Summary of the Climate Information for Public Health Training Course: Palisades, New York. June 1-12, 2009

As the world's attention is increasingly focused on the effects of climate change, it is essential to better understand the role that climate plays in community health and disease. Equally important is the need for decisive, coordinated interaction between climate experts and health workers to decide how best to respond to the variations in climate that in part drive the burden of disease in communities of developing countries. The 2009 Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health (SI 09) was designed to engage professionals who play a key role in the operational decision-making for climate-sensitive diseases in identifying and evaluating appropriate use of climate information

Climate information for public health : a curriculum for best practices : putting principles to work

The mission of the IRI is to enhance society’s capability to understand, anticipate and manage the impacts of climate in order to improve human welfare and the environment, especially in developing countries. The IRI conducts this mission through strategic and applied research, education, capacity building, and by providing forecasts and information products with an emphasis on practical and verifiable utility and partnership

Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health 2010

Now that the world’s attention is focused on climate variability and climate change adaptation, it is essential, not only for public health communities, but also for planners in central government, to understand the role climate plays in driving disease burden and impacting economic growth. Public health emerges as the final common pathway for all impacts of climate variability and climate change on individuals as well as societies

Report on Training of Health Professionals on Climate and Health

The role of climate in health is currently enjoying a high profile among the international community in terms of demonstrating climate risk management and adaptation to a changing climate. The effect of climate variability and change on heath is a serious issue for most sub-Saharan African countries. Among the diseases that have public health importance in Ethiopia are malaria, meningitis and acute watery diarrhea. Understanding the relationship of climate and health in Ethiopia would be a tremendous help in early containment of these diseases. In Ethiopia, before the establishment of a Climate and Health Working Group (CHWG), which includes the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Meteorological Agency among other partners, the sharing of information among the two key players was minimal. The goal of this working group is to create a climate-informed health sector that routinely requests and uses appropriate climate information to improve the effectiveness of health interventions. In order to meet its goals, the working group, in collaboration with the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), organized a six-day training course for health professionals on climate and health. In this training, the Summer Institute course "Climate Information for Public Health" (held for the past two years at IRI in New York), was adapted and implemented. The Summer Institute has involved four Ethiopian participants, one from the National Meteorological Agency (NMA), and three from the Ministry of Health. They played a key role in facilitating some of the course lectures themselves and in identifying local professionals who could also contribute to the curriculum. The general goal of the six-day training was to build the national capacity in order to utilize climate information for decision-making in the health sector at national and regional state levels. The training was comprised of three components: core lectures, practical sessions, and short recap presentations by the participants. Sixteen participants were involved in the training. The selection of the participants was done in consultation with the Federal Ministry of Health. Participants came primarily from the Public Health Emergency Management Units of regional and federal health bureaus and were chosen for their roles in the decision-making around the prevention and control of climate-sensitive diseases. Three types of evaluation were carried out, a pre- and post-test, as well as an overall evaluation. The pre- and post-test helped to evaluate the level of knowledge about climate and health before and after the training. The latter helped in evaluating the organization of the overall training. Generally, the evaluations revealed that the training helped to increase the knowledge of the links between climate and health, as well as the use of climate information for decision-making in the public health sector. This training is the first of its kind organized in Ethiopia, especially at a national level. Most of the participants agreed on the suitability of the content, design and delivery of the course and showed their interest in organizing similar training initiatives in their respective home institutions. It is possible to recommend that this training should be extended to the regional health bureau level, with the already trained participants taking the primary responsibility of facilitating these follow-on activities with the close support of the CHWG. The collaboration of the regional branch offices of the National Meteorological Agency, with respect to using climate information, would play a crucial role in this endeavor. The most important point is to sustain this training and update its contents accordingly. The future research agenda and evidence generation efforts of the CHWG and its members should also focus on other climate sensitive diseases. Even though participants did not indicate there were always established ties to local universities in different parts of the country, these potential partnerships should be addressed in sharing the knowledge of the use of climate information for public health decision-making and in prioritizing locally important diseases. The training was held at UNECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between November 31st and December 5th, 2009. Financial and technical support was provided by IRI with funding from the Google.org sponsored project "Building Capacity to Produce and Use Climate and Environmental Information for Improving Health in East Africa.

Report on Training of Health Professionals on Climate and Health

The role of climate in health is currently enjoying a high profile among the international community in terms of demonstrating climate risk management and adaptation to a changing climate. The effect of climate variability and change on heath is a serious issue for most sub-Saharan African countries. Among the diseases that have public health importance in Ethiopia are malaria, meningitis and acute watery diarrhea. Understanding the relationship of climate and health in Ethiopia would be a tremendous help in early containment of these diseases. In Ethiopia, before the establishment of a Climate and Health Working Group (CHWG), which includes the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Meteorological Agency among other partners, the sharing of information among the two key players was minimal. The goal of this working group is to create a climate-informed health sector that routinely requests and uses appropriate climate information to improve the effectiveness of health interventions. In order to meet its goals, the working group, in collaboration with the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), organized a six-day training course for health professionals on climate and health. In this training, the Summer Institute course "Climate Information for Public Health" (held for the past two years at IRI in New York), was adapted and implemented. The Summer Institute has involved four Ethiopian participants, one from the National Meteorological Agency (NMA), and three from the Ministry of Health. They played a key role in facilitating some of the course lectures themselves and in identifying local professionals who could also contribute to the curriculum. The general goal of the six-day training was to build the national capacity in order to utilize climate information for decision-making in the health sector at national and regional state levels. The training was comprised of three components: core lectures, practical sessions, and short recap presentations by the participants. Sixteen participants were involved in the training. The selection of the participants was done in consultation with the Federal Ministry of Health. Participants came primarily from the Public Health Emergency Management Units of regional and federal health bureaus and were chosen for their roles in the decision-making around the prevention and control of climate-sensitive diseases. Three types of evaluation were carried out, a pre- and post-test, as well as an overall evaluation. The pre- and post-test helped to evaluate the level of knowledge about climate and health before and after the training. The latter helped in evaluating the organization of the overall training. Generally, the evaluations revealed that the training helped to increase the knowledge of the links between climate and health, as well as the use of climate information for decision-making in the public health sector. This training is the first of its kind organized in Ethiopia, especially at a national level. Most of the participants agreed on the suitability of the content, design and delivery of the course and showed their interest in organizing similar training initiatives in their respective home institutions. It is possible to recommend that this training should be extended to the regional health bureau level, with the already trained participants taking the primary responsibility of facilitating these follow-on activities with the close support of the CHWG. The collaboration of the regional branch offices of the National Meteorological Agency, with respect to using climate information, would play a crucial role in this endeavor. The most important point is to sustain this training and update its contents accordingly. The future research agenda and evidence generation efforts of the CHWG and its members should also focus on other climate sensitive diseases. Even though participants did not indicate there were always established ties to local universities in different parts of the country, these potential partnerships should be addressed in sharing the knowledge of the use of climate information for public health decision-making and in prioritizing locally important diseases. The training was held at UNECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between November 31st and December 5th, 2009. Financial and technical support was provided by IRI with funding from the Google.org sponsored project "Building Capacity to Produce and Use Climate and Environmental Information for Improving Health in East Africa.

Final Report: Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health, 2011

The greatest challenges facing the public health systems of today include an aging population, urbanization and climate change. A key component of climate variability and climate change adaptation is the training of a new generation of leaders to understand the role that climate plays in driving disease burden and impacting economic growth. Such capacity building will help to strengthen and improve decisions made in the public health sector to minimize the impacts of global environmental change. As a contribution to this process, The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), in partnership with the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) and the Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH) at Columbia University initiated this two-week course in 2008. Building on the response of our 2008-2010 alumni, and a great demand from the climate and health community the 2011 Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health (SI11) was designed to engage professionals who play a key role in the operational decision-making for climate-sensitive diseases in identifying and evaluating appropriate use of climate information. SI11 was held at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Campus in Palisades, New York, between May 16th and May 27th, 2011

Informe Final: Instituto de Capacitación en Clima y Salud: Mercosur 2011

Los mayores retos de los sistemas de salud pública hoy en día incluyen el envejecimiento de la población, la urbanización y el cambio climático. Según las evidencias del último informe del Panel Intergubernamental de las Naciones Unidas - máxima autoridad en el tema de cambio climático en el mundo- existen evidencias, usando diferentes escenarios climáticos, de cómo las variables climáticas (temperatura, precipitación, humedad, nubosidad) juegan un rol fundamental en el aumento de la mortalidad y la morbilidad (principalmente cardiovascular) debido a un aumento de la intensidad y duración de las olas de calor. Los efectos indirectos del cambio climático en las salud pueden incluir la propagación potencial de las enfermedades por ejemplo: malaria, salmonelosis, cólera y leishmaniasis. Los impactos del clima sobre la agricultura (por ejemplo, la malnutrición) y la pesca pueden influir también sobre la salud de forma indirecta, como puede ser la limitación del suministro de agua potable (por ejemplo, la salinización de las aguas subterráneas debido a la subida esperada del nivel del agua del mar). Además, los problemas de destrucción de la capa de ozono (por ejemplo, riesgo de cáncer de piel, inmunosupresión) y de la contaminación atmosférica (por ejemplo, trastornos alérgicos) están interrelacionados con el cambio climático como consecuencia de las numerosas interacciones que existen entre ellos. Un componente clave de la adaptación al cambio climático es la formación de una nueva generación de líderes a nivel regional y local para entender el papel que juega el clima en la carga de las enfermedades y así empezar a cuantificar el impacto del cambio y/o variabilidad climática en la salud pública . Esta creación de capacidad instalada en las diferentes regiones del globo contribuirá a fortalecer y mejorar las decisiones tomadas en el sector de la salud y se reflejará en la reducción de los impactos del cambio ambiental global. Como contribución a este proceso , el Instituto de Investigación Internacional para el Clima y la Sociedad (IRI, siglas en inglés ), el Instituto Interamericano para la Investigación del Cambio Global (IAI, siglas en inglés), el Ministerio de Salud Pública del Uruguay como secretaria técnica y Presidencia Protémpore de la Comisión Intergubernamental para la Salud Ambiental y del Trabajador de Mercosur (CISAT) y la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) unieron esfuerzos para organizar el Primer Instituto de Capacitación en Clima y Salud (ICCS11) a nivel regional en la ciudad de Piriápolis, Uruguay del 7 al 18 de Noviembre, 2011

Capacity development through the sharing of climate information with diverse user communities

The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is a premier global research and capacity development institution focused on enhancing society’s capability to understand, use, manage and evaluate climate information. Its goal is to strengthen the technical capacity of individuals and organizations in order to increase the demand for climate information and its application. In the early years of IRI, staff trained local meteorologists and decision makers, often in developing countries, on using information products that IRI’s forecast group judged would be of value. However, in the last decade, IRI’s approach to training has evolved into one that is more user-driven. Today, users are brought on board during the development of training curricula to learn what information and methodologies would be most useful for their local needs. This establishes a sense of trust and ownership in the training process. Approaches are tailored to different contexts and communities, and focus is placed on cultivating long-lasting partnerships. The work presented in this article demonstrates the evolution of IRI’s capacity building and development processes. It highlights how the IRI implements capacity development activities, with a particular emphasis on the early engagement of practitioners and end users. Numerous examples are provided of the successes related to knowledge gains and to the concrete applications of climate information that can occur when the design and implementation of activities are preformed in an integrative manner. This approach builds channels for interaction among practitioners, policymakers, scientists and other societal decision making groups. Though it has seen numerous successes, the IRI is continually evaluating its capacity development methods and looking for ways to improve upon them

Health and Climate–Needs

This paper describes the needs for climate risk management and information services for the health sector to serve research, educational and operational needs of ministries of health and their partners, those agencies that support broader public health service provision as well as respond to epidemics and emergencies. While climate information is considered highly relevant to helping guide improvements in public health provision, to date this information is largely underutilized. We explore some of the gaps in satisfying these needs, and we make recommendations to help fill the identified gaps

Climate and health in Africa

This paper describes the work of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and its partners towards the development of climate services for the health sector in Africa; integrating research, operational applications and capacity building alongside policy development and advocacy. It follows the evolution of IRI’s health work from an initial focus on the use of seasonal climate forecasts to a wider agenda serving climate and environmental information needs to a broad range of health-related users. Recognizing that climate information must be relevant to the priority policy and programming needs of national and international health stakeholders, this review highlights an approach that has centered not only on the assessment and creation of evidence, but also on knowledge transfer through engagement with decision-makers. Current opportunities and priorities identified for the routine use of climate and environmental information in health in Africa include: i) understanding mechanisms by which climate impacts on transmission and occurrence of disease; ii) mapping populations at risk both in space and by season; iii) developing early warning systems; iv) understanding the contributions of climate to trends in disease incidence v) improving the evaluation of the impacts of climate-sensitive interventions. While traditional metrics (e.g. peer review publications) have been important in establishing evidence for policy, the IRI’s role as a knowledge broker (in research and professional capacity building, facilitation of communities of practice, and engagement in policy dialogue at local and global scale) has been critical to delivery of its mission