THE Founder and Lead of Evidence Use in Environmental Policymaking in Nigeria (EUEPiN), Dr Temitope Sogbanmu, alongside other stakeholders, has stressed the urgent need for timely, evidence-based data and robust cross sector collaboration to mitigate the worsening impacts of climate change on Nigeria’s fragile health system

She made this known at a two-day Capacity Strengthening Training on Climate Change and Health Evidence-Informed Policymaking in Abuja.

Speaking during a presentation on the Overview of the Nigeria Climate Change and Health Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment Report, Sogbanmu highlighted that climate change remains a growing, cross-sectoral threat to health requiring real time data to drive effective policies, protect vulnerable populations, and empower grassroots communities.

She noted that the adverse effects of climate change such as severe heatwaves and coastal flooding, disproportionately affect the most at-risk demographics.

Emphasising the critical need for gender mainstreaming in climate action, she identified women, children, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals as those bearing the heaviest brunt.

Sogbanmu explained that recent “Reports project worsening health impacts, and all of us can agree with that.

“These worst-hit impacts are the target scenarios projected by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The projections are getting much worse, and those mostly affected are the vulnerable populations.”

To effectively tackle these challenges, she advocated a climate-resilient, evidence-informed health sector guided by current realities rather than outdated statistics.

She stressed that to tackle the challenge head-on, “We need to be guided by timely data.

“Data of 20 years ago is no longer relevant because the realities, seasons, indices, and environments have changed.”

Highlighting regional risks, Sogbanmu pointed out that the North-West and North-East geopolitical zones are the most susceptible to climate shocks, while coastal areas in the South face existential threats from rising sea levels.

She lamented that these crises present severe weaknesses for Nigeria’s overstretched health sector, which is currently grappling with a massive brain drain of medical professionals.

Adding a grassroots perspective to the advocacy, a Gender Expert on the LEEPS (Learning together to advance Evidence and Equity on Policymaking to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals) Project at Makerere University, Kampala, Dr Anna Ninsiima, spoke extensively on the intersection of climate change, gender equity, and reproductive health.

Ninsiima illustrated how climate-induced water scarcity directly hampers menstrual hygiene, particularly the washing of reusable pads.

This she noted, leads to severe health complications and increased school dropouts among adolescent girls.

She adds that some young girls are forced into early marriages, early pregnancies, or transactional sex simply to afford sanitary products, warning that developmental policies ignoring these grassroots realities are ultimately bound to fail.

“We are giving them education, but we are not addressing the underlying issues.

“We must ask ourselves whether we can put ourselves in the shoes of people who go through such circumstances when making policies,” Ninsiima stated.

Urging stakeholders to actively mainstream gender into evidence-informed policymaking, she concluded that true equity requires a comprehensive understanding of community-level challenges.