This is the Full report. An abridged Summary report and an At a glance executive summary are also available, together with a compendium of 50 health worker experiences. Learn more: Climate change is a threat to the health of the communities we serve: health workers speak out at COP28 Investing in the health workforce is vital to tackle climate change: A new report shares insights from over 1,200 on the frontline In 2023, 4700 health practitioners, primarily from districts and facilities in countries of Africa and Asia, came together for the first time to discuss how climate change has been affecting the health and wellbeing of the local populations they serve.  This report synthesizes their experiences and insights. It also presents the background of why and how they came to connect and learn from each other, how the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) created this chance for health practitioners to communicate their observations to each other and the outside world, and how TGLF plans to provide additional opportunities for practitioners to share ideas on working with local communities to address climate-related health challenges. While there is increasing scientific evidence of the health impacts of climate change, statistics in scientific publications give only a partial picture of the profound changes that the world is going through, and how the most disadvantaged populations are being affected. Embedded in their communities, health practitioners have a unique perspective on how these global changes are playing out at a local level – how is climate change being experienced within communities and, in particular, how is it affecting people's health, healthcare needs and access to services? What this tells us about climate change and health The experiences shared here are not intended to prove that climate change is happening or that it is affecting human health. Many rigorous scientific studies have demonstrated these impacts beyond reasonable doubt. What they do is bring to life the reality of this scientific evidence for health workers facing a changing climate and managing the impacts of climate change in LMICs. They demonstrate the new reality for health workers, who are witnessing changes to the physical and mental health of the communities they are associated with, driven by climate change and its interactions with other environmental disruption.  Indeed, for communities, climate impacts are not experienced in isolation, but result from a complex set of interactions. Solutions will need to be similarly multifaceted. In particular, climate change is presenting additional challenges to often fragile health systems, emphasizing the need to strengthen their resilience and ability to withstand both extreme events and additional demand.  But the experiences shared are also testament to the resolve of many to tackle these challenges and mitigate the impacts of climate change on the health of their communities. Health workers have dedicated their lives to helping others and are coming up with ways to counter climate change and to help those affected. This reflects a critical but as yet under-valued set of local actors working to address climate change. "My primary objective is to make a substantial contribution to curtailing desertification, which would necessitate a decrease in the excessive felling of trees. These trees play a pivotal role as a primary source of income for the local population. To achieve this, I am committed to creating alternative income-generating activities for the youth, thereby providing them with sustainable opportunities while also safeguarding the environment." Moctar Traore Man, District, Mali Why this matters This unique project provided an opportunity for more than 1200 health workers to share eyewitness accounts of the changes they are seeing. It has helped to create a common understanding of climate change impacts and their health consequences among health practitioners from disadvantaged and developing settings. Although specific impacts are dependent on local context, it is clear that many aspects of climate change and their health consequences are shared across different settings. This suggests that such health practitioners have many common interests and concerns, arguing for the importance of providing opportunities for them to connect, share experience and learn from one another.  The work has also highlighted the potential to harness the drive and commitment of health workers and their intimate and trusted relationships with local communities. Several examples were provided of collaborative work with local communities to meet the challenges head on. As demonstrated in other areas of TGLF work, bringing people together to share experiences and learn from each other can be a highly effective way of disseminating knowledge – and also highly motivating for those involved. The climate change discourse may sometimes be dominated by endless global discussions and protracted negotiations about emissions target-setting. While these difficult conversations are going on, real change may also come from providing committed groups such as health workers in the Global South with the platforms to meet, share experiences and develop community-led and context-specific plans to protect health in the face of climate and other environmental challenges. 

As world leaders gathered for the COP28 climate conference, the Geneva Learning Foundation called for the insights of health workers on the frontlines of climate and health to be heard amidst the global dialogue. Ahead of Teach to Reach 10, a new eyewitness report analyses 219 responses from 122 health professionals – primarily those working in local communities across Africa, Asia and Latin America – to two critical questions: How is climate change affecting the health of the communities you serve right now? And what actions must world leaders take to help you protect the people in your care? (Teach to Reach is a regular peer learning event. The tenth edition on 20-21 June 2024 is expected to gather over 20,000 community-based health workers to share experience of climate change impacts on health.) Their answers paint a picture of the accelerating health crisis unfolding in the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions. Community nurses, doctors, midwives and public health officers detail how volatile weather patterns are driving up malnutrition, infectious disease, mental illness, and more - while simultaneously battering health systems and blocking patient access to care. Yet woven throughout are also threads of resilience, ingenuity and hope. These health advocates are not just passively observing the impacts of climate change, but actively responding - often with scarce resources. From spearheading tree-planting initiatives to strengthening infectious disease surveillance to promoting climate literacy, they are innovating locally-tailored solutions. Importantly, respondents emphasize that climate impacts cannot be viewed in isolation, but rather as one facet of the interlocking crises of environmental destruction, poverty, and health inequity. Their insights make clear that climate action and community health are two sides of the same coin - and that neither will be achieved without deep investment in local health workforces and systems. Rooted in direct lived experience and charged with moral urgency, these frontline voices offer a stirring reminder that climate change is not some distant specter, but a life-and-death challenge already at the doorsteps of the global poor. As this new collection of insights implores, it’s high time their perspectives moved from the margins to the center of the climate debate. Charlotte Mbuh of The Geneva Learning Foundation explained: “We hope that the chorus of voices will grow to strengthen the case for  why and how investment in human resources for health is likely to be a ‘best buy’ for community-focused efforts to build the climate resilience of public health systems.”