Discussions at the World Health Summit in Berlin this week have rightly emphasized the role of health workers, especially those directly serving local communities. Health workers stand at the intersection of climate change and community health. They are first-hand eyewitnesses and the first line of defense against the impacts of climate on health. There is real horror in the climate impacts on health they describe. Read the Health Worker Eyewitness reports “Climate change and health: Health workers on climate, community, and the urgent need for action“ and “On the frontline of climate change and health: A health worker eyewitness report”. There is also real hope in the local solutions and strategies they are already implementing to help communities survive such impacts, most often without support from their government or from the global community. There is no alternative to the health workforce as the ones most likely to drive effective adaptation …
How will we turn a climate change and health resolution at the World Health Assembly into local action?
This video was prepared by the World Health Organization with voices of health workers speaking at the Special Event “From community to planet” hosted by The Geneva Learning Foundation. The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) has developed a new model that could help address the urgent challenge of climate change impacts on health by empowering and connecting health workers who serve communities on the receiving end of those impacts. This model leverages TGLF’s track record of facilitating large-scale peer learning networks to generate locally-grounded evidence, elevate community voices, and drive policy change. A key strength of TGLF’s approach is its ability to rapidly connect diverse networks of health workers across geographic and health system boundaries. For example, in March 2020, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, TGLF worked with a group of 600 of its alumni – primarily government staff working in local communities of Africa, Asia, and …