Abstract
Setting
Climate change is one of the greatest threats to global health in the twenty-first century and has recently been declared a health emergency. The lack of effective dissemination of emerging evidence on climate change health risks, effects, and innovative interventions to health professionals presents one of the greatest challenges to climate action today.
Intervention
To identify and address the knowledge gaps at the intersection of health and climate change, the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR) established a Working Group on Climate Change and Health (WGCCH). WGCCH is evolving organically into a community of practice (CoP) that aims to elevate knowledge brokering on climate change and health and expand to global multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary realms.
Outcomes
To date, the WGCCH established a regular webinar series to share expert knowledge from around the world on intersections between climate change and health, developed short summaries on climate change impacts on broad health challenges, supported young professional training, and enhanced climate health research capacity and skills through collegial network development and other collaborative projects that emerged from CoP activities.
Implications
This paper proposes that WGCCH may serve as an example of an effective strategy to address the lack of opportunities for collaborative engagement and mutual learning between health researchers and practitioners, other disciplines, and the general public. Our experiences and lessons learned provide opportunities to learn from the growing pains and successes of an emerging climate change and health-focused CoP.
Résumé
Lieu
Le changement climatique est l’une des plus grandes menaces pour la santé mondiale au 21e siècle et a récemment été déclaré une urgence sanitaire. Le manque de diffusion efficace des données obtenues concernant les risques pour la santé liés au changement climatique, les impacts et les interventions innovantes auprès des professionnels de la santé constitue aujourd’hui l’un des plus grands défis de l’action climatique.
Intervention
Pour identifier et combler les lacunes de connaissances communes à la santé et aux changements climatiques, la Coalition canadienne pour la recherche en santé mondiale (CCRSM) a créé un groupe de travail sur les changements climatiques et la santé (WGCCH). WGCCH évolue organiquement vers une communauté de pratiques (CoP) qui vise à élever le niveau de développement de connaissances liant les changements climatiques à la santé et à s’étendre aux domaines mondiaux multi, inter et transdisciplinaires.
Résultats
À ce jour, le WGCCH a lancé une série de webinaires réguliers pour diffuser les connaissances d’experts du monde entier sur les liens entre les changements climatiques et la santé, a élaboré de courts exposés sur les impacts des changements climatiques sur les grands défis de santé, a soutenu la formation de jeunes professionnels et a amélioré la capacité et les compétences en matière de recherche en santé climatique à travers le développement d’un réseau universitaire et d’autres projets de collaboration dont ont émergé des activités de la CoP.
Implications
Cet article propose que le WGCCH puisse servir d’exemple d’une stratégie efficace pour remédier au manque d’opportunités d’engagement collaboratif et d’apprentissage mutuel entre les chercheurs et les praticiens de la santé, d’autres disciplines et le grand public. Nos expériences et leçons apprises offrent des occasions de tirer des leçons des peines et des succès croissants d’une CoP axée sur le changement climatique et la santé.
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research members for their input, in particular Vic Neufeld and Alexandra Otis for their invaluable contributions and support.
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El Amiri, N., Abernethy, P., Spence, N. et al. Community of practice: an effective mechanism to strengthen capacity in climate change and health. Can J Public Health 111, 862–868 (2020). https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00400-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00400-8
Keywords
- Global health
- Climate change
- Community of practice
- Equity
- Co-learning
- Knowledge exchange (or knowledge translation)