Luanda, Sept. 1, 2026 (Lusa) - Angola is identifying priorities for developing its project to implement the Nature4Health (N4H) Initiative, a global programme for pandemic prevention, for which it currently has $250,000 in funding.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Angolan government and representatives from various organisations met in Luanda on Tuesday to design the N4H Angola project, which is expected to have a total budget of $2.5 million (€2.1 million) by the end of the three-year project.
The N4H Initiative, a global programme partly funded by the German government with €50 million, aims to prevent pandemics and epidemics by addressing their environmental causes.
Speaking to the press, Adjany Costa, the UNDP's nature, climate and environment specialist and a member of the N4H Angola coordination team, noted that, unlike other programmes, N4H brings together all stakeholders.
«N4H makes us take a step back; it makes us see how we can prevent the disease from even spreading and being transmitted in the first place. This has a great deal to do with nature, its protection and the conservation of biodiversity. It is a highly integrated approach to protecting nature in order to protect humankind, which is part of nature,» she said.
According to Adjany Costa, Angola is concerned about all the diseases considered to be the most serious, such as Marburg, Ebola, dengue and even malaria – which is transmitted by mosquitoes.
«Depending on which risk is identified as a priority, and depending on which area is identified as a priority, there will always be a disease that places a strain on our health system; in some cases, we are working to strengthen our capacity to respond,» she said.
Adjany Costa emphasised that the project is expected to be finalised by May next year and to begin implementation by the end of 2027.
In his speech, the Angolan Ministry of the Environment's Secretary of State for Climate Action and Sustainable Development, Nascimento Soares, acknowledged «the enormous potential of this initiative in developing integrated solutions that enable a better understanding of the interconnection between health, biodiversity and ecosystems, whilst also addressing the issue of climate change».
The Secretary of State for Public Health, Carlos Sousa, argued that prevention «is far more sensible and cost-effective than responding belatedly to an emergency».
«Angola's public health security must be understood in broad terms; it is about building permanent capacities for prevention, early detection, surveillance, diagnosis, risk communication and rapid response, in addition to responding to an epidemic after it has occurred,» he emphasised.
NME/ADB // ADB.
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