Bridging the climate-health gap: Leadership as the missing link
Africa’s health systems are already feeling the strain of climate change. Across the continent, rising temperatures, shifting disease patterns, and increasingly frequent floods are deepening existing health inequities. Women and children are most affected, facing heightened risks from food insecurity, maternal complications, and infectious disease outbreaks. Yet, less than 0.5% of global climate finance reaches the health sector – a critical gap that must urgently be closed.
Amp Health’s decade-long experience in leadership and management development has shown that technical solutions alone are not enough. Systems need capable leaders to implement them. On 21 October 2025, Amp Health co-convened a high-level roundtable with The Bridgespan Group, Bayer Foundation, and UBS Optimus Foundation to spotlight this critical issue. The session brought together senior leaders from governments, multilateral agencies, civil society, philanthropy, and the private sector to explore how stronger leadership and management capacities can turn climate-health ambition into action.
From ambition to implementation
“Leadership is the thread that connects ambition to results. Without it, even the best-funded strategies falter.”
Across Africa, countries have demonstrated strong policy ambition and understanding of the links between climate and health. However, translating this ambition into sustained implementation remains complex, requiring coordinated action across sectors, levels, and partners. Participants at the roundtable emphasised that strengthening leadership and management capabilities can help bridge this gap by enhancing coordination, enabling evidence-informed planning, and driving shared accountability.
Cross-cutting themes
The roundtable surfaced several themes essential to building climate-resilient health systems:
Leadership and management as enablers: When embedded within multisectoral teams, these capabilities strengthen coordination, planning, and accountability, turning ambition into results.
Data and knowledge sharing: Stronger mechanisms for sharing evidence, tools, and lessons across countries and regions can accelerate adaptation and smarter decision-making.
Alignment across donors and sectors: Breaking down funding siloes and backing country-led plans are vital for sustainable, systems-wide progress.
Climate and health as part of one system: Interventions must reinforce existing health systems rather than creating new siloes, recognising that climate change amplifies all disease burdens.
Resilience from the ground up: Investments in clean energy, community engagement, and political leadership are essential to help systems adapt and thrive amid rising climate risks.
“We’ve seen again and again that when leadership and management are prioritised, implementation follows. Climate resilience depends on both. ”
Looking ahead
Climate change is not simply an environmental threat. It is reshaping the health of nations. The roundtable reinforced a key message: leadership and management are the bridge between vision and impact, and the key to turning ambition into real progress.
Amp Health will continue to share updates and insights as this conversation evolves, highlighting the ideas, partnerships, and leadership shaping Africa’s response to the climate-health challenge.