02/02/2026
Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) Side Event Wrap-Up | Extreme Heat Risk Governance in Southeast Asia
Extreme heat is already straining health, livelihoods, and wellbeing across Southeast Asia—exposing dangerous gaps in how our systems and institutions protect people. At our PMAC side event, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners came together to confront these challenges and share what it takes to accelerate coordinated, effective heat action.
Key takeaways:
🌡️Heat is a whole-of-society challenge.
Effective heat action cannot sit within a single department or sector. It requires coordination across meteorological services, health, labour, education, agriculture, urban planning, disaster risk management, finance, and more, aligned under a coherent, all-of-society approach.
🌍Vulnerability to heat is dynamic, not fixed.
Heat risk is shaped by context — where people live, work, and the systems that support them. Policies must move beyond static labels and be grounded in local realities, changing exposure, and lived experiences.
🤝Governance is the critical enabler.
Evidence and tools already exist, but without strong governance and cross-sector coordination, heat action falls through the cracks. Clear leadership, shared accountability, and coordination mechanisms are essential to turn plans into impact.
🌱Investment works when it funds integration, not silos.
Durable impact comes from financing that strengthens systems — connecting data, institutions, communities, and policy — rather than isolated, short-term interventions.
🌾Community insights must be included to shape policy and financing.
Discussions on agriculture highlighted how working groups and cross-sector mechanisms can surface community needs, elevate them to decision-makers, and ensure policies and financing respond to realities on the ground.
💡Ownership and leadership must work together.
Insights from the children’s panel underscored that local action is driven by communities—but governments must lead by setting direction, coordinating actors, and protecting populations at scale.
For heat, knowledge matters — but action depends on coordinated governance that connects people, systems, and decisions.
Thank you to our co-organisers The Rockefeller Foundation and World Health Organization (WHO) Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health (ACE), our moderator Dr Jaya Shreedhar, and all speakers and participants for advancing this critical conversation.
👉 Stay connected: Subscribe to the GHHIN newsletter for the latest insights, evidence, and updates on heat, health, and climate resilience. https://lnkd.in/eCdQC8_p
📸 See photo highlights from the side event:https://lnkd.in/gQsKfcm7
🎥 Session recording and slides coming soon.
World Health Organization (WHO)
World Health Organization Western Pacific Region
World Meteorological Organization
