By Nadia Rasheed, Team Leader, Health & Development

1. Integrated Approaches:
Health & the Environment
Nadia Rasheed
Team Leader, Health & Development
UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub

2. Content of Presentation
• Health priorities are closely interlinked to environmental factors
• Synergies can lead to better outcomes for health and the
environment
• Governance and Financing arrangements are critical to
incentivizing cross-sectoral action

3. 1. Health & environment challenges closely
interlinked
• NCDs account for a majority of global deaths (cancers, strokes/heart
diseases, diabetes, respiratory diseases) – SDG 3.4
• NCDs represent more than 70% of deaths in Asia Pacific; 50% premature
• Economic and social costs: China ($558 billion) and India ($237 billion)
btwn 2005 and 2015
• Factors that drive NCDs also driving environmental degradation and
climate change
• Increase in NCDs driven by urbanization, unsustainable/unhealthy
consumption patterns, lack of physical activity, sedentary work
(tobacco, alcohol)

4. 1. Health & environment challenges closely
interlinked
• WHO estimates 1 in 4 deaths globally
result from living or working in an
unhealthy environment (12.6 mn
annually)
• Most linked to indoor/outdoor air
pollution
• Asia Pacific accounts for largest share
(60%) with 7.3 mn deaths annually
• NCDs the cause of 2/3 deaths linked to
unhealthy environments

5. 2. Opportunities for co-benefits & synergies
• Health sector response alone insufficient to prevent
NCDs
• Opportunity to maximize co-benefits by addressing
common risk factors with environment, other
sectors
• Urban settings critical to addressing links between
NCDs, air & environmental pollution
• Environmental impacts on health uneven across
social groups: gender, age, income, social status,
employment, education.

6. 2. Opportunities for co-benefits & synergies
Action across sectors:
• Transport and urban planning: reduce
emissions and encourage physical activity
(gender, disability)
• Finance: set appropriate tax rates to promote
healthy diet and sustainable consumption,
regulate fat, sugar, salt, tobacco, alcohol
• Agriculture: promote production of healthy
food, availability of safe water
• Commerce and Trade: regulate importation of
unhealthy food products
• Others: Planning, education, information,
labour

7. 3. Governance and Financing
• Assessing linkages and opportunities for action (e.g. Health impact
assessments)
• Policy planning across key sectors
• Governance mechanisms: inter-sectoral and whole of society,
accountability
• Financing: opportunities for co-financing across relevant sectors where co-
benefits exist; ‘sin tax’ to benefit SDG financing
• Action at different levels: national, subnational, municipal
• Leave no one behind: engagement of civil society, attention to gender,
socio-economic status, disability

8. THANK YOU