Last week, the IHACC Peru team hosted a two day seminar called Diagnóstico Climático 2015 at the UPCH Miraflores campus. The event sought to create a space for interaction, discussion and learning to describe and assess the relationship between climate change and health. The seminar specifically focused on climate change and climate variability and the health of indigenous and rural communities. The event included a variety of presentations and roundtable discussions with participation by public and private actors from local, regional, national, and international levels. The event was attended by >50 people including high level representatives from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Environment. IHACC team members Dr. Alejandro Llanos-Cuentas, Dr. César Cárcamo, Jahir Anicama Diaz, Dr. James Ford, Dr. Sherilee Harper, and Mya Sherman presented on both days of the event.
IHACC-Peru team presents work to Ministry of Health officials for National Commission on Climate Change
On August 27th-28th, members of the IHACC-Peru team participated in a two day meeting with members of the Peruvian Ministry of Health in the context of the National Commission on Climate Change in Lima, Peru. The Commission was created in 2014 in the wake of COP20 with the objective of working towards the establishment of a national strategy on climate change for the country.
The event was a great opportunity for IHACC researchers to discuss topics related to health and climate change with decision makers at the national level and to make connections with key informants that will help further research in the area. In attendance (both in person and virtual) were Carol Zavaleta (McGill), Jahir Anicama (UPCH), Margot Charette (McGill), Rosa Silvera (UPCH) and Paola Torres-Slimming (UofGuelph/UPCH).
During the first day of the meetings, IHACC researchers presented results from the project from IHACC communities in Ucayali and Loreto. The presentations were well received and the team was invited to a workshop the following day, that focused on identifying key diseases affected by climate change in Peru for monitoring and evaluation in the future.
As Carol Zavaleta states,
"It was my first presentation for Peruvian people about my thesis. I was very glad to hear a notorious concern about the gap of knowledge related with climate change and impacts on health. I received questions about my methods, but mostly about how to link climate change with the food security in a context where multiple factors are concurrent such as the Amazon region. One of the participants have indicated that the ministry of health did not have many investigations about climate change and that this thesis will help them to establish further additional research considering new variables (e.g. seasons) in order to prioritize interventions."
Similarly, Margot Charette noted that this event was a key opportunity for the IHACC group in Peru to show its interest in being involved in the climate change discussion at the national level, and to stay involved in the future. And as Jahir Animaca pointed out in his report, IHACC has been invited to continue to participate in the consultation process for the public health sector of the National Commission on Climate Change in Peru, so keep an eye out for more!
Dr. Shuaib Lwasa to present at McGill University Dept. of Geography GeoSpectives lecture series in September
IHACC-Peru PhD student Paola Torres-Slimming awarded UNESCO/Keizo Obuchi Research Fellowship
The IHACC team would like to congratulate Ms. Paola Alejandra Torres Slimming for being awarded a UNESCO/Keizo Obuchi Research Fellowship (also known as the UNESCO/Japan Young Researchers' fellowship).
The funds will enable Paola to undertake research on Adaptation to climate change: Water security in vulnerable populations for seven months at the University of Guelph in Canada with Dr. Sherilee Harper and the IHACC team, and the Instituto Nacional de Salud de Cuernavaca in Mexico with collaborators there.
From the entire IHACC team, congratulations Paola!
IHACC project leads in Bwindi and Kampala to discuss next steps for IHACC in Uganda
IHACC project leads Dr. James Ford, Dr. Lea Berrang-Ford, and Dr. Sherilee Harper were in Uganda this week with Dr. Shuaib Lwasa and Didacus Namanya for a series of project meetings in Buhoma and Kampala, and partner community visits in and around Bwindi.
The team first met with partners and collaborators in Buhoma last week to discuss and plan for future IHACC project work in Uganda. After successful and productive meetings there and visits to partnering Batwa communities and Bwindi Community Hospital (BCH), the team returned to Kampala for additional meetings before they head back to Canada.
In Kampala, the team was invited to speak on it experience with team building and mentorship through the IHACC project at the departmental meeting of Makerere University's Department of Geography. This was a great opportunity for the team to share experiences from the last 4 years of the project, and create new relationships for future research and collaboration.
A noteworthy output of these meetings is an invitation for Dr. Lwasa to come to Montreal for additional collaborative work at McGill University in the Fall with the Canadian IHACC team from Dr. Ford.
More to come from IHACC-Uganda as the project enters its final year!
