Timor-Leste - Rising risks, resilient futures: Climate and health vulnerability assessment

The Climate and Health Vulnerability Assessment (CHVA) provides an evidence base to guide climate-resilient health investments. It integrates climate modeling, geospatial exposure mapping, and disease burden analysis, economic projections from the World Bank’s Climate and Health Economic Valuation (CHEV) tool, and extensive stakeholder conventions and a validation workshop convened through Timor-Leste’s Climate and Health Technical Working Group (TWG). The CHVA places a strong focus on subnational variation, assessing climate and health risks and vulnerabilities across all 14 municipalities. It also builds on and complements ongoing adaptation efforts, including the country’s Health National Adaptation Plan (HNAP) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in identifying strategic entry points for adaptation action.

The assessment concludes that strengthening Timor-Leste’s health system—from community-level PHC to specialist tertiary care—will provide a critical foundation for safeguarding public health and human capital development in the face of the manifold impacts of climate change. With political commitment and cross-sectoral collaboration, including engagement between the MoH, MoF, development partners, and communities, Timor-Leste can take decisive steps toward safeguarding public health in the face of a changing climate.