A Global Action Plan
Indoor Air Pollution: a Global Action Plan
The United Nations should instigate a Global Action Plan to address this neglected killer. The first step would be for the UN to convene urgently a high level international conference to set in motion action plans with the necessary resources.
There is an urgent need to reduce indoor air pollution in millions of homes in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This paper calls for the United Nations Secretary General to instigate a Global Action Plan to mobilize the political will and resources to make clean air a reality in the homes of millions.
The Global Action Plan will build on and expand existing efforts and provide the strategic leadership in driving and coordinating national and international action. It will also be the focus for mobilizing the necessary resources from traditional and new forms of funding. The Global Action Plan would entail the following:
High level international conference
The first step would be for the UN Secretary General’s office to convene urgently a high level international conference of the major stakeholders - governments, UN agencies, bilateral and multilateral donors, private sector, research institutions and nongovernmental organizations - to agree a shared vision, common approaches and set in motion strategic plans to tackle the scourge of indoor air pollution.
The conference should agree the following four-part strategy:
- Millennium Development Goals - a specific reference and action on preventing and reducing child mortality through reducing risk from indoor air pollution.
- A global partnership - which puts the global political weight and resources into the existing Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, bringing together the leading international players from the health, development, energy, shelter and environment sectors to work towards a global solution and to prepare strategic plans to tackle indoor air pollution.
- Sustainable finance - that establishes the extra and sustainable resources from traditional and non-traditional donors needed to bring clean air to millions of homes.
- National task forces - that bring together the key national and local level stakeholders to enable them to address the problem with international support.
Millennium Development Goals
Indoor air pollution is inextricable linked to poverty. Reducing indoor air pollution can contribute to many of the MDGs. But given that smoke is such a major child killer, and that efforts to tackle childhood acute lower respiratory infection are falling short of targets, there needs to be a specific reference and action on preventing deaths from indoor air pollution under MDG 4 Reducing Child Mortality.
A global partnership
Indoor air pollution is a global problem requiring a global solution. The United States Environmental Protection Agency led Partnership for Clean Indoor Air has attracted a number of key players since it was launched in Johannesburg in September 2002. The international community needs to rally round the partnership and transform it into a truly global partnership.
The international community is slowly beginning to take indoor air pollution seriously. Key organizations already active in the fight against indoor air pollution include (see Appendix 3): the WHO; the World Bank; the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the Global Village Energy Partnership; the Shell Foundation; and many NGOs and community groups.
Increasing co-operation between all the key players in the energy, environment, health, shelter and development sectors is the first step towards achieving the global reach needed. This partnership of governments, UN agencies, bilateral and multilateral donors, private sector, research institutions and nongovernmental organizations will need to:
- build consensus on priorities and prepare strategic plans to tackle indoor air pollution
- facilitate partner co-ordination to expand the availability of, and access to, cleaner fuels and safe methods of extracting smoke from the home
- offer technical support and share best practice across a range of sectors
- assist the development of further improved ways of reducing the risk of indoor air pollution
- support further necessary research into understanding the best way to reduce risk
- communicate and advocate the need for a greater response to indoor air pollution.
International working group
In the early stages of co-operation there needs to be a multi-stakeholder working group with the remit to develop recommendations for policy and practice on ways in which levels of indoor air pollution can be alleviated at national and local level. Working within a given time frame, the working group should:
- collate information on previous experience and identify factors which have led to success and to failure in the past
- based on this knowledge, develop policy recommendations for alleviating smoke on a wide scale at national and local level
- provide indicators of the cost of introducing these policy measures, and of the expected levels of poverty reduction and health benefit resulting from the introduction of those measures
- recommend further actions, at international, national and local level, which are needed to fill the knowledge gaps on successfully alleviating indoor air pollution.
This information will be essential for guiding national task forces and assisting them to adapt the international experience to suit local conditions.
Continuing research
An essential part of the international co-operation will be concerted efforts by the health research community, who continue to provide evidence on the risks involved in exposure to household smoke and the health benefits of household interventions to reduce exposure. This research will be needed in the drive to persuade national governments of the urgency of tackling indoor air pollution. The fact that there is ongoing research should not raise questions as to the seriousness of indoor air pollution. This research is aimed at gaining an understanding of the best ways to eradicate a very real problem.
Any global strategy to tackle indoor air pollution will need to ensure there is a global understanding of what variables are measured, and where and when. Standards need to be set to allow progress to be monitored and programme results to be compared. The Partnership for Clean Indoor Air is developing a harmonized methodology to evaluate initiatives which aim to reduce the impact of indoor air pollution.
Sustainable finance
Bilateral and multilateral donors (governments, World Bank, IMF and regional development banks) and nontraditional donors need to commit the necessary level of funding without cutting their financial commitments to other essential poverty-reduction strategies.
It is estimated the funding should be in the order of US$500 million per year over the next 12 years. This money will be required for implementing programmes in individual countries, and for research, development and co-ordination at the international level. The aim of the funding is to enable all people to reduce the health risks associated with indoor air pollution. This will include subsidies for communities most in need.
National task forces
In the first phase of the action plan there will be a need to focus on a set number of countries that will champion efforts to reduce indoor air pollution. These countries will act as pioneering centres of excellence setting up national indoor air pollution plans that are linked to national poverty reduction, health, energy, shelter and environmental plans.
Above all, there has to be action on the ground, at a national and local level, to promote healthy indoor air for all, and to remove the barriers that prevent people from living in a clean indoor environment. Operating at a national level, the task forces will bring together stakeholders (government, private sector, NGOs and communities) to take action on smoke. Each task force should be guided by the findings of the international working group, and carry out a similar scoping, costing and policy review at a national level.
Working across various government sectors, task force responsibilities will include:
- raising public awareness of the effects of indoor air pollution and solutions to it
- reforming national technical and energy markets in order to expand availability of cleaner fuels
- developing locally acceptable ways of extracting smoke from the home
- social marketing of appropriate solutions introducing the necessary financial support for poor families such as microcredit and subsidies.
National government response
Specifically, national policies, and in particular the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), should include action on indoor air pollution. This would be in line with achieving MDG 4 on reducing infant mortality and MDG 7 on environmental sustainability. National environment strategy and national energy plans should then be amended in line with achieving this PRSP target.
Private sector response
The private sector is already becoming involved in some countries through the UNDP LPG Challenge. This programme aims to reduce the commercial risks for private sector involvement in developing countries, particularly in rural markets. It is also looking to develop best practice for providing a rural service. Private energy companies should support the UNDP in this effort, and contribute resources towards its goals.
Co-ordinating at a local level
Non-governmental organizations are ideally placed to bridge the gap between multilateral action and community action. It will be essential to bring together local stakeholders - community-based organizations, local government, health service, finance and the private sector - to develop strategies for scaling up the impact of local interventions.
Importantly, the impact of the interventions at a household level must be monitored for exposure, health and socioeconomic impact. The Shell Foundation, USEPA, WHO, ITDGPractical Action, ESMAP and others are all supporting work to this end - but it will need much greater effort to benefit millions of households.
Communities at the heart of development
The communities should be fully integrated into the development process. Poverty itself is the heart of the problem, and poverty eradication must be the main goal.
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Appendices