Leveraging PRET and Past to Deal with Climate Change

The South-East Asia Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO-SEARO) in collaboration with the Regional Laboratory on Urban Governance for Health and Well-being (RL-UGHW) co-hosted a regional webinar titled “Building Urban Health Resilience and Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies in Response to Climate Change” on 2 September 2025. The event convened participants from across the South-East Asia Region and beyond, including representatives from local governments, city leadership, public health institutions, disaster risk management agencies, urban planning bodies, policy-making entities, and development partners. The overarching theme of the webinar focused on how climate change is reshaping urban health risks and the critical measures that cities must adopt to stay prepared, resilient, and adaptive in addressing these evolving changes.

Insights from the Panel Discussion

Moderated by Dr. Suvajee Good, Regional Advisor on Health Promotion and Social Determinants of Health at WHO-SEARO, the session opened with reflections on the interconnected challenges of climate change and public health.

• Ms. Faustina Gomez, Technical Officer on Climate Change and Health at WHO-SEARO, emphasized the urgent need to integrate climate resilience into health systems and policies, particularly in vulnerable urban settings.
• Dr. Rose Aynsley, Senior Consultant on Risk Communication and Community Engagement at WHO-SEARO, underscored the importance of trust, effective communication, and addressing misinformation in safeguarding health during crises.

Ms. Sunisa Ho, Associate Programme Management Officer at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), shared inclusive practices from the Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative, highlighting the role of multi-hazard early warning systems and community-driven approaches in enhancing resilience across cities in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Spotlight on Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET)

Dr Pushpa Ranjan Wijesinghe, Programme Area Manager for Infectious Hazard Management at WHO-SEARO, shared insights on WHO’s Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) initiative. He emphasized that emerging threats, whether biological, environmental, or social, are inherently unpredictable and often transboundary, with the potential to overwhelm fragile urban systems. Dr Wijesinghe also highlighted the heightened vulnerability of urban areas, where high population density, mobility, and social inequality converge, underscoring the need for integrated and resilient public health strategies.

Dr Pushpa Ranjan Wijesinghe explained that the PRET approach, builds on the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HEPR) Framework developed under the global initiative on “Strengthening the global architecture for health emergency prevention, preparedness, response and resilience” and endorsed via World Health Assembly  Resolution 77.8. This framework focuses on 5 important subsystems: collaborative surveillance, neighborhood safety, entry to countermeasures, scalable medical care, and emergency coordination.

These interconnected elements purpose to strengthen nationwide and subnational capacities to anticipate, put together for, and reply to a variety of well being emergencies, together with these pushed by local weather change and concrete vulnerabilities.

Dr Pushpa Ranjan Wijesinghe reminded individuals that World Health Assembly Resolution 73.8 on Strengthening preparedness for well being emergencies: implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005) and WHO’s operational steering on strengthening HEPR in city settings supplies the muse for launching the PRET strategy in cities. He famous that the initiative leverages the Healthy Cities platform to assist efficient implementation and scaling enabling city areas to higher anticipate, put together for, and reply to rising well being threats.

He famous that the synergies throughout these efforts might kind the spine of well being emergency readiness in cities. He additionally shared case research from Rio de Janeiro, Dhaka, and Lusaka, illustrating sensible functions of responding to local weather–delicate rising threats in city settings. Emphasizing the significance of the PRET strategy for a scientific and holistic response, he defined how PRET plans, as a part of all-hazard planning instruments, will help cities translate foresight into motion. He concluded with a robust reminder to assume the unthinkable and plan for the longer term.

Moving Forward

The webinar concluded with a transparent message that early preparedness saves lives and sources whereas defending cities from escalating local weather pushed well being dangers. Participants emphasised that strengthening governance, securing sustainable financing, and making certain inclusive neighborhood engagement are all essential to success.

 For cities, PRET strategy presents not solely a technical framework, but additionally a roadmap to embed resilience into the core of city governance. By adopting this strategy, cities throughout South-East Asia Region and past can improve their readiness for future crises, whereas safeguarding well being and selling fairness within the face of local weather change.