News
Publication in "The Lancet - Planetary Health"
Dr. Eva-Maria Schwienhorst-Stich is one of the principal authors of an article titled "The Planetary Health Academy - a virtual lecture series for transformative education in Germany" which was published in "The Lancet - Planetary Health" beginning of January 2023.
The article in the special journal of the renowned medical journal "The Lancet" addresses the need to raise awareness among health professionals of the interlinkages between health and environmental changes and to impart knowledge about how to reduce ecological harm (ie, ecological footprint) and promote positive change (ie, ecological handprint)
However, health professions' education and training are mostly lacking these aspects. In the article, the authors report findings from the evaluation of the Planetary Health Academy, the first open online lecture series for transformative planetary health education in Germany.
In a retrospective online survey, 458 of 3656 Planetary Health Academy participants reported on their emotions toward climate change, attitudes towards health professionals' responsibilities, self-efficacy, and the contribuation of the Planetary Health Academy to their knowledge and actions. Additionally, motivators and barriers to actiing were assessed.
The evaluation findings provide insights that can inform future efforts for transformative education. Combined with network and movement building, education could act as a social tipping element toward actions to mitigate global environmental changes.
The Summer School is part of our DAAD funded project 'SOPHEA- Strengthening One Health and Planetary Health in Eastern Africa', a trilateral project between the universities of Würzburg in Germany, Eldoret in Kenia and Mwanza in Tanzania and will be held in corporation with the German Alliance for Climate Change and Health (KLUG e.V.).
The first Summer School Planetary Health took place October 7-16th with 30+ participants from 11 countries in Europe and Africa. We addressed a diverse range of topics from a Planetary Health lense, such as nutrition, biodiversity, agriculture, ethics & equity, mobility, heat & urban planning and many more. The summer school benefitted from many international speakers with excellent expertise, but also from the participants with diverse backgrounds and their project ideas they started preparing before the summer school and further developed jointly with the other participants in interdisciplinyre teams. We used have a mix of activities inside and outside the classroom for participants to take home not only knowledge, but motivation and ideas how they can get active in climate change mitigation and adaptation and strengthen planetary health where they live and work.
Planetary Health Short Course by the University of Eldoret, Kenia (June 21-24, 2022)
Our SOPHEA project coordinator Ms Melvine Anyango Otieno from the University of Eldoret, Kenya, organized an online short course on Planetary Health from June 21-24 2022.
The course is part of our DAAD funded project “SOPHEA- Strengthening One Health and Planetary Health in Eastern Africa”, a trilateral project between the universities of Würzburg in Germany, Eldoret in Kenia and Mwanza in Tanzania.
During five sessions, post-graduate students and researchers benefitted from international speakers with high expertise but also actively participated while brainstorming and presenting their own ideas on Planetary Health, One Health and Climate Change.
The students aquired the following competencies by participating in the course: Have a critical awareness of planetary health, one health and climate change, including trends of climate-sensitive infectious diseases, population health, air pollution, nutrition and other topics as well as climate change and planetary health opportunities and challenges in Kenya.
Concept note and agenda
