First southeast Asia heat health forum advances regional collaboration

GBPN and local expert partners Ashok B Lall Architects (ABLA) participated in the first GHINN Southeast Asia Heat Health Forum themed “Toward a heat resilient Southeast Asia: Enhancing livelihoods and wellbeing.”

Southeast Asia’s tropical climate of high humidity, heat stress, and rapid urbanisation poses unique challenges requiring regional solutions.

Dr Peter Graham, Executive Director, highlighted the need for collaboration to tackle the challenges of extreme heat.

“Tackling the complex challenges posed by rising temperatures in Southeast Asia and their impact on health requires a unified approach,” Dr. Graham said.

“GHINN successfully brought together a diverse range of organizations to share powerful insights and evidence-based data.”

“The forum highlighted practical solutions on how to address the urgent need for coordinated global and regional action on heat and health. This is a key thematic priority for the GBPN Network in the upcoming years.”

The SEA Heat Health Forum brought together a community of practice that is aligned in seeing health through intersecting physical, social, and psychological lenses.

Proactive approaches to holistic health

Ashok Lall, Principle ABLA, put the focus on the need for proactive approaches to low-income housing as we run into the impacts of climate change coupled with rapid urbanisation leading to high-density developments.

“This is a health challenge faced by many emerging economies with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable groups,” Mr Lall said.

“The Design Guidelines for Healthy and Climate-resilient Affordable Housing in India that we have co-developed, deal with resilience not just as an adaptive measure, but also with the potential for mitigation built in.”

“Our work in India is being reinforced by global literature on the mental health impacts of living in high-density and high-rise housing without sufficient green spaces and measures for protection from heat. It can inform future policies and programs that address the compounding psychological and climate-related impacts of experiencing extreme heat and social stress”.

We have the data to take action

Christina O’Hagan, Chief Operations Officer, GBPN, shared that a key takeaway from the forum was that there is sufficient data to take action now.

“However, ongoing local data collection is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of implemented solutions and to refine strategies for greater impact,” said Ms. O’Hagan. 

“The diverse representation at the forum highlighted the value and need for inclusivity in partnerships. We need to ensure that solutions are informed by multiple perspectives and reflect the unique needs of different regions and communities.

Empowering communities with the knowledge of the impacts of climate change can encourage them to demand action. That in turn, can speed-up action on policy changes and enforce widespread adoption of these solutions.”