Climate Change and Healthcare System Resilience: Stakeholder Perspectives on Mitigating Climate-Related Health Impacts in Low-Resource Settings

Climate change increasingly threatens human health and healthcare system effectiveness by intensifying existing vulnerabilities and pressures. In sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is particularly vulnerable to climate-related hazards, including food insecurity, extreme weather events and climate-sensitive diseases. This study explored the healthcare impacts of climate change and the resilience capability of Nigeria’s healthcare system. A qualitative design was employed using Key Informant Interviews with purposively selected stakeholders from government, civil society and academia through criterion-based snowball sampling. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview guide, and analysed deductively and inductively using MAXQDA. The findings indicated the presence of some enabling capabilities. These include a climate-related agenda conditioned by international development partners, a climate change strategy and surveillance mechanisms, and an adequate knowledge of the health impacts of climate change, such as heatwaves, droughts, floods, erratic rainfall, and increased disease transmission. However, there is inadequate understanding and capacity to support climate-resilient healthcare systems, inadequate integration of climate risks into healthcare policies and programmes, insufficient funding, inadequately trained healthcare workers, overburdened systems, weak links between scientific and policy communities, and low political prioritisation. Climate change is a multiplier of current stressors on the healthcare systems. Therefore, building climate-resilient healthcare systems requires urgent multisectoral collaboration, sustained investment, stronger policy integration and international support to address both current and emerging climate-related health threats. A climate-resilient healthcare system is cost-effective; however, up-front investment is required now.