Workshops & Colloquia

COLLOQUIUM 1: ECOHEALTH FIELD BUILDING AT THE NEXUS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, URBAN SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE OF CITIES IN AFRICA

Sponsor: Academy of Medical Sciences GCRF Networking Grants, UK

Conveners

• Benjamin Delali K. Dovie: Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
• Dr Kwasi Awuah Baffour: School of Built Environment, University of Salford, Manchester, UK

Partner Institutions

• University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
• University of Salford, UK
• University of Makerere, Uganda
• University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• University of Yaoundé, Cameroon

Description

More than half the world’s population already lives in towns and cities, anticipated to increase to an estimated five billion by 2030, most of which will occur in the developing world and Africa in particular, yet with limited capacity to build resilience. Weak spatial planning, rising urban poverty and increasing climate change related risks in cities are already having widespread impacts on the health of society and ecosystems and diminishing crucial roles of urban areas for achieving sustainability. As centres of high population density and economic activity, urban landscapes experience additional burdens from health influences of global environmental changes, for example, disease or death from extreme weather events. Pollution and chemical exposure-related diseases including airway illnesses, heart disease, malnutrition, changes in vector-borne disease risks, water-borne and sanitation-related diseases are rising, resulting in unsustainable and less resilient societies.

Goal 

This Network seeks to bring together persons of diverse backgrounds already doing research on the intersection of health, environment and development to bring new understanding to ecohealth, climate change and urban sustainability for finding solutions to emerging challenges and problems.