UNEP Assures On Health, Environmental Partnership

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), yesterday said it would provide technical support for strategic alliance between health and environment.

UNEP and World Health Organisation (WHO) are co-organisers of the Second Inter-Ministerial Conference on Health and Environment in Africa.

Mr Piere Quiblier, Programme Officer of UNEP’s Chemical Branch in Geneva, Switzerland, gave the assurance at the opening of the experts’ meeting of the Second Inter-Ministerial Conference on Health and Environment in Africa, which got underway in Luanda, the Angolan capital

“UNEP considers this programme on health and environment as one of the major interventions in its efforts to support countries in the region,” Mr Ouiblier told the experts gathered at the opening ceremony at the Talatona Convention Centre.

He expressed the hope that the experts’ meeting, which is preparatory to the ministerial conference to be held at the same venue later in the week, would be guided by the “spirit of cooperation and collaboration so far exhibited” by the WHO and UNEP.

Stressing the linkage between health and environment, the UNEP official said as the environment in Africa continued to be degraded, more and more people in the region are becoming vulnerable to environment-related health risks.

“In addition, human-induced climate change threatens to further worsen environmental conditions, and exacerbate health vulnerabilities in the African region,” he warned.