Outreach from the IAI Collaborative Research Network on Climate Variability and Human Health Impacts in the Tropical Americas

Abstract

The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) conducted a 2-week training institute on Climate and Health in the Americas on November 7–18, 2005 at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica (see http://www.institutes.iai.int). This activity was jointly coordinated as an outreach project of the Collaborative Research Network supported by the IAI to address Climate Variability and Human Health Impacts in the Tropical Americas with a focus on malaria and dengue (see http://chiex.net). The central objective of the Training Institute was to help strengthen local and regional capacity to address the impacts of climate variability and climate change on human health in the populations of the Americas, particularly Latin America and the Caribbean. The Training Institute had three core components. (1) The Science component provided an overview of climate and health impacts in the Americas. (2) The Applications component provided a perspective based on operational experience in disaster response and communication with decision-makers. (3) The Proposal Development component provided guidance on interdisciplinary proposal development as well as time for self-organized participant teams to develop and receive feedback on pre-proposals (in English or Spanish) for Training Institute Seed Grants to support follow-on projects. One set of English-Spanish simultaneous translators was available for the entire Training Institute. The approach was fundamentally cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary in that the health sector must engage professionals in climate, weather, ecosystems, water resources, agriculture, and various social sciences as well as communicate across its own specialties. The approach took into account recent advances in understanding knowledge-action systems, which are the institutional structures needed to create effective systems for the transfer of knowledge to action that are applicable to climate-related issues. Participants had opportunities for more active learning in two field trips and one laboratory experience: inspecting breeding sites for the mosquito that transmits dengue; observing landforms prone to landslides; manipulating images and data used in geographic information systems and remote sensing. Recommendations for future Training Institutes included incorporating new technologies and communicating with policy-makers to develop more proactive societal strategies to manage risks.