Dr. Zeinabou M. Noura is a young doctor and activist with over 16 years of environmental leadership experience in NGOs. She has coordinated programs and projects at sub-regional levels and is a member of several inter-sectoral networks and committees, including the national committee for monitoring and implementing Niger’s National Determined Contribution. She is currently in the post-doctoral cycle, just completed her first year of study in Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition from Université Félix Houphouët Boigny. She holds a State Doctorate in Medicine, and a certificate in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. Furthermore, she has received numerous awards, including being named one of the 100 most influential women in Niger in 2013 and receiving the prize for best scientific communication at the Journée Africaine d’Endocrinologie Clinique Adrien Lokrou d’Abidjan in 2023. She has been working on health, environment, and development issues since 2013, including leading Niger’s first youth forum and leading an international study on health, population, environment, and development. She has also been part of the oficial Niger’s international delegation in climate change conferences, participating in high-level panels, ministerial conferences, and numerous national strategies validations.

“To effectively adapt the healthcare sector, it is crucial to understand diseases’ interactions with climate change, their evolution, vulnerabilities, and tools for surveillance and early warning. Health professionals must be committed to this new mechanism, promoting resilience in health centers through infrastructure strengthening and green energy promotion. Scientific and technological solutions are essential for this collective fight.” Dr. Zeinabou M. Noura.

Zeinabou started her commitment on climate action very early on, inspired by her mother’s activities as a geographer and member of an NGO on environment and sustainable development). Byjoining  her in sanitation and reforestation activities as well as  conferences, she discovered a deep love for protecting the environment. At the same time, during her medical training, she saw really difficult situations which occurred in particular climate seasons with some diseases (meningitis, malaria, allergic diseases) and patients were suffering a lot. In her research, she met some studies on climate sensitives diseases in some part of the world but for Sahel region there were only a handful of studies, and even access to reliable data was another challenge. So, for her doctoral thesis decided to join these two careers, medical and environmental question.

Zeinabou joined the Impulsouth Solutions Lab from September 2022 to March 2023, and during this period work on the development of solutions to connect climate and health. She learned how design and impactful project, step by step. She appreciated learning these steps during Solution Lab, particularly customer discovery.

Zeinabou’s climate solution process has led to three main achievements. First one, she launched a Center of Education and Research on Health and Climate Change (CERSCC-Magaria), mobilizing various organizations and individuals. For this, she mobilized the Minister of Environment, the senior representative of the Minister of Public Health, the representative of the focal point of the UNFCCC in Niger (CNEDD), the World Health Organization, research centers, research professors, and many other important organizations and individuals.

Second, she established “Association of Young Health Professional –  AERSCC Niger”, an association of young health professionals committed to the climate change cause, the first of its kind in the Sahel region.

Her third achievement was advocating for the Ministry of Public Health, Population and Social Affairs to commit to the health convention resulting from COP26 presidency. This ministry has recently established a multisectoral committee to prepare Niger’s membership to this convention.

Executive board of the CERSCC-MAGARIA, the day of official launching of the Center social activities. From right to left: Alexandre Dedegnon, Associate Consultant in Communication, Nana Harouna, Associate Consultant in political and legal advocacy, Dr Zeinabou Maman Noura, Founder and Executive Director, Abdoulaye Attahirou Kadade, Associate Consultant in Education and Training.

Climate Solution Summary:
Center of Education and Research on Health and Climate Change (CERSCC- Magaria).

The latest special report from the IPCC again alerted the whole world of the acceleration of global warming with all its consequences, including public health. It is foreseen that from 2030 to 2050, 250,000 additional case people will die per year from four diseases arising due to climate change: malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea and heat stress. Furthermore, in Niger there is a lack of access to reliable data and a weak implication of health professionals to prevent this from happening.

With 11.6 million pregnant women affected by malaria in 2019, the project underscores the urgency of understanding how climate change impacts the transmission of vector-borne diseases like malaria.

The project focuses on addressing the relationship between climate change, health, and malaria in Africa. Aims to create a center for training and research on climate change and health, involving professionals from different fields.

For further information www.cerscc-magaria.org