By Moses Magadza recently in Kariba, Zimbabwe

A Community Liaison Officer in the Climate, Environment and Health Department with CeSHHAR Zimbabwe has urged Zimbabwean lawmakers to ensure that the proposed Climate Change Management Bill explicitly addresses the intersection between climate change and health.

Mr. Lloyd Pisa described this link as “the most critical and visible dimension of the climate crisis, because nearly every climate impact ultimately manifests as a health impact – whether through heat stress, food insecurity, malnutrition, or disease.”

The call builds on pioneering work being led by Dr. Fortunate Machingura, the Principal Investigator of the Climate, Environment and Health Demonstration Laboratories in Mount Darwin, and Director of the Climate, Environment and Health Team at CeSHHAR Zimbabwe.

Dr. Machingura, who also lectures at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, is advancing an implementation science programme that examines how climate stressors affect health – particularly among pregnant and postpartum women – and how locally tailored adaptation and mitigation measures can strengthen resilience.

Her work in Mount Darwin brings together researchers, community leaders, and local government departments to co-produce practical climate–health interventions. These include early warning systems for heat exposure, nutrition gardens, woodlot management schemes, and sustainable water-use practices designed to protect both environmental and human health.

The initiative operates as a living laboratory – translating scientific data into policy-relevant evidence that informs the health, environment, local government, social welfare, and agriculture sectors.

Mr. Pisa noted that rising temperatures as a result of climate change are already leading to worsening health outcomes in Zimbabwe.

“Under the High Horizons project in Mount Darwin, and in collaboration with ten other countries globally, we have observed that increases in temperature during pregnancy significantly heighten the odds of stillbirth, preterm birth, gestational diabetes, and cardiovascular complications among pregnant women,” he said in an interview in Kariba ahead of a planned public hearing on the Bill.

Drawing from the Climate, Environment and Health Demonstration Implementation Science Laboratories in Mount Darwin, Mr. Pisa emphasised that climate mitigation and adaptation must be pursued together to maximise co-benefits.

“We are collaborating with traditional and senior community leaders to develop culturally sensitive, people-centred climate adaptation and mitigation interventions for pregnant and postpartum women and their infants,” he explained.

He highlighted that traditional leaders have already donated over 22 hectares of communal land for sustainable land-use initiatives.

“This land is being used to establish woodlot management schemes that protect indigenous tree species, create carbon trading opportunities for communities, and support nutrition gardens led by men, pregnant women, and postpartum women as part of sustainable livelihood programmes,” he added.

Mr. Pisa said these community-led initiatives embody the spirit of the Harare Declaration on Climate Change and Health, endorsed at the inaugural Climate and Health Africa Conference (CHAC) in 2024.

“All this work reflects what we committed to in the Harare Declaration, where we emphasised that indigenous knowledge systems and the growing epistemic community in the Global South can produce science that informs climate–health implementation within our own contexts,” he said.

He applauded Parliament for engaging citizens in the Bill’s development, noting that inclusive legislative processes ensure policy relevance and public trust.

“If our laws are deeply rooted in people’s values and ideas, they become acceptable and there is easier uptake,” he said.

He further called for better packaging of scientific evidence to support legislative decision-making.

“We don’t necessarily need to build more capacity in Parliament. What we need is to communicate scientific evidence in accessible ways so that Members of Parliament can readily understand and act on it,” he added.

Reflecting on regional collaboration, Mr. Pisa welcomed Sweden’s support through the SADC Parliamentary Forum’s SRHR, HIV and AIDS Governance Project, which was facilitating the consultations in collaboration with the Parliament of Zimbabwe.

“In as much as we need locally grown solutions, it is also important to benchmark with other countries and institutions. Benchmarking helps us to align our work with regional and international conventions,” he said.

CeSHHAR reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Parliament and government ministries to ensure that the Climate Change Management Bill aligns with Zimbabwe’s national development priorities, the Paris Agreement, and the Harare Declaration “so that no one is left behind in the climate and health conversation.”

-Moses Magadza, PhD, is the Media and Communications Manager at the SADC Parliamentary Forum.