Global Health Promotion

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Developing competencies and professional standards for health promotion capacity building in Europe

Global Working Group on Climate Change and Health (GWG on CCH)

Background

The workshop on "Leaving Coal in the Ground - Building a Sustainable Economy and Ending a Global Health Crisis by 2030" that took place on the occasion of the 20th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion - Health, Equity and Sustainable Development that took place in Geneva, Switzerland in July 2010 triggered interest from IUHPE members and other non-member professionals to create a Global Working Group on Climate Change and Health.

A resolution to establish such a Global Working Group was put forward to IUHPE for endorsement by the general assembly. Due to the fact that a quorum of members voting was not reached, none of the resolutions were passed as per the IUHPE Constitution.

Since then a group of interested people have met electronically to identify a key role, objectives and mandate for such a Global Working Group could assume and have put together the present proposal for approval at the IUHPE Executive Committee meeting in Rennes, France on December 5th - 7th 2011. The below proposal therefore builds on the initial interest, a resolution, interests of the various stakeholders involved and needs within the current global context.

Smaller in size and not limited to IUHPE members, this GWG has a clear mandate and proposes the below time-limited task-oriented Terms of Reference that relate to the priority area of action for IUHPE around Health Promotion in Sustainable Development. The GWG will receive secretariat support from the IUHPE headquarters, if no other such support can be secured elsewhere. This GWG will be accountable to the Executive Committee and report their work via Global Health Promotion as well as through the 21st IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion. This GWG will also connect with other IUHPE GWGs and particularly with the current efforts on sustainable food systems to avoid duplicating and strengthen efforts.

Terms of Reference

Vision

A world with sustainable population health where climate change will be met by climate justice.

Mission

The GWG on Climate Change and Health will assist achieving sustainable population health around the world by advising decision-makers in all sectors and at all levels about health consequences from different actions/inactions for addressing climate change. The GWG on CCH will not make decisions for policies and other interventions to address climate change, but will play an advisory and advocacy role to influence decision-makers to make the right choices for achieving sustainable population health around the world, whilst bringing a specific health promotion perspective for addressing climate change in an equitable manner with attention to vulnerable populations. In this role, all actions of the GWG on CCH related to both mitigation and adaptation will be based on the principles of climate justice and will contribute for achieving people's resilience to climate change.

Co-chairs

Anglophone co-chair
Jordan Panayotov, MEc, MPH (Health Economics)
Director
Independent Centre for Analysis & Research of Economies
Melbourne, Australia
www.icare.biz
jp@icare.biz

Francophone co-chair
Véronique Lapaige
Médecin spécialiste en santé communautaire, chercheur et professeure agrégée de clinique au Département de Psychiatrie de l'Université de Montréal, ainsi que Professeure associée à la faculté des Sciences infirmières de L'université Laval (Québec, Canada)
Université de Montréal
C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-ville
Montréal (Québec) CANADA
H3C 3J7
veronique.lapaige@fsi.ulaval.ca

Membership

Claire Blanchard - IUHPE Programme Officer
Nita Chaudhuri Adjunct professor American University of Paris Environment, Health and Sustainable Development specialist
Katrin Engelhardt - Co-Director, Public Health Promotion
Wilfred Kreisel - Free lance consultant specializing on policies on the health and security benefits of a low carbon economy
Véronique Lapaige - Chaire INSPQ en Écoapprentissages, santé mentale et climat, Université of Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Vivian Lin - IUHPE Vice President for Scientific Affairs
Jordan Panayotov - Director, Independent Centre for Analysis & Research of Economies
Rebecca Patrick - Associate Lecturer, School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Australia
Blake Poland - Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
Nathan Sandwick - Fellow, Global Urban Development
Marc Weiss - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Global Urban Development
Kremlin Wickramasinghe - Researcher, BHF Health Promotion Research Group, Department of Public Health, University of Oxford

GWG ON CCH Members' roles and responsibilties

Actively contribute for achieving GWG on CCH Objectives and Work Plan;
Participate in GWG on CCH meetings, discussions and other communications;
Collaborate with other GWGs' members and/or other organizations in order to facilitate achieving GWG on CCH Objectives and Work Plan;
Support as appropriate other GWG on CCH members and/or Chair(s);
Contribute as appropriate for identifying and gaining external resources (grants, tenders, etc.) for achieving GWG on CCH Objectives;
Report as required to the GWG on CCH Chair(s).

GWG ON CCH Chair(s)'s reoles and responsibilities

Apart from all members' roles and responsibilities the Chair(s) will

Represent GWG on CCH at different meetings, conferences, discussions, workshops, forums and other public events;
Monitor and coordinate activities of other members in line with GWG on CCH Objectives and Work Plan;
Assist other members for achieving GWG on CCH Objectives and Work Plan;
Participate in GSC meetings, discussions and other communications;
Contribute to the preparation of the scientific programme of the 21st IUHPE World Conference;
Liaise and collaborate with other GWGs Chairs for the preparation of the scientific programme of the 21st IUHPE World Conference and in order to develop capacities for successful actions in all IUHPE Priority Action Areas.
Participate in dialogues between other GWGs, decision-makers, businesses, NGOs, researchers, educators, practitioners and local communities in line with GWG on CCH Objectives;
Report as required to the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees of IUHPE and to the Vice President for Scientific Affairs.

IUHPE Headquarters support

It is important to note that, should the GWG be able to secure alternative support, the IUHPE headquarters involvement will be modified accordingly. The present proposal assumes that the IUHPE headquarters involvement would comprise:

Coordinating periodic phone meetings and document sharing, when necessary;
Ensuring that the GWGs' needs are taken into account in the reform of internal and external communications tools (website, document sharing systems, etc.);
Keeping GWG Chairs informed on the organization's main governing meetings and relevant developments;
Facilitating the communication between GWG Chairs and the focal points who have been nominated for each priority area of action of the IUHPE.

Objectives

The GWG on CCH will act in all IUHPE Priority Action Areas with objective to:

Provide leadership in all IUHPE Priority Action Areas when addressing climate change based on climate justice in order to achieve sustainable and equitable population health around the world;
Raise awareness about the differential impacts within populations from different actions/inactions for addressing climate change, and what health promotion could/should do for achieving sustainable and equitable population health around the world;
Analyse the differential impacts from different policy options to address climate change, transition of economies to green energy, global financial crisis, sustainable development and other issues in order to make recommendations to prevent creating and/or widening of health inequalities.
Collaborate with other GWGs in order to develop capacities for successful actions in all IUHPE Priority Action Areas as a premise for achieving sustainable population health around the world;
Coordinate with IUHPE sustainable food systems efforts to streamline action towards achieving the organisation's strategic goals;
Contribute to the preparation of the 21st IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion planned to take place in Pattaya, Thailand in August 2013;
Advocate for implementing evidence-based actions from decision-makers in all sectors and at all levels reflecting IUHPE Priority Action Areas;
Develop theoretical frameworks to facilitate successful actions in all IUHPE Priority Action Areas;
Enable dialogues between decision-makers, businesses, NGOs, researchers, educators, practitioners and local communities to elicit their values, understanding, needs and wishes with regard to addressing climate change in order to implement appropriate and accepted actions for achieving sustainable population health.

The GWG will work towards a clearly defined system to measure the progress of achieving these objectives and corresponding activities.