The PHONIC pro­ject was sup­port­ed by the Ger­man Alli­ance for Glo­bal Health Rese­arch (GLOHRA) with fun­ding from the Ger­man Fede­ral Minis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Rese­arch (BMBF). The fun­ding peri­od span­ned from April 2023 to Sep­tem­ber 2024.

The glo­bal impact of the cli­ma­te cri­sis has rea­ched unpre­ce­den­ted levels – espe­ci­al­ly with regard to our health. Vul­nerable popu­la­ti­on groups, such as child­ren, the elder­ly and peo­p­le with pre-exis­ting con­di­ti­ons, are par­ti­cu­lar­ly at risk. Thus, it is cru­cial to acce­le­ra­te actions across all sec­tors focu­sing on social and envi­ron­men­tal deter­mi­nants of health and the under­ly­ing cau­ses of the cli­ma­te cri­sis. Clear and strong poli­ti­cal gover­nan­ce in the area of cli­ma­te chan­ge and (public) health is an essen­ti­al basis for the deve­lo­p­ment of cli­ma­te-resi­li­ent health sys­tems and socie­ties. As the cli­ma­te cri­ses pro­gres­ses, it is important to deve­lop appro­pria­te tools for evi­dence-infor­med decis­i­on-making to help iden­ti­fy strengths and weak­ne­s­ses in the respec­ti­ve sys­tems.

Pro­ject goals

The PHONIC (Public Health Ope­ra­ti­oNs for clI­ma­te aCtion) pro­ject aimed to deve­lop a prac­ti­cal gui­de for iden­ti­fy­ing prio­ri­ty public health ope­ra­ti­ons for cli­ma­te action. The pro­ject spe­ci­fi­cal­ly focu­sed on deve­lo­ping and pilo­ting indi­ca­tors to assess cli­ma­te chan­ge and (public) health gover­nan­ce struc­tures in Ger­ma­ny and Kenya.

Metho­do­lo­gy

To achie­ve its objec­ti­ves, the PHONIC pro­ject fol­lo­wed the­se key metho­do­lo­gi­cal steps in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with the Lud­wig-Maxi­mi­li­ans-Uni­ver­si­ty (LMU), Helm­holtz-Zen­trum Munich and Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Eas­tern Afri­ca Hub (PHEAH):

1. Estab­li­shing an inter­na­tio­nal advi­so­ry board to pro­vi­de regu­lar advice on pro­ject-rela­ted rese­arch acti­vi­ties.
2. Con­duc­ting a sco­ping review to iden­ti­fy exis­ting public health ope­ra­ti­ons addres­sing cli­ma­te chan­ge miti­ga­ti­on and adapt­a­ti­on.
3. Deve­lo­ping a tool with tan­gi­ble indi­ca­tors to assess gover­nan­ce struc­tures in the area of cli­ma­te chan­ge and health on the basis of exis­ting WHO indi­ca­tor set on “Cli­ma­te-trans­for­ma­ti­ve lea­der­ship & gover­nan­ce” (to be found here, p. 21–23).
4. Iden­ti­fy­ing exis­ting inter­na­tio­nal “good” prac­ti­ce examp­les for gover­nan­ce in the area of cli­ma­te chan­ge and health.
5. Pilo­ting the deve­lo­ped tool with tan­gi­ble indi­ca­tors in Ger­ma­ny and Kenya through expert work­shops.

Focus Area

Fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on and mate­ri­als

Pro­ject dura­ti­on

April 2023 — Sep­tem­ber 2024

Cont­act

Pro­ject part­ners

The PHONIC pro­ject is sup­port­ed by the Ger­man Alli­ance for Glo­bal Health Rese­arch (GLOHRA) with funds from the Ger­man Fede­ral Minis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Rese­arch (BMBF). Fun­ding peri­od is from April 2023 until Sep­tem­ber 2024.