Population Health, Climate Change, and Public Policy in the G5 Sahel: a Narrative Review
Name: Margaret Whalen
School: Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Class of 2026
Name: May Eltouny
School: Mailman School of Public Health, Class of 2024
Mentors: Cyrille Harpet, PhD; Laurie Marrauld, PhD; Raphaël Kermaïdic
Abstract
Research Question: How does climate change impact the population health of the G5 Sahel and how can health systems prepare themselves?
Background: Each year, the impacts of climate change on the world are increasingly apparent, though certain countries are more vulnerable than others to the effects of climate change, particularly the Sahel region of northern and western Africa. The G5 Sahel countries include the entirety of Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad, which face similar challenges like drought, food insecurity, and terrorism, as well as sharing political and economic ties. Because of these countries’ environmental vulnerabilities, it is important to understand the implications of climate change on population health, health systems, and public policies. To our knowledge, there are currently no scientific reviews on the intersection between climate change and population health in the G5 Sahel, and though there are global reports available, key stakeholders should have a specific and accurate understanding of this topic so they can build resilient health systems and practices for future climate scenarios.
Methods: We performed a rapid literature review with a narrative synthesis and weighted thematic analysis of data, articles, and reports. Our search terms employed various combinations of country names and relevant key words. Resources published prior to 2010 were not considered; those included in the search were then screened based on their titles and abstracts to ensure their relevance.
Results: There are many climate risks to the region, including rising temperatures, flooding, changes in rainfall s, and worsening air quality, though these risks are variable across the G5 countries and will change the incidence of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Most scientific literature focuses on the intersection between climate and vector-borne diseases, with less focus on non-communicable diseases despite evidence that these will increase due to rising global temperatures.
Conclusions: There are still many gaps in the literature regarding the intersection between different climate change factors with population health, and given the vulnerabilities of the G5 countries, these should be studied more in the future. This study helps highlight a few of these gaps and summarize key ideas for each country in regards to public health and environmental factors, which should be further studied and considered for policy making and building resilient health systems.