A groundbreaking new pan-African initiative supported in part by a Yale Planetary Solutions grant will explore innovative financing solutions for the co-management of ecosystems and public health in Africa. The initiative, entitled Ecosystems, Finance and Health (EFH), seeks to address the critical question of how improvements in the environment and health are financed in 21st-century African landscapes.
Launched by an international consortium of scientists, finance experts, and local stakeholders – including a team of scientists from across Yale – the initiative seeks to learn more about the public health threats emerging across Africa due to climate change and human impacts on the environment such as shifts in land-use and changes to food systems, and take action to mitigate them.
“Managing disease risk preemptively in light of the changing climate, environment, and social systems in Africa is complex and can reduce the efficacy of our conventional medical and veterinary interventions for controlling disease,” said Serap Askoy, professor of epidemiology (microbial diseases) at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) and one of the principal investigators leading the Planetary Solutions grant. “I hope that this exciting initiative will help improve health outcomes for millions of people living on the African continent while providing ample training and research opportunities for our students here.”
Also serving as principal investigator on the grant is James Hassell, an assistant professor adjunct of epidemiology (microbial diseases) at YSPH and an epidemiologist with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s (NZCBI) Global Health Program.
“A significant proportion of human and animal diseases are mediated by environmental factors, particularly in African contexts where climate hazards intersect with social, economic and food system challenges,” Hassell said. “Proactive management is not only economically advantageous but essential for sustainable public health outcomes.”
I hope that this exciting initiative will help improve health outcomes for millions of people living on the African continent while providing ample training and research opportunities for our students here.
Dr. Serap Askoy, Yale professor
Earlier this year, Hassell and Askoy helped organize an EFH workshop that convened leading African and international experts from science, finance, government, and NGO backgrounds to explore novel financing mechanisms to preemptively manage the health consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss on the continent.
The four-day workshop, co-organized by Joseph Kamau of the Institute of Primate Research, Kenyan Ministry of Health, immersed participants in the model of community conservation and landscape management exemplified by the Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy, which is managed jointly by local communities and the Sarara Foundation.
Key discussion points included:
- The current financing landscape of public health in Africa.
- The attractiveness of joint financing for health systems, food production, and ecosystem management for financing organizations.
- The development of a conceptual model linking health, environmental sustainability, and financial returns.
- Data gaps and unknowns that need to be addressed to direct resources toward co-financing public health and ecosystem management.
EFH aims to foster a community of practice dedicated to making co-management of ecosystems, food systems, and public health systems financeable. Creating a one-year knowledge-to-action road map for this initiative, including identifying a five-year strategic plan and core funding, garnered unanimous support from workshop participants.
“It is time to unlock the flow of patient private capital towards bankable projects in Africa that promote the conservation of nature, preserve human health, and are community-focused,” said Mary Njuguna, the principal specialist of capital markets at FSD Africa, a Kenya-headquartered development finance nonprofit. “The blending of various financing tools is critical to achieving this, and it requires a bold, collaborative approach, which EFH represents.”
The meeting was defined by the group’s interactions with their hosts—semi-nomadic pastoralists of the local Samburu community. Climate change presents urgent challenges for rural communities like those found in Samburu and across the world, but they have unique insights and knowledge about how to address those challenges. With the help of the Samburu, and guided by the community’s own resilience-building strategies, participants mapped out interventions that could improve health by jointly targeting ecosystems, food production, and health care across different African landscapes, and the beneficiaries of these solutions.
Pauline Lenguris, a member of Kenya’s parliament, the woman’s representative for Samburu, and a member of the Kenyan government’s Parliamentary Committee on Health, addressed attendees and highlighted the health challenges her constituents face. She also stressed the importance of empowering communities, particularly women, as custodians of the environment.
Seed money from the Yale Africa Initiative implemented by former University President Peter Salovey in 2013 helped fund the EFH workshop. Several Yale faculty served on the Workshop Steering Committee and were instrumental in setting up the scientific agenda for the meeting, raising money for the event, and facilitating discussions, Aksoy said. They were:
- Dr. Albert Ko, MD, the Raj and Indra Nooyi Professor of Public Health and Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) at YSPH; and Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Ko has worked extensively on health problems that emerge as a consequence of rapid urbanization and social inequity.
- Eli Fenichel, PhD, the Knobloch Family Professor of Natural Resource Economics at the Yale School of the Environment, and an expert in natural resource management and sustainability. In 2021, Fenichel served as assistant director for natural resource economics and accounting at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
- Vanessa Ezenwa, PhD, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Dr. Ezenwa’s research focuses on the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases in wild animal populations, and she studies how within-host interactions between hosts and pathogens translate to larger-scale epidemiological patterns.
- Karen C. Seto, PhD, the Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at the Yale School of the Environment.Dr. Seto directs the Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability at Yale and is considered one of the world’s leading experts on urbanization and its impacts on the planet, including climate change, biodiversity, and food systems.
“Cross-disciplinary efforts are critically needed to mitigate the new health threats that land use and climate change are generating,” Ko said. “These include the emergence of infectious diseases, such as Rift Valley Fever and MERS, with epidemic and pandemic potential, but also the effects on well-being posed by extreme heat and poor access to safe water. The EFH initiative aims to fill the gap in developing effective system-based interventions and ensuring that they are appropriately financed and implemented, especially in populations most vulnerable to land use and climate change, such as pastoralists and subsistence farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
EHF’s inception was made possible by the Yale Africa Initiative and Yale Planetary Solutions Project, Sarara Foundation, NZCBI’s Global Health Program, Smithsonian’s Office of the Under Secretary for Science and Research, Science for Africa Foundation, University of Liverpool’s Pandemic Institute, and the University of Milan. The initiative traces its origins over more than a decade’s worth of collaboration on health and biodiversity conservation between Yale University, the NZCBI’s Global Health Program, and peer institutions in Africa.
Content from a Smithsonian Institution news release was used with permission in this article.