Climate Health Connect

Report of the Learning Circles on Gender and Climate at the CSW56

by Cristina Tirado, Director of PHI's Center for Public Health and Climate Change, April 19, 2012

"we are working towards a paradigm shift in recognizing the leadership of women in responding to the climate crisis." Eleanor Blomstrom (WEDO)

This year the priority theme at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has been the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges.

The Global Gender Climate Alliance (GGCA) and the NGO- CSW Forum co-organized a Learning Circle on Gender and Climate Change with the contribution of groups such as WEDO, UNDP, UN Women, Huairou Commission, Public Health Institute (PHI), UNISDR, IUCN, WOCAN and ENERGIA. Special Guest respondents included Mrs. Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice and Hon. Lulu Xingwana, Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, South Africa

Nearly 150 participants joined in the Learning Circles on Gender and Climate at the CSW56 in NY. The learning circles addressed issues including: Mitigation, Adaptation, Advocacy, Finance, Risk reduction, Grassroots community strategies and Health and food and nutrition security which was facilitated by the Center of Public Health Public Health Institute.

You can find the full report HERE.

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Tags: Climate Adaptation, climate change, Climate Mitigation, CSW, gender, GGCA, WEDO, women

Climate Action for Health: Integrating Public Health into Climate Action Planning in California

by Kathy Dervin, CDPH/Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, April 19, 2012

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is pleased to announce the release of a new publication, Climate Action for Health: Integrating Public Health Into Climate Action Planning, for local governments and health planners. The Guide provides an overview of climate change as an important health issue and presents ideas for integrating key public health issues into greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction strategies as they are addressed in the Climate Action Plan: Transportation, Land Use, Urban Greening, Food and Agriculture, Residential Energy Use, and Community Engagement and Vulnerable Populations.

Many strategies for reducing GHG emissions can also improve the health of a community. This educational resource was developed with the input of state and local climate partners and public health practitioners and provides examples of health-related language from communities around the state, and contains resources and references that will be helpful in local planning and implementation work.

For more information, contact: Kathy Dervin, CDPH/ Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Kathy.Dervin@cdph.ca.gov or (510) 620-6245

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Tags: California, CDPH, Chronic disease, climate change, NCD prevention, NCDs

Kim's Nomination to Lead World Bank Brings Connections Between Global Health and Economic Development to Forefront

by Mary Pittman, DrPH, President and CEO of Public Health Institute, April 19, 2012

I am encouraged by President Obama's nomination of Dartmouth College president Jim Yong Kim, MD, PhD, to head the World Bank. A physician and anthropologist, Dr. Kim’s experience in global health would bring critically important insights to an institution that focuses on alleviating poverty. We can't achieve the Millennium Development goals or reduce poverty without addressing the fundamental importance of health.

Dr. Kim would be the first World Bank president with a significant background in global health. Together with Dr. Paul Farmer in 1987, he co-founded the nonprofit Partners in Health, which supports health programs in poor communities globally. In the organization's Peru work, Dr. Kim helped develop a treatment program for the multiple-drug resistant form of tuberculosis and succeeded in his drive to lower the cost of the medications needed. He is a former director of the World Health Organization's Department of HIV/AIDS, where he led its first major effort to promote treatment for AIDS patients worldwide and helped developing countries scale up their treatment, prevention and care programs.

While accessible, high-quality medical treatment and care is critical to improving a country’s health, addressing the social determinants of health – such as education, environmental conditions and income inequality – is just as important to a country’s health status over the long term and, not surprisingly, its economic development.

I am confident that with his background, Dr. Kim is keenly aware of this interdependent relationship between health and economic development. If ultimately selected to head the World Bank, I am hopeful that Dr. Kim would serve as a forceful advocate for spurring improvements in health outcomes through poverty reductions.

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Tags: economics, global health, Jim Yong Kim, World Bank

Join us for Confronting Climate Change and Extreme Weather: A Public Health Perspective

by Cristina Tirado, Director of PHI's Center for Public Health and Climate Change, April 02, 2012

Invitation to the “Confronting Climate Change and Extreme Weather: A Public Health Perspective” event on April 10th at UCLA

Please join us!

As a follow up of the Governor’s Brown Conference on Extreme Climate Risk and California Future, the Center for Public Health and Climate Change at PHI is co-organizing with the UCLA Center for Public Health Disasters and the California Department of Public Health a complementary event of the governor’s conference presenting: “Confronting Climate Change and Extreme Weather” on April 10th, 2012, 9:30-12 noon at UCLA Center for Health Sciences Room 17-256.

The event will present among issues:

Report from the Governor’s Conference on Extreme Climate Change Risks and California’s Future - Kathy Dervin, CDPH, Climate and Health Program-

Climate Impacts for LA/Southern California

Dr. Alex Hall, Climate Model data and Dr. Cristina Tirado, Health Effects

Vulnerability and the Climate Gap –Climate Impacts and Equity - Dr. Paul English, CDPH, Env Health Tracking Program

Disaster Preparedness and Community Resilience -Dr. Kim Shoaf

Q&A and Discussion

We are pleased to invite you to join us in this event. You can find a save the date note here. Please distribute widely among your networks, particularly those around LA area.

We look forward to meeting you at the event!

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Tags: Climate Adaptation, climate change, Climate Mitigation, health

Your vote counts to promote the “Integration of food and nutrition security, health and gender in climate resilient-sustainable development” at the RIO+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development

by Cristina Tirado, Director of the Center for Public Health and Climate Change, March 29, 2012

PHI’s proposal for a Sustainable Development (SD) Learning Event on “Integration of food and nutrition security, health and gender in climate resilient-sustainable development” at RIO+20 has been pre-selected by the conference organizers of RIO+20 to be voted on by the general public.

PHI is co-organizing this SD learning session with the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Global Gender Climate Alliance (GGCA) and the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UN SCN), Action Against Hunger (ACF), Oxfam, and the World Bank (WB).

RIO+20 offers an unique opportunity to all nations, non-governmental organizations, major groups and individuals to influence the “future we want." The future we want needs to integrate public health, food and nutrition security, gender equity as key pillars of climate resilient - sustainable development and PHI’s SD learning event on “Integration of food and nutrition security, health and gender in climate resilient-sustainable development” is the only learning event that proposes this inter-sectoral framework.

In order for PHI’s SD learning event to be selected finalist for RIO+20, it needs to be voted one of the top five SD learning events and we are asking for your support by voting PHI’s event and distribute this message widely. You can vote by clicking on this link and entering your email address in the space provided. Then you will receive an email from Secretariat of the Rio+20 Conference asking you to confirm and register your vote by clicking on link to the RIO+20 conference site.

Every vote is important to influence the future you want and we would appreciate your vote and that you distribute this message among your networks interested on health, gender, climate change, food and nutrition security and sustainable development.

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Tags: climate change, gender, health, Rio, Rio+20, sustainable development, women

CSW 56: Gender and Climate Change

by Cristina Tirado, Director of PHI's Center for Public Health and Climate Change, March 12, 2012

Friday, March 9, was the last day of the fifty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which has brought together, in New York, leaders from all over the world working to promote gender equality. The CSW is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and women's empowerment worldwide. The CSWmake recommendations and reports on promoting women's rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields

This year the priority theme at the CSW has been the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges. The review theme was financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women and the emerging issue has been how to engage young women and men, girls and boys, to advance gender equality

The Global Gender Climate Alliance (GGCA) and the NGO- CSW co-organized a Learning Circle: Gender and Climate Change with the contribution of the Public Health Institute among other groups (link to the flyer). Special Guest respondents include Mrs. Mary Robinson, President, Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice and Hon. Lulu Xingwana, Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, South Africa

The Center of Public Health and Climate Change at PHI was invited to facilitate a learning circle on climate change, health food and nutrition security. The participants of the learning circle indentified key challenges that women encounter in relation to health and food and nutrition security at local, regional and national level. Specific challenges identified for rural women in Africa were the lack of access to health care services, including maternal health care, and the lack of awareness and information on health issues (including the transmission of HIV/AIDS) which is connected to the high rate of illiteracy in the rural context. Specific health issues in Africa were related to lack of water and water contamination and in SE Asia to exposure to pesticides from agricultural activities.

The group shared success stories and solutions that were achieved by women in relation to health and food and nutrition security and in particular, in the rural context. We discussed case studies including initiatives to collect water and irrigation projects in Nigeria, the establishment of mobile maternal health clinics in Uganda, and the promotion of green-houses to assure food and nutrition security of indigenous communities in Guatemala.

Many of the groups represented in this learning circle will be at RIO+20 and are planning to raise the profile of women to address the challenges of climate change to health and food and nutrition security.