Plan institucional del ministerio de salud pública y bienestar social sobre salud y clima 2025-2030

Objectives

Paraguay’s Institutional Plan on Health and Climate 2025–2030 provides the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare’s policy framework and roadmap for reducing climate-related health vulnerability and building a climate-resilient health system. It addresses direct and indirect health effects of floods, droughts, storms, heat, sea-level rise, wildfires, displacement and deteriorating air quality, while remaining a living instrument to be updated for identified national needs and national, regional and global commitments.[1][2][3]

• Strengthen governance and policy and technical capacity so that the health sector can lead national action on health and climate.[4][5]
• Secure national and external financial resources for health-and-climate policies, plans, projects and cross-sector initiatives.[4][6]
• Reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from health systems and facilities, including through emissions estimation, harmonised mitigation measures, sustainable procurement and improved management of healthcare waste.[7][8][9]
• Strengthen adaptation through a sectoral National Adaptation Plan, preparedness, response and recovery for climate-related emergencies, climate-resilient infrastructure and strengthened primary health care.[10][7][11]
• Generate evidence on climate-related health risks, strengthen surveillance of climate-sensitive disease and mortality, and establish a national Health and Climate observatory or platform to support decision-making.[12][13][14]
• Train health personnel, promote Health and Climate content in health-related degree programmes, and build national, regional and global inter-institutional and intersectoral alliances.[5][15]

The source names six strategic lines: governance, resources, climate-change mitigation, adaptation, evidence and training.[4][7][12]An introductory passage, however, refers to seven strategic lines with measures and indicators; the supplied material does not identify a seventh line or explain this apparent difference.[3]The Plan is framed around anticipatory and greener health systems and draws on Health in All Policies, One Health and essential public health functions.[10]

Implementation

Implementation is led by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare as Paraguay’s health-sector governing body, with coordination assigned to the Vice-Ministry for Stewardship and Health Surveillance through the Technical Health and Climate Committee established by Resolution SG No. 396.[3][16]Delivery combines institutional governance, cross-sector coordination, local participation, technical planning, financing mobilisation, surveillance, emergency preparedness, infrastructure adaptation, workforce development and international cooperation.[4][7][11][15]

• Establish and maintain a multidisciplinary Health and Climate technical committee, a permanent technical team, an approved work plan with indicators and targets, and a coordinating function within the Ministry’s organisational structure.[5][17]
• Prepare ministerial regulations, create communication channels with departmental and municipal authorities, support local resolutions and ordinances, and promote subnational health-and-climate plans and participatory municipal action plans.[4][17]
• Engage civil-society organisations through consultations, dialogue, participatory workshops and formal agreements or commitments.[4][5][17]
• Coordinate mitigation and adaptation with the National Climate Change Commission, led by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, and align health-sector action with national climate plans, biennial update reports, national communications and nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement.[10]
• Identify domestic, international and bilateral funding sources, develop project proposals, increase Ministry budget allocations, map relevant projects, and incorporate health components into climate initiatives led by other sectors.[4][6]
• Apply a harmonised carbon-footprint methodology, inventory emission sources, estimate health-facility emissions, implement mitigation recommendations, introduce sustainable procurement and strengthen the national register of healthcare and related waste generators.[8][9]
• Develop a National Health-Sector Climate Change Adaptation Plan informed by vulnerability assessment and territorial mapping, including the Chaco, northern, metropolitan, south-eastern, central and eastern areas.[9]
• Develop emergency and health-response plans, update facility contingency plans, establish rapid-response and risk-management teams, communicate risks through suitable media, and conduct drills for alerts and service responses.[9][18]
• Integrate health information into early-warning systems through cooperation among health, meteorological and emergency-management bodies, and train health and environmental professionals to interpret alerts.[13][14]
• Assess health-infrastructure vulnerability, apply climate-resilient standards, prioritise works in highly vulnerable areas, and link investments to public-investment and international-cooperation plans.[11]
• Deliver continuing, face-to-face, online and hybrid Health and Climate training; assess learning needs; implement a participatory training plan; and work with higher education institutions on adapted curricula.[11][15]
• Map cooperation opportunities and relevant organisations, develop project profiles, establish endorsed inter-institutional agreements, support joint initiatives and participate in regional and multilateral health-and-climate forums.[15][16]

Monitoring is based on measures and indicators across the strategic lines, including governance arrangements, budgets and external partners, health components in cross-sector projects, emissions measurement and reduction, adaptation-plan implementation, facility preparedness, trained personnel, surveillance outputs, early-warning performance, resilient infrastructure, observatory activity, higher-education engagement and cooperation agreements.[3][4][7][12][5][13][11][15]Technical-area leads are to submit six-monthly implementation reports, while the institution’s highest authority is to receive an annual written report on progress and challenges.[16]Verification sources include approved plans and regulations, budgets and execution records, project maps, agreements, meeting minutes, training lists, drill reports, emissions databases, epidemiological reports, mortality data, observatory reports and infrastructure records.[17][6][8][18][14][11]The supplied material does not provide quantified budgets, expenditure estimates, funding gaps or economic assumptions.[4][6][16]

Monitoring & Evaluation

The Plan establishes a monitoring and accountability framework combining strategic-line indicators, verification sources, routine reporting and institutional oversight. It covers governance, financing, mitigation, adaptation, surveillance, infrastructure, evidence generation, training and partnerships, although the supplied extracts do not provide indicator baselines or numerical targets.[3][4][16]

• Monitor governance through establishment of the multidisciplinary Health and Climate technical committee, approved regulations and organisational arrangements, validated work plans, subnational health-and-climate plans, municipal participatory action plans, and civil-society participation.[4][17]
• Track resources through the specific health-and-climate budget, Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare allocations, numbers of external cooperating partners, cross-sector projects with health components, and approved cooperation instruments.[4][6]
• Measure mitigation through the proportion of health facilities estimating greenhouse-gas emissions with harmonised tools, applying mitigation recommendations, achieving emissions reductions, and registering as waste generators.[7][8]
• Verify mitigation implementation through carbon-footprint methodologies, emission-inventory reports, emissions databases, mitigation follow-up reports, sustainable-procurement registers, and the national register of healthcare and related waste generators.[8][9]
• Assess adaptation through implementation and approval of the sectoral National Adaptation Plan, validation of vulnerability and adaptation assessments, emergency and contingency plans, trained personnel, risk-communication plans, response drills, and resilient health facilities in highly vulnerable areas.[7][9][18][11]
• Strengthen climate-sensitive surveillance using standardised indicators, disease-burden and excess-mortality studies, morbidity and mortality monitoring during extreme events, and surveillance-personnel training. Priority conditions include dengue, respiratory infections, vector-borne diseases, chronic diseases and conditions associated with air quality and rising temperatures.[7][18][13]
• Evaluate early-warning systems by the number incorporating health information, the number of trained professionals, and annual assessments of system effectiveness and relevance.[13]
• Use epidemiological reports, mortality data, training lists, inter-institutional agreements, publicly available alert systems, periodic evaluations, publications, observatory reports, approved plans, drill reports and annual progress reports as verification sources.[13][14][11]
• Monitor evidence generation through epidemiological studies in specific populations, integrated environmental, climatic, social, economic and health-data analysis, and operation of a national Health and Climate observatory or online platform.[12][14]
• Track capacity building through annual numbers of trained health personnel and training activities, while monitoring higher-education engagement through the number of institutions implementing Health and Climate actions with the Ministry.[5][11][15]
• Assess cooperation through updated national and international cooperation maps, signed inter-institutional agreements, joint initiatives, participation in international health-and-climate events, and related activity reports.[5][15][16]
• Require technical-area leads to submit six-monthly implementation reports and provide the institution’s highest authority with an annual written progress report identifying achievements and challenges.[16]
• Coordinate Plan monitoring and evaluation through the Technical Health and Climate Committee established under Resolution SG No. 396 and coordinated by the Vice-Ministry for Stewardship and Health Surveillance.[16]

Costing & Financing

The financing approach seeks to secure sufficient national and external resources for health-and-climate action, but the supplied material contains no quantified budget, expenditure estimate, funding gap, currency amount, costing methodology or economic assumption.[4][17][6][16]

• Increase national funding from the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare for health-and-climate policies, plans and activities.[4][17][6]
• Establish a specific health-and-climate budget and identify available national financing sources, while the extracts do not specify the amount or allocation of such a budget.[17][6]
• Mobilise external, international and bilateral financing by identifying funding sources, strengthening Ministry capacity to obtain funds, and preparing project proposals.[4][6]
• Integrate health components into climate-related projects led by other sectors and develop cross-sector partnerships to support health-sector priorities.[4][6]
• Link resilient health-infrastructure investment with public-investment and international-cooperation plans, without specifying committed resources or project costs.[11]
• Map cooperation opportunities, prepare project profiles, establish agreements and plan the resources required for effective participation in international health-and-climate events.[15][16]
• Monitor financing-related progress through budget records, operational plans, budget-execution reports, project maps, project documentation, agreements and coordination-meeting minutes.[6][8]