Nexa Lighthouse is a climate and health initiative co-led by Grand Challenges Canada and AVPN, bringing together Nexa and The Lighthouse Fund with a coalition of funding partners. It supports locally led innovations that help communities across Asia and the Pacific anticipate, adapt to, and respond to climate-related health threats.
The challenge
Nexa Lighthouse is investing in solutions that help local health actors in Asia and the Pacific turn climate-risk signals into timely action, reducing health harms from mosquito-borne infections, extreme heat, and poor air quality.
The climate crisis has been described in The Lancet as the greatest global health threat of the 21st century. Asia and the Pacific is the world’s most disaster-prone region, where more than four in five people face multi-hazard risks associated with slow- or sudden-onset climate events.
Climate-driven health risks fall hardest on the most vulnerable: pregnant women, children, the elderly, people with chronic illness, and communities with limited healthcare access.
Local health systems need solutions to anticipate and respond to these risks.
Areas of Focus
Nexa Lighthouse will provide catalytic funding for bold and innovative solutions across Asia and the Pacific that support health actors and systems prepare for and respond to three key climate-related drivers of health risk:
Changing vector patterns that contribute to the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue
Extreme heat and its associated health impacts
Poor air quality resulting from pollution and climate-related changes
About Nexa Lighthouse
Nexa Lighthouse brings together Nexa, a global climate and health initiative co-led by GCC and the Science for Africa Foundation, with The Lighthouse Fund, which invests at the intersection of climate and health and is led by AVPN.
Nexa’s funding priorities were shaped by the largest climate and health survey to date, which engaged 6,400 respondents — health workers, scientists, innovators, policymakers and humanitarian workers — across 107 low- and middle-income countries.
Nexa Lighthouse is extending this work into Asia and the Pacific to provide catalytic funding for growth-stage climate and health innovations that strengthen health systems adaptation and resilience and have strong potential for impact and scale.
The first funding call for Nexa Lighthouse opens in October, 2026.
Join a growing coalition of funders in Asia and the Pacific
Nexa Lighthouse is a climate and health initiative co-led by Grand Challenges Canada (in partnership with the Government of Canada) and AVPN, bringing together Nexa and The Lighthouse Fund with a coalition of funding partners including the Bayer Foundation, India Health Fund, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Sanofi Foundation, and Temasek Foundation.
Let’s work together to strengthen solutions to climate and health challenges in Asia and the Pacific. If you are a funder looking to join our growing consortium of partners, connect with us at: climate@grandchallenges.ca. For those seeking funding, visit our Apply for funding page to see current opportunities.
