Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health

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International Development Research Centre
Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health Renaud De
Plaen 21/02/2005
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Ecosystems Approaches to Human Health (Ecohealth)

• Good health and continued human well-being are
  central to sustainable development
• Several underlying causes of poor health lie
  outside the purview of the health care system
• Environmental factors are responsible for over
  21 of the global burden of disease
• Increasing threats posed by new, emerging and
  re-emerging infectious diseases

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Ecosystems Approaches to Human Health (Ecohealth)

• Holistic understanding of health
• Looks at the interactions between the health of
  the ecosystem and that of human populations that
  depend on it for their own livelihood
• Recognizes economic, social, and environmental
  components equally
• Use of multi-stakeholder and participatory
  processes for social learning and negotiated
  solutions
• Special attention to issues of social and gender
  equity

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HYPOTHESISWe can improve human health
efficiently with better management of the
ecosystem.

• GOAL
• To improve human health by supporting
  transdisciplinary research on the structure and
  function of stressed ecosystems on which people
  depend for their lives and livelihoods and by
  applying this knowledge to the development of
  appropriate and effective interventions and
  policies.

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What does health mean?

• A state of complete physical, mental and social
  well-being,and not merely the absence of disease
  of infirmity. (WHO, 1948)
• Consider that health is very much part of human
  well-being and that it cannot be separated from
  human physical environment.
• Concerned with continued human well-being and
  sustainability issues
• Not only concerned by individual health but also
  by health of communities (social context of
  health)

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What is an ecosystem in the context of
Ecosystem approaches to human health ?

• An analytic construct that can be ecologic
• Defined relative to the research problem
• Definition restricted to the important
  processes of the particular case of interest
• Composed of sub systems and their components
  and in turn part of larger systems - nested
  hierarchies
• Scale, extent and hierarchy are defined by the
  user, according to the tasks at hand

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Ecosystem?
Adapted from Mergler, 2001
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Therefore

• Refer not so much to ecosystems or diseases but
  to approaches that address human health from a
  holistic point of view, emphasizing the need to
  understand structure and function of stressed
  ecosystems that people depend on for their lives
  and livelihoods
• According to Ecohealth, society natural
  environment interactions must be explored in the
  context of human well-being
• An equal emphasis must be placed on concerns/
  understanding of web of factors from the
  environment, social, economy and policy

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Iterative research strategy
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Ecohealths objectives 2005/2010

• Support research and interventions in four
  thematic areas
• Enhance policy influence
• Capacity building in Ecohealth approaches

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Research and Interventions

•   Rural areas
• Agricultural transformation
• Transformations of farming systems with a focus
  on improving food safety, nutritional security
  and dietary diversity
• Agriculture area expansion and biodiversity
  decline with a focus on ways to manage impacts on
  medicinal plants, and health security in rural
  areas.
• Agricultural interventions to reduce
  HIV/AIDS-induced vulnerability of communities in
  Sub-Saharan Africa. (exploratory)

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Research and Interventions

• Urban and peri-urban
• Small- and medium-scale industrial enterprises
• with a focus on reduction of pollution loads and
  health risks.
•   Slums
• with a focus on improving the lives of
  slum-dwellers
• Rural and urban
• communicable diseases
• with a focus on prevention of disease

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• Enhancing policy influence
• Broadening policy horizons
• Expanding policy capacity
• Capacity Building
• Methodological trainings
• Southern Institutes
• Young researchers
• COPEH
• Etc.

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Ecohealth project with the CGIAR

• Ratio of ENRM budget to the CGIAR between 10 and
  25 with an average of 15
• In Ecohealth, an average of 2 projects and one
  RSP / year
• Projects (indicative - not exhaustive)
• IWMI Small dams, Urban Agriculture
• CIP Pesticide contamination
• ILRI Livestock, sleeping sickness
• ICRAF Shifting cultivation
• CIAT Amazon
• Regional Initiatives
• IWMI Malaria and agriculture (SIMA)
• IFPRI HIV/AIDS and agriculture (RENEWAL)

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Conclusion

• Challenges associated with existing System-Wide
  initiatives and Challenge programs
• Problem of ensuring the sustainability and use of
  existing structures
• Need to consider thinking through the content and
  functioning of the initiative before attempting
  to give it a structure.