Building Capacity to Produce and Use Climate and Environmental Information for Improving Health in East Africa - ID:114
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Project Description Building capacity in the climate and health community-both individuals and institutions-to produce and use climate knowledge and information in routine health decision-making with a country focus on Ethiopia and experiences shared in the broader East Africa region.
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Goals and Objectives To enable the effective management of climate-related risks and opportunities in public health, through the creation and dissemination of climate knowledge, tools and information serving multiple time scales.
To build capacity in regional and national institutions to routinely provide quality assured and user-relevant products through web interfaces and Google Earth.
To build capacity in the public health communities to use and request climate informaiton for effectively reducing climate-related risks.
To improve early warning systems for planning and preparedness towards the effective prevention and control of climate-sensitive epidemics.
To create an evidence base at the national level that can be demonstrated to the broader East Africa region.
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Outputs Outcome 1:
- Training at University of Reading of NMA staff in creation of satellite-station climatology for Ethiopia to produce 30 year time series of temperature and rainfall.
- Data acquisition/NMA web development and training.
- Assessment of the temperature monitoring capabilities of MODIS for Ethiopia.
- Training of Ethiopian meteorologist at IRI in satellite temperature blending techniques and use of MODIS for estimation of night-time temperatures.
NMA staff trained and competent in development and maintenance of high resolution climatologies for Ethiopian rainfall and temperature and in routine operational production of blended satellite-ground station monitoring products. These are of direct use to health services in Ethiopia in dynamic mapping and monitoring of climate sensitive diseases.
- Verification training in Ethiopia.
- Development of satellite-station climatology for Ethiopia (browser based/online maps of high-resolution rainfall climatology).
NMA staff trained and competent in development of verifiable seasonal climate forecasts for Ethiopia (rainfall and temperature) and in routine operational production of blended satellite-ground station monitoring products. These are of direct use to health services in Ethiopia in dynamic mapping and monitoring of climate sensitive diseases.
Outcome 2:
- Training of partner personnel in use of climate information for public health at the Summer Institute.
- CHWG workshop- Ethiopia (around September/October 2009).
- CHWG workshop/MALOF - Kenya (around November 2009).
- Implementation of Climate and Health training.
- Support of Masters in Public Health student summer projects (health data collection and analysis).
- Survey of participants in Ethiopian CHWG meetings plus institutions and partners.
Reinforcement of awareness raising and practical demonstration of the value of using climate/environmental information to understand climate-health linkages and guide improved and more timely control of climate sensitive disease in Ethiopia (and elsewhere). From experience to date, more than 50 participants will be involved in each of the workshops.
- National Ethiopian CHWG workshop- Elicitation of user demand (around March 2010).
- National Ethiopian CHWG workshop- Demonstration/service delivery of Health Map Room products (around October/November 2010).
Reinforcement of awareness raising and practical demonstration of the value of using climate/environmental information to understand climate-health linkages and guide improved and more timely control of climate sensitive disease in Ethiopia (and elsewhere). Information needs elaborated-development and demonstration of service in response to expressed needs. From experience to date, more than 50 participants will be involved in each of the workshops.
- Regional workshop involving CHWGs with report on project results, products and experiences (around May/June 2011) and dissemination of the Ethiopian experience to the IGAD regional level.
The resulting tools and deliverables and demonstration of their uptake and use in Ethiopia will be highlighted in a regional workshop aimed at launching demand for greater up-take within the IGAD region of East Africa (and elsewhere).
Outcome 3:
- OpenHealth-IRI-Google interaction/integration.
Greater understanding of the roles and responsibilities of interested partners (WHO-OpenHealth, IRI Data Library, Google engineers) and roadmap for integrated developments in browser/online climate/environmental informed disease mapping, monitoring and surveillance tools.
- Prototype range of testable tools and products created for malaria mapping, seasonality, and inter-annual variability analysis.
- Prototype range of testable tools and products created for other disease(s), e.g. meningococcal meningitis.
- Prototypes presented via Google Earth and tested on G1 Android phone.
- Field testing of IRI-DL-MR developments in region.
- Ethiopian Web/Software engineer hired as consultant to work on Ethiopia Health Map Room.
Demonstration of tools and products in response to expressed demand for information products to help improve focused and timely response to disease control in Ethiopia. The products will include joint outputs from the collaborative efforts of WHO-OpenHealth/IRI/Google and be deliverable within a specific problem context browser/online facility of direct relevance to disease control needs in Ethiopia.
Outcome 4:
- Advisory and implementation visits to the region (both Ethiopia and Kenya) and partners (e.g. University of Reading, Google and OpenHealth).
- Second and third reports on project progress.
Dialogue with partners and beneficiaries. Project activity supervision, monitoring, evaluation and reporting. Project administration.
- Advisory and implementation visits to the region (both Ethiopia and Kenya) and partners (e.g. University of Reading, Google and OpenHealth).
- Fourth and fifth reports on project progress.
Dialogue with partners and beneficiaries. Project activity supervision, monitoring, evaluation and reporting. Project administration.
- Advisory and implementation visits to the region (both Ethiopia and Kenya) and partners (e.g. University of Reading, Google and OpenHealth).
- Report coordinated by Ethiopian CHWG.
- Sixth and final consolidated report on project activities and findings.
Finalizing dialogue with partners and beneficiaries. Project activity supervision, monitoring, evaluation and reporting. Elaboration of lessons learned and potential next steps beyond the project cycle. Project completion.
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Available Outputs Climate Health Challenge Dialogue Workshop
9-11 September 2008, Nairobi, Kenya
IRI participants: S. Connor, S. Mason and B. Platzer
Objective of the Google and International Livestock Research Institute-sponsored meeting was to engage a diverse group of stakeholders across Africa and beyond, and through collaborative actions, to strengthen the capacity to predict, prevent and mitigate the impacts of climate-sensitive infectious diseases.
Learning through Doing Project: Public Weather Services and Health Sector
14-16 October 2008, Antananarivo, Madagascar
IRI participant: P Ceccato
The overall objective of the workshop was to enhance the capability of Madagascar's National Meteorological Society (NMS) to respond to the needs of the health sector. The workshop brought together participants from the NMS and health sector from all parts of the country, as well as experts from the World Health Organization and the NMSs of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The main outcome was the establishment of a national Working Group on Weather, Climate and Health.
Science and Technical Meeting between Climate and Health Working Group, National Meteorological Society and Ministry of Health of Ethiopia
3-5 September 2008, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
IRI participants: S. Connor, T. Dinku, J. Omumbo and B. Platzer
Goals of the meeting included:
- to assess the availability of information, in the form of research papers, that deal with climate and health issues in the country;
- to assess the use of climate information by health professionals;
- to identify the gaps in using climate information for health.
Climate and Health Working Group (CHWG) Ethiopia flyer
Link to portal page and related resources on the 1st Summer Institute 2008 on Climate Information for Public Health
Proceedings of the Science and Technical Workshop on Climate and Health
3 - 5 September, 2008, Ghion Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Report for the Inaugural Meeting of CHWG Kenya
4-6 December, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya
IRI participants: S. Connor, J. Omumbo and B. Platzer
The meeting was co-sponsored by INRI, ICPAC and Google.org. At the meeting, the CHWG established its terms of reference, membership and work plan.
See related reports for the International MERIT workshop coordinated by CHWG
1-5 December 2009, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
IRI participants: M. Madajewicz, M. Thomson and S. Trzaska
The meetings focused on the state of knowledge on meningitis in the region and its environmental linkages, gaps to be filled, and research activities and plans to develop climate-meningitis risk assessment models and decision support tools for meningitis control in the African Meningitis Belt in support of current reactive and future proactive vaccine strategies.
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