LocationsEnvironment and Health at the Heart of New Prevention Initiative in Angola
September 1, 2026
Angola today launched the Nature4Health (N4H) project, which aims to strengthen health risk prevention through the protection of ecosystems and biodiversity.
The initiative promotes an integrated approach, bringing together the Environment, Health, and Agriculture and Forestry sectors, technical institutions, partners, and other relevant stakeholders to respond in a coordinated manner to challenges that link the health of people, animals, and ecosystems.
Promoted by the Government of Angola, through the Ministry of Environment, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the workshop marked the formal beginning of the design phase of the Nature4Health project in Angola.
The initiative is based on the recognition that human health, animal health and ecosystem health are closely interconnected. In Angola, this relationship is particularly important in a context where natural resources underpin food security, water availability and the livelihoods of millions of people.
During the opening of the workshop, Secretary of State for Climate Action and Sustainable Development Nascimento da Costa Soares highlighted the importance of strengthening coordination among different sectors to respond proactively to environmental and health challenges.
“Rather than creating a new structure, it is important to strengthen synergies among existing instruments, leveraging investment and promoting preventive approaches to risks that simultaneously affect human health, animal health and environmental health,” he said.
The Secretary of State further stressed that Angola already has a range of policies and instruments that provide a foundation for this work, including the National Development Plan 2023–2027, the National Biodiversity Strategy 2022–2035, the Nationally Determined Contributions and the Biodiversity Action Plan 2026–2030.
For Secretary of State for Public Health Dr Carlos Alberto Pinto de Sousa, prevention must play a central role in building the country’s health security: “There is no sustainable public health without a sustainable environment, nor true health security without prevention and cooperation.”
He highlighted the need to strengthen national capacities for prevention, early detection, surveillance, diagnosis, risk communication and rapid response, as well as to improve data sharing and coordination across the human health, animal health and environmental sectors.
For UNDP, the design phase represents an opportunity to support Angola in translating existing scientific knowledge and capacities into concrete prevention options.
“Nature4Health recognises that prevention begins before a health emergency occurs. By gaining a better understanding of the environmental factors that influence health risks, we can support earlier, more coordinated responses that are better suited to the realities of communities,” said Gabriel Dava, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Angola.
In Angola, the initial phase will examine biodiversity and ecosystem-related factors that may contribute to the risk of disease transmission between animals and humans, including interfaces between wildlife, domestic animals and human populations, changes in land use and pressures on ecosystems.
The design phase is expected to culminate in the development of an Implementation Project Document, which will define priorities, results, activities, governance mechanisms, budget and workplan for a potential implementation phase.
The process will also include consultations with different stakeholders and an analysis of subnational contexts, to gain a better understanding of risks, existing capacities and opportunities for intervention. The approach will also take into account the knowledge and perspectives of communities and local authorities.
By launching this process, Angola joins the countries participating in the Nature4Health initiative, seeking to strengthen a preventive approach that brings nature conservation, health and sustainable development together under a common agenda.
About Nature4Health
Nature4Health (N4H) is a global initiative created to reduce health risks by addressing their environmental determinants, with an initial focus on strengthening the environmental and preventive dimensions of the One Health approach.
The initiative is supported by eight partners, including the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, the Convention on Biological Diversity, UNDP, UNEP, WHO, the World Organisation for Animal Health, IUCN and the EcoHealth Alliance.
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