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Philippine Strategy on Climate Change Adaptation: Policy Health Handbook Sectorconsider a Debt for Climate Change Adaptation Swap, in which portions of our payments for ourforeign debts will be used by us instead for reconstruction and climate adaptation measures.” 30 Whilethese proposals have to be considered, we will have to study the mechanisms for theiroperationalization.We know that regional and international banks such as Asian Development Bank (ADB) 31 , WorldBank (WB) and the like have financing instruments which are now being used globally as much asregionally and locally to respond to climate change adaptation or mitigation. Climate change activitiesthen should be developed for the adaptation mechanisms to be funded.We should consider financing at two levels – that for the potentially affected and for the program. Inthe earlier section financing was seen as a gap in previous forums and publications. While it is so,mechanisms for this have yet to be explored. This section then concerns financing the beneficiary –those who will be affected by the health impacts. It has been suggested that the possibility of havingclimate sensitive diseases as part of International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10) be studied andrecommended to be part of the coverage by the national health insurance program (NHIP); as it isMalaria and Tuberculosis are already covered by the program. Another financing mechanism wouldbe the continuous funding of preventive health measures that will increase the resilience and herdimmunity of human populations. Vaccination and cold chain maintenance should be completed.Coverage of children and adults to achieve this herd immunity should be achieved.The national government has allotted a certain budget for facilities infrastructure maintenance anddevelopment which comes from both the national (DOH central) and the Local Government unit(LGU) through their Internal revenue allotments (IRA). In the past local government officials heldsway as to how these funds would be used, and most times they would be spent for other things atthe expense of health. However a new process has enhanced the health budget allocationenhancement. This is through the PIPH earlier mentioned where a focused province wide investmentfor health identifies health needs that need to be funded by the LGU. This can now become anorganized window for discussing and financing climate change and health activities.Financing continuing and new training of human resource for climate change expertise can bethrough this window of PIPH. Infrastructure financing also goes through here. What would beessential is how we will be able to come up with the criteria for climate resiliency of healthinfrastructures in light of repeated and increasing severity of extreme climate events visiting thecountry.In connection with this is the financing the management information system for climate change andhealth. International or local funding sources should finance the expansion of the ongoing PhilippineIntegrated Disease surveillance response (PIDSR) and set up a robust database of diseasesurveillance and climate correlation parameters. This other aspect ofConclusions and RecommendationsClimate change will factor greatly in health inequalities. A developing country such as the Philippineswill be one of the hardest hit when the health impacts of climate change takes its toll. Whateverstrides we have had in accomplishing our millennium development goals will be overtaken if we donot act on the negative health impacts of climate change. We are starting to learn from the science.As we slowly understand this, it will be to our favor if we build the capacities and mechanisms tomake our information systems robust help us make intelligent decisions and actions for adapting.While policies are important to lay down the foundation of our work, it is the political will which willgive meaning to it. As we are a community that is coping with the double burden of disease, we arebeset with this phenomenon of climate change which will stress our resources more to the brink. Weshould then learn to prioritize in consideration of another added set of factors. Looking at theepidemiologic triad would be a good paradigm shift that should be coupled with behavioral change so30 Legarda to push at UN debt-for-climate adaptation swap. Available fromhttp://balita.ph/2009/11/09/legarda-to-push-at-un-debt-for-climate-adaptation-swap/. Accessed Nov 15,2009.31 Financing Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Role of Regional Financing Arrangements .Availablefrom http://www.adb.org/Documents/Papers/ADB-Working-Paper-Series/ADB-WP04-Financing-Climate-Change-Mitigation.pdf. Accessed November 20, 2009.69 1