.
From consultation to policy
The exercise is framed by a clear set of objectives: review health integration in NDC 2.0; co-create measurable health targets and indicators for NDC 3.0; align proposed components with the HNAP and global frameworks; strengthen institutional collaboration; and produce a consolidated stakeholder position with draft NDC text.
Expected outputs from the process include a stakeholder position brief, draft NDC 3.0 language on health with sector-specific indicators, and strengthened institutional capacity to mainstream health into climate policy and monitoring.
As Uganda prepares its next generation NDC — which will outline climate strategies through 2035 — organisers say the consultation is a key step toward ensuring that future climate action both protects lives and delivers measurable, health-focused outcomes for communities across the country.
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