The health sector's role in governance of climate change adaptation in Myanmar

Myanmar is a least developed country transitioning to democracy but has many holdovers from its recent military-controlled past. At the same time, extreme climate-related weather events are undermining the health ministry’s capacity to support people to live long and full lives. This paper describes existing climate change-related challenges confronting Myanmar’s health sector and explores opportunities for the health ministry to influence other health determining sectors, including disaster risk reduction. It was a qualitative study, drawing on semi-structured interviews with government officials from health, social welfare, environment and rural development, as well as with personnel from international and national NGOs and organizations. Interview data was triangulated with policy documents and on-the-ground research. The research found that Myanmar’s governance structures are changing rapidly and that responding to disasters is an urgent priority that has over-shadowed planned long-term adaptation to climate change. Furthermore, poor coordination across scales and sectors inhibits effective adaptation and disaster risk reduction. In this context, the health ministry, already involved in disaster response, is well placed to draw on its vertical and horizontal penetration to seize an existing window of opportunity and improve climate change responses and disaster risk reduction by taking on a coordinating role