11 Jul 2013

The Situation Analysis and Needs Assessment (SANA) Report for the implementation of the Libreville Declaration on Health and Environment has been launched.

The joint launch by the Minister of Environment Wildlife and Tourism Mr TShekedi Khama and the Minister of Health Dr John Seakgosing follows a convention by African ministers of health and environment in August 2008.

They made a commitment through the Libreville Declaration to establish a strategic alliance between health and environment as a basis for joint plans of action.

Speaking during the launch in Gaborone on July 10, Mr Khama said World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that 13 million deaths annually are attributable to preventable environmental causes, and Batswana had not been spared.

He highlighted that the interaction between human health and the environment had been extensively documented and environmental risks had been proven to significantly impact human health, either directly by exposing people to harmful agents or indirectly by disrupting life-sustaining ecosystems.   

“The protection of human health is enshrined in the concept of sustainable development and the social pillar of sustainability embraces principles that focus on livelihood improvement, and health is a key element in this regard,” he noted.

The minister further said the issue of Public Health is threatened by waterborne diseases emanating from poor sanitation and hygiene due to inefficiency of dilapidated facilities.

Mr Khama noted that during the development of the SANA it became evident that the link between environment-and-health was insufficient or even lacked in certain areas both in planning and operations of respective objectives.

He called on everyone to live up to expectation indicating that environment and human health should always be priority.

Dr Seakgosing said globally nearly one quarter of the total disease burden and all deaths could be attributed to environmental risk fact.

He said Botswana continues to experience occurrences of diseases which have strong links to environment and the fragile ecosystems people live in.

Health minister said a recent report of the Global Thematic Consultation on Health following the Botswana High Level Dialogue reemphasizes the centrality of health to sustainable development and to improving development outcomes.

“The National Health Policy of 2011 notes that the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age including the working system determine the level of health they enjoy,” he noted.

He indicated that in the policy, they recognized that most of the social determinants of health lie outside the health sector hence priority had been given to partnerships and inter- sectoral collaboration to improve health outcomes.

Dr Seakgosing cautioned that they were at the beginning of a very long implementation journey that has a clear roadmap articulating what needs to be achieved.

He said the document has been developed following an intensive consultative process over a period of time by a multi sectoral team constituting the Country Coordinating Committee.

The minister thanked WHO for their continuous support during the entire process and all the organisations and ministries.

Dr Seakgosing assured of the ministry’s commitment to the implementation of the Libreville Declaration as they move in to the next phase of implementation of the National Joint Plan of Actions. ENDS