Najam Speaks to MSF Assembly in Stockholm on Climate and Health

Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, spoke to the annual General Assembly of the Swedish and Norwegian Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) in Stockholm, Sweden on May 10, 2019 as part of a “Medical Debate” on climate change and health.

The goal of the debate was to inform the MSF membership of the emerging challenges that climate change could pose to humanitarian organizations in general and to health focused relief organizations like MSF in particular. The debate also explored what the proper role in action and in advocacy might be for organizations like MSF. Najam was joined in the debate by the MSF experts including Hanna Majanen, Lachlan McIver, and Sebastian Spencer.

Najam stressed that it is now clear that climate change is no longer a future possibility but a real and present challenge today and that it is the poorest and most vulnerable populations around the world who are facing the brunt of its impacts and its costs. Therefore, Najam argued, humanitarian organizations have a frontline role in dealing with its impacts.

Moreover, Najam suggested, vector borne diseases and disasters such as increased incidents of floods and heatwaves are likely to be among the types of crises that humanitarian organizations like MSF will increasingly find themselves responding to. Humanitarian organizations have a duty to speak out about the climate emergency that the world is already facing and to prepare themselves for increasingly dealing with more climate emergencies, according to Najam.

Adil Najam is the inaugural Dean of the Pardee School and a commentator on foreign policy and diplomacy. Learn more about him here.

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