report on synergies and collaborations - healthy · pdf filereport on synergies and...

Report on Synergies and Collaborations

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 266327. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use which maybe made of the information contained therein.

HEALTHY FUTURES

ENVIRONMENT

CLIMATE CHANGE

HEALTH

DISSEMINATION

KNOWLEDGEGENERATION

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HEALTHY FUTURES Report on Synergies and Collaborations (D7.5)

www.healthyfutures.eu

1. HEALTHY FUTURES overview

HEALTHY FUTURES (Health, Environmental Change and Adaptive Capacity: mapping, examining & anticipating future risks of water-related vector-borne diseases in eastern Africa) is an FP7-funded project that aims to address the risk of outbreaks and transmission of three water-related vector-borne diseases (VBDs) in eastern Africa: malaria, schistosomiasis and Rift Valley fever (RVF).

Motivated by the knowledge that each year an estimated 2.4 million environmental health-related deaths in Africa are avoidable, and that the effects of environmental change will be felt most acutely by the poorest members of society, HEALTHY FUTURES strives to further understand the relationship between climate and health in eastern Africa. An understanding of links between climate, societal changes and health can help in the prediction and costing of the health impacts of climate change, as will increased awareness of the possible health impacts of environmental change.

2. IntroductionAs HEALTHY FUTURES is now in its final year it is important to not only focus on the scientific outputs but to also acknowledge and promote the synergies and collaborations which have developed over the course of the project. A number of collaborations and synergies with climate and health-related projects funded by the EU and other non-EU stakeholders have been established and have grown and strengthened since the initiation of HEALTHY FUTURES. This report will highlight these synergies discussing the benefits that collaboration, cross-fertilization and networking have had within the scope of the project.

3. Africa - EU ClusterThe Africa-EU Partnership is a formal channel through which the European Union and African Union collaborate and work together. The partnership emanated from the second Africa-EU Summit of 2007, during which eighty heads of State or Government from Africa and the EU took the Africa-EU relationship to a new, strategic level by deciding upon and implementing ‘The Africa-EU Strategic Partnership – A Joint Africa-EU Strategy’. The Joint Africa-EU Strategy sets out both sides’ intention to move beyond a donor-recipient relationship towards long-term cooperation on jointly identified, mutual and complementary interests. It is based on principles of ownership, partnership and solidarity. One of the strategic priorities of the joint strategy is focused on the development of knowledge-based societies which aim to address the scientific divide and increase Africa’s research capacities. Furthermore there is a specific strategy to improve health in Africa through promoting research, particularly on issues relating to water-borne disease. The strategy also has a clearly defined priority to effectively respond to climate change, building the capacity for adaptation and mitigation.

One outcome of the aforementioned strategy was the EU-FP7 ‘Africa Call’ through which HEALTHY FUTURES is funded. This call focused on addressing some of the science and technology objectives of the “Africa –EU Strategic Partnership” putting emphasis on both ‘water and food security’ and a ‘better health for Africa’. In 2011, the projects focused on water related issues, which received funding from this call, came together to form the AU-EU cluster. This cluster works to facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge between projects funded through the ‘Africa-call’, stimulating synergies and increasing the impact of each project through coordinated dissemination actions. The cluster

Total Budget €4,194,963 EC Contribution €3,377,998 Duration January 2011 – December 2014 (48 months) Coordinator Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Consortium 16 partners: 8 Africa-based, 7 Europe-based, 1 Asia-based

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The AU-EU cluster is comprised of the following projects:

HEALTHY FUTURES

Health, environmental change and adaptive capacity: mapping, examining and anticipating future risks of water-related vector-borne diseases in eastern Africa

QWeCIQuantifying Weather and Climate Impacts on Health in Developing Countries

WATERBIOTECH Biotechnology for Africa’s sustainable water supply

EAU4Food

European Union and African Union cooperative research to increase food production in irrigated farming systems in Africa

AfriCAN ClimateDevelopment, operation and promotion of a web-based Knowledge Platform

AFROMAISONAfrica at meso-scale: Adaptive and integrated tools and strategies on natural resources management

WAHARA Water Harvesting for Rainfed Africa

DEWFORA Drought monitoring, forecasting and adaptation

is comprised of eight projects which address issues such as water and irrigated farming systems, water harvesting, natural resources management, drought monitoring, forecasting and adaptation, waste water treatment by means of biotechnology and finally, water-related vector-borne diseases.

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A number of AU-EU cluster meetings have been held with representatives attending from each project. Discussions which took place during one such meeting, held in Brussels, December 2012, at which a HEALTHY FUTURES representative was present, focused on potential joint dissemination strategies in order to present a “common front” at a policy and stakeholder levels. A result of this discussion has led to HEALTHY FUTURES being featured, in conjunction with the EU-FP7 funded project QWeCI, in one of a series of short reportages which present climate change and water issues focusing on agriculture, ecosystems, natural hazards, health and technologies. The short video is currently being produced by ‘Africa Turns Green’ and will not be used for television broadcasts but will instead be used by HEALTHY FUTURES as a tool to educated researchers, stakeholders and the general public about the impacts of climate change on health and more specifically to present the research and outputs of the HEALTHY FUTURES project. It will also serve the purpose of increasing the education and awareness of students in both Europe and Africa.

4. QWeCIQWeCI (Quantifying Weather and Climate Impacts on health in developing countries) is the sister project of HEALTHY FUTURES and received funding from the same EU-FP7 programme. The project, which concluded in July 2013, based its research in west and southern Africa (Ghana, Malawi and Senegal) and worked to produce both dynamic and statistical vector-borne disease models, driven by climate variability and climate change trends from climate models and observations, for both malaria and Rift Valley Fever (RVF). Collaboration between these two projects was ideal, as QWeCI, with a focus on seasonal to decadal time scales naturally complimented HEALTHY FUTURES focus on climate change timescales.

Dr. Andy Morse, from the University of Liverpool (UNILIV), was the scientific coordinator of QWeCI and is also a partner within the HEALTHY FUTRES consortium. Two other HEALTHY FUTURES partners, namely the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) were also members of the QWeCI consortium. This link has facilitated close collaboration and a sharing of resources, expertise and experiences between the two projects.

Dr. Andy Morse has praised the collaboration between the two projects stating that “there have been great synergies between QWeCI and HEALTHY FUTURES particularly in relation to a number of malaria and Rift Valley Fever models. The Liverpool Malaria Model (LMM) initially developed under the scope of QWeCI has been further improved by HEALTHY FUTURES and a new malaria model, called VecTri, has also been developed by ICTP. The Rift Valley fever model originally created by UNILIV during the QWeCI project has been further refined and completed within the remit of HEALTHY FUTURES. This has allowed for interests and skills at ILRI to be sustained after the completion of QWeCI by facilitating the visit of a HEALTHY FUTURES PhD student from ILRI, John Gachohi, to Liverpool.

Other crossovers between the two projects include the use of seasonal forecast runs in East Africa within HEALTHY FUTURES as well as the development of climate change timescales for the impacts of future malaria distributions in the region. ICTP have spent much time working with users in the HEALTHY FUTURES study region to build capacity in the use of malaria forecast information, something that was also an important component in QWeCI.”

The successful collaboration between HEALTHY FUTURES and QWeCI has culminated in a number of jointly organised events. The first of these consisted of a session held at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly held in Vienna, Austria, April 2012. The session ‘CL2.5 Climate and infectious disease interactions’ consisted of six oral and twelve poster presentations which focused on a wide range of topics from how climate anomalies and extremes influence the distribution of infectious disease to the use of statistical and dynamical modelling of malaria and RVF. The session was co-convened by partners from both projects including Dr Rachel Lowe (QWeCI), Dr Volker Ermert (QWeCI), Dr Adrian Tompkins (QWeCI/HEALTHY FUTURES), Prof. David Taylor (HEALTHY FUTURES) and Dr. Andy Morse (QWeCI/HEALTHY FUTURES). The session was very well attended with the oral session filled to capacity. With over eleven thousand scientists from 95 countries in attendance at EGU it provided an ideal platform from which to present the research results from both HEALTHY FUTURES and QWeCI to the international scientific community.

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A symposium held at the 4th Annual East Africa Health Scientific Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, was also jointly coordinated by HEALTHY FUTURES and QWeCI. The symposium, entitled ‘Environment and Health in Africa – (Climate and vector-borne diseases)’ aimed to interact with scientists, practitioners and communities with an interest in health and environment in eastern Africa, and share knowledge on ongoing research during the conference. In all, 17 participants were selected from a number of submitted abstracts to present during the symposium. They included scientists from different parts of Africa, Asia and Europe. The focus of their presentations and subsequent discussions were focused on how changing environmental, including climate, and societal conditions can potentially increase the occurrence of epidemics through altering the distribution and epidemic potential of infectious diseases. Moreover, participants heard how an improved knowledge of links between environment, including climate, socio-economic conditions and vector-borne diseases (VBDs) such as malaria, schistosomiasis and Rift Valley fever when combined with modern, sophisticated modelling techniques can be used to quantify the health impacts of environmental changes and in disease forecasting (early warning) systems. This latter point was the focus of a well-received plenary talk, entitled ‘The potential of climate-based early warning systems for improved management of vector borne diseases in Africa’ presented at the symposium by Dr. Magaran Bagayoko of WHO Africa.

The QWeCI project was completed in late 2013 and several members of the HEALTHY FUTURES project attend the final project meeting in Barcelona, May 2013. Dr. Laragh Larsen, the project coordinator for HEALTHY FUTURES attended the meeting and said “the impressive results and achievements of the QWeCI project were succinctly highlighted at the project’s final meeting. The attendance of a HEALTHY FUTURES representative at the meeting underlined the strong collaborative relationship between the two projects. The collaboration has been mutually beneficial and has allowed for the sharing, shaping and application of ideas, data and results”.

5. Stakeholder EngagementOne key objective of HEALTHY FUTURES is to identify and deploy the most appropriate environmental change adaptation strategies and decision support processes in the east African study area. To achieve this HEALTHY FUTURES has, over the course of the project, developed and maintained relationships with a broad range of stakeholders, keeping them informed of developments and outputs from the project through a number of fora including the dissemination of press releases, project newsletters and project updates for stakeholders via a stakeholder database which was developed at the beginning of the project. Throughout the development of the decision support process stakeholder input is integral in so far as they their needs and requirements are adequately incorporated into the ‘final product’. A number of workshops have been held over the course of the project during which stakeholders external to HEALTHY FUTURES have been invited to participate and provide their input into the development of the decision support tools.

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A one day stakeholder meeting on “Malaria and Climate Change” was hosted by Community Health Department (CH) of the Ministry of Health (MoH) Uganda in collaboration with International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). The meeting, which took place in Kampala, Uganda on 25 October 2013, focused on malaria seasonal forecasting and climate change adaptation. A range of stakeholders from the health sector, academia, researchers and those from malaria-related institutions were invited to attend the meeting. One of the objectives of this meeting was to present and discuss the malaria Decision Support Tool (DST). A computer-based interactive modelling tool/programme where data can be entered and outputs generated to support quick decision making for example on epidemic preparedness and response was presented to stakeholders and was received well. Stakeholders such as the Ugandan Malaria Control Programme indicated how the tool would be vital for malaria control and management in Uganda.

A stakeholder engagement workshop was also hosted by ILRI in collaboration with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) on the 24 and 25 February 2014. The workshop actively engaged with a range of stakeholders, including health practitioners, researchers and representatives from a number of government ministries. The development of a decision support tool was discussed in relation to the findings from HEALTHY FUTURES with a range of decision support methodologies tested and evaluated by participants. This workshop highlighted the needs of decision-makers which will are being considered by HEALTHY FUTURES and will be addressed during the development of the final decision support tool.

6. International Conference “Climate Change and Vectors Borne Diseases: Past, Present and Futures”As part of the project’s stakeholder engagement strategy, HEALTHY FUTURES is coordinating an international conference entitled ‘Climate Change and Vector Borne Disease: Past, Present and Futures’. This conference, scheduled to take place in Kigali, Rwanda from the 18th to the 20th of November 2014, aims to link climate change simulations with health (adaptation & policy) experts, specifically on the three target VBDs with a view to translating them to other at risk regions and/or diseases that might benefit from the same generic approach. The conference will focus on a number of sub-themes including climate information for public health decision making, statistical and dynamical disease modelling for future health, climate change related-risk analysis and vulnerability assessment and adaptation to climate change-related health impacts.

The conference aims to attract a diverse audience and will provide a unique platform from which researchers at the cutting edge of climate change and vector-borne disease research and policy makers at the local, regional and international level

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can interact. At the local level, a number of Rwandan ministries are expected to attend including the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Natural Resources and Ministry of Disaster Management. A range of public institutions have also been invited to attend including appropriate representatives from the University of Rwanda, the Rwanda Environmental Management Authority (REMA), the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), and the Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB). International organisations such as USAID, the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) and the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS-NET) have all been invited to intend.

Renowned keynote speakers scheduled to address the audience include Dr. Nakul Chitnis from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TRH), Dr. Madeleine Christine Thomson, Senior Research Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and Dr. Ng Lee Ching, head of the Environmental Health Institute (EHI) of the Singapore Environment Institute. In addition to keynotes speeches the conference will provide multiple fora through which stakeholders can actively engage and participate including panel discussions, oral and poster presentations and an exhibition.

More information on the conference can be found at the following link:http://www.climatechange-vbdconference2014.ur.ac.rw/.

7. ConclusionIt is evident from the above that HEALTHY FUTURES has actively worked to develop and maintain relationships with other related research projects. This is particularly true for QWeCI, whereby collaboration between the two projects has resulted in the sharing of knowledge, data and disease models which has been mutually beneficial to both projects. HEALTHY FUTURES also strives to engage with and inform stakeholders through the targeted dissemination of research and project outputs. The continued engagement with stakeholders throughout the course of HEALTHY FUTURES will ensure the provision of an effective decision support tool that meets the needs of decision-makers and stakeholders and which will ultimately enhance their capacity to respond to changes in the risk of transmission and outbreak of the targeted VBDs.

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 266327. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use which maybe made of the information contained therein.

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