Advancing Climate-Resilient Health Systems in Malaysia: Reflections from the WHO–ATACH Malaysia Onboarding Meeting

From 22–24 September 2026, stakeholders from across Malaysia's health, climate, and development sectors convened for the WHO–ATACH Malaysia Onboarding Meeting to explore priorities for strengthening climate-resilient health systems and identify opportunities for collaboration through the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH).

Malaysia, which joined ATACH in August 2025, is taking important steps to address the growing health impacts of climate change. UNU Global Health joined the discussions to explore how it could contribute to climate change and health workforce capacity enhancement, monitoring and evaluation of adaptation efforts as Malaysia advances its National Adaptation Plan processes.

Discussions highlighted key climate hazards affecting the country, including floods, heat, and dry spells, and their implications for population health and health service delivery.

Malaysia's approach to climate-resilient health systems is structured around four pillars:
🔹 Climate-resilient healthcare facilities
🔹 Adaptation and mitigation
🔹 Surveillance and early warning systems
🔹 Disaster management and preparedness

The meeting also provided an opportunity to identify areas requiring further attention, including data integration, surveillance systems, health workforce capacity enhancement, facility resilience, financing, and cross-sectoral coordination.

One key takeaway was that climate finance must be needs-driven rather than fund-driven. Building evidence-based, investment-ready interventions, strengthening cross-sector collaboration, and engaging financing partners will be essential to translate climate change and health priorities into action.

For Malaysia, this presents an opportunity to connect climate risk assessment, adaptation planning, health-system resilience, workforce capacity enhancement, surveillance, and financing within a coherent implementation framework.

The overarching message was clear: building climate-resilient health systems is not only about understanding climate risks. It is about translating evidence into action, strengthening institutional capacity, mobilising resources, and ensuring health systems are prepared to anticipate, adapt, and respond to a changing climate.