Issue 8 - Reflections
Updated: Jul 21
December 2022
Introduction
Welcome back to Quarterly. In these final weeks of 2022, join us for this summative Quarterly as we reflect on our year. From climate change, research, intervention design in global health, and education, we have proudly advanced a collection of work that the health community can equip in their journey towards an equitable, just future. Celebrate these accomplishments by checking out our reflections here.
Looking Back at Race & Health, 2022
The Lancet Series Launch Events
Our most recent and last events of 2022 were our Series launch events held in both London and São Paulo. These events welcomed our work in The Lancet's special issue: Advancing racial and ethnic equity in science, medicine, and global health. The event featured Race & Health founders Delan Devakumar and Sujitha Selvarajah, Series authors, and external speakers from the Wellcome Trust, University of São Paulo, The Lancet, and more. Speakers explored the impacts of racism, xenophobia and discrimination on health, introduced a new conceptual model, and discussed solutions relevant across public health. Check out the full event recording on our YouTube channel.
COP27
In November, Race & Health and friends went to Sharm El Sheikh to present on our work with the Envisioning Environmental Equity (EEE) Collaborative. We discussed the importance of justice in creating climate-resilient health systems and how to achieve them at our UNFCCC side event alongside AMREF Health and Centre for 21st Century Issues. We also represented in the Youth Pavilion, where we gathered young film makers from the health community in India, the Philippines and Uganda to discuss how film serves as an important medium to convey climate and health justice narratives.
The Race & Health Podcast
This year, we released Series 2 of the Race & Health Podcast containing seven new episodes. Latest episodes include Mental Health and Solastalgia with Land Body Ecologies and a Series Launch bonus episode featuring Sujitha from Race & Health, Tendayi Achiume, former rapporteur on racism at the UN, and Gideon Lasco, a physician and anthropologist from the University of the Philippines.
Founder Delan Devakumar continued his Global Health Lives series, recently featuring Dr Renzo Guinto and Mr Ananda Galapatti. These episodes trace issues related to colonialism, conflict, migration, xenophobia, and health.
Pop Culture: Comics and Documentaries about Climate change, racism and health in Brazil, the Philippines and Uganda
By Joohee
11th Hour Docuseries
Watch the docuseries here.
The “11th Hour” is a short film docuseries produced under the Envisioning Environmental Equity (EEE) project. It was developed by EEE collaborators: young climate and health activists in Brazil, the Philippines, and Uganda. Each episode reveals how climate change transforms livelihoods, and communities’ experiences adapting to its impacts by grounding you to the lived experiences of those most affected by the climate crisis. It brings the voices of farmers, fishers, activists, and townsfolk from MAPA communities to the climate crisis discourse and achieve countering the impact of the climate crisis through visual presentation of the impacts beyond statistics and figures. Furthermore, each story highlights the challenges facing the local government to respond and communities pursuing initiatives to strengthen community resilience and adaptation to climate crisis impacts.
The series also exposes the shortcomings of governments and international communities in responding to people’s needs adequately. Each episode highlights voices from the frontlines and raises alarms through real stories of loss through socio-political exclusion and extraordinary gains rooted in community action.Overall, the “11th Hour” docuseries is a collection of stories crafted from the MAPA to pose an important question about who is most impacted by the climate crisis and who should be a priority to receive international attention and support.
This series attempts to illuminate a key aspect of tackling the climate crisis: Community action is the heart of climate action. Health and environmental impacts from climate crises exacerbate already overburdened local governments, amplifying policy and service gaps needed to respond adequately and sustainably to climate-related health outcomes. High temperature, long periods of drought, flood, and extractivist activities are few of many environmental realities that destabilise people's lives. Where the local government left a gap in providing a stabilising action, each community highlighted in the series celebrates the passionate individuals and organisations dedicated to sustainable climate action.
11th Hour Comic Series
Read the comics here.
The 11th Hour docuseries is accompanied by a short comic series. Similar to the docuseries, these comics reflect individual stories across Brazil, the Philippines and Uganda to capture the challenges and barriers faced by those vulnerable to climate change’s impacts. Each comic is unique in artistic and narrative style, brought to life by a wide host of artists from around the world. These comics were made as a part of the Envisioning Environmental Equity Project (EEE), you can read them here.
Each comic was developed by a local team. Artists joined community-based workshops hosted by our EEE collaborators. These interactive workshops discussed the impact that climate change had on health, including key priority areas, needs, and solutions of each community. Artists then developed storylines that reflect these themes in a fictional setting to illustrate the issue through a new lens: comics.
Due to the diversity in communities, regions, artists, and stories, each comic is unique. However, themes of colonialism, racism and xenophobia run through each. Concepts of power, politics, and social equity run clear yet are hosted such that those newly engaged in the climate and health space can capture common issues encountered by themes communities, be it if they are from the country these comics are based from, or not.
If you are a climate and/or health educator, artist, doctor, or activist aiming to raise awareness about the role that colonialism, racism, and xenophobia have in climate-related health inequities, the 11th Hour comic and docuseries is for you. We hope that you can use this series to support your work. If you have questions about this series, reach out to contact@raceandhealth.org.
Person Spotlight: Reflecting on EEE with Heizal Nagginda at Climate Operation
Ms Heizal Nagginda, Founder and Team Leader at Climate Operation
By Mita
In this Person Spotlight, we’re sitting with Heizal Patricia Nagginda. Heizal is a lawyer, climate educator and environmentalist from Uganda. She is the founder of Climate Operation, a youth led organisation whose mission is to make climate education more relatable, less scientific and fun for young people. Heizal is passionate about creating more inclusive and collaborative spaces where young people regardless of their position in the climate space can have free discussions and collaborate together on relevant climate innovations for their future.
Heizal leads activities in Uganda for the EEE project: The project aims to raise awareness about anti-racism and anti-coloniality in climate and health action to highlight the ‘most affected people and areas’ (MAPA). To help redress this, EEE came together to raise the voices and power of MAPA young people in Brazil, the Philippines and Uganda.create climate and health work that centres racial justice, which means our efforts to reduce the negative impacts of climate change must be free from discrimination and anti-oppressive. We are making films, educational materials, comics, podcasts, and developing research on climate and health justice. EEE is a collaborative effort. Amongst R&H, collaborators include Climate Operation, the University of São Paulo, and Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP).
Check out EEE media here:
Mita: Hi Heizal, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. I’d like to start us off by discussing what your experience is working on the Envisioning Environmental Equity project. What's it been like since the official launch of the project about a year ago?
Heizal: Well, for me, it was such a learning curve because I think, before EEE, we had this…can I say assumption? An assumption of how to solve the climate crisis through education. We had never really thought about using artistic outputs such as films, such as comics, because our target audience with Climate Operation is young people, but we had actually never thought about engaging them in this way.
So I think for me, that experience of engaging them in these kinds of things was really cool. It was a learning curve for me as well. Then also, the fact that with the workshops we actually went into communities that have been hit by the climate crisis and got to really know what's happening, what their needs are through the workshops.
One thing is that people did not have access to policymakers, so giving them that access to the policymakers and hearing back from what they got from it was really fulfilling. So I would say it was really fun--very much a learning curve, but a good learning curve. I think going forward that's something we're going to continue doing.
Mita: So you're going to continue with the heavy community arts based approach?
Heizal: Yeah. For me personally, I had just never thought about storytelling as being something that can have an impact. Now that we know that storytelling does have an impact, if done well, and can give communities the agency to tell their stories. We are going to be leveraging this because it does have an impact. But then also it kind of changes the way in which people view the Global South because most of the stories that we come know are usually told by Global North people.
With EEE, what we have done is make it so that it's the people from the (MAPA) communities that are telling the stories. So it's also changing the narrative whereby we're not just talking about environmental degradation, but at least now we're also talking about the resilience of the communities of the activists, which is really important.
Mita: That's really exciting to hear. I know that climate operation is a relatively young organization about 2 to 3 years old. Right?
Heizal: We formed Climate Operation in December, 2020, so to see the growth that we have had in 2 years is so cool. It always blows my mind.
Mita: Absolutely. I think Race & Health stands with you on that, we also were established in 2020 during the initial lockdowns and it's difficult to envision all of these other issues outside of the pandemic at the time, but being able to ground yourself in that action must have been really fueling.
Heizal: It actually was. I mean, as you said, the pandemic was just… I actually don't even know what the word is for the pandemic... But it was very overwhelming. I was just fresh out of law school and was like, “You know what, we need to do something.” So now we are seeing that what we wanted to do, we are now actually doing it, which is really really nice.
Mita: On the theme of school, you are currently doing a programme related to tech?
Heizal: Yes, I'm doing a program in software engineering.
Mita: That's a lot of different interests: law, education, software engineering. As the founder and team leader of Climate Operation, how do you foresee the next year? Not just with the development of the EEE project, but the work that you are doing, and incorporating all these interests?
Heizal: Yeah, so we are going to continue with the workshops because of the impact that they had. Though we are going to focus on rural Uganda because that is where the people who are being hit by the climate crisis are. Something that we want to do is leverage the (EEE) education module, because it it has a lot of amazing information in there as well, especially linking climate change, climate justice, and health, so kind of using it with these communities and just giving agency to not only them, but also the health professionals there as well as always creating those connections with policymakers. So basically using the education module to give the communities and health workers the information to help them deal with the negative health mental impacts that come with climate change.
Mita: That's really exciting to hear. I know that there are a lot of new elements that you said that you're adding to the organisational activities next year, such as art, for example. But I also know Climate Operation didn't originally focus on health. So yeah, it's cool to hear that the education module will be mobilising that part of the discussion, and including health professionals.
Heizal: Well, as you said, yes, originally we did not actually focus on health. As I was saying, EEE has been such a learning curve for us, which is really nice. Mental health, specifically, and physical health is a huge focus. But physical health is mostly here in the urban centers because that is where most of that industrialisation is. Most of the people there have actually been displaced by the climate crisis, so they are very, very traumatised by it.
So I think going forward for us is really tackling mental health because it's such a big thing. We have created a module that can guide health professionals to help communities handle this. Why not use this going forward with the workshops? Put this in as well, because it will be more fulfilling as well for the communities and the health professionals, so it also gives us an opportunity to test out the education module. For me going forward, or maybe can I say ideal visions for EEE would be one for the education module to be used, not just by institutions or educators, but by community educators as well.
Something that we would really want to see is how the module will be used. Do they think something needs to be changed, for example? Just basically giving them the agency to address the climate crisis and adapt to the impacts.
Mita: Giving them space right and giving them kind of the head space and the tools to support their thinking about the issue, got it. This year you went to COP27 in Egypt with the EEE team. This was your first COP, correct? You've had head on experience with how the climate crisis has impacted. What did you learn at COP and how will you incorporate this into the year ahead?
Heizal: As you said, this was our first COP. So it was a very, very interesting thing to see for one how the negotiations happen, and how people interact with each other. Something that we took away from this is that we need to collaborate more, and not that collaborating with people internationally, but with people in Uganda, because there were so many Ugandans in attendance at COP27. But I really did not know most of them, so for us something going forward will be to leverage collaborations in addition to current partners such as Crispus (from Abayuuti Climate Action Network) and Nature XYZ. We hosted the first climate cafe yesterday so leveraging this collaboration going forward is something that we picked up from COP27.
Oftentimes you all have the same goal, but if everyone is working in silos, it's going to take you longer to actually meet those goals. So for us from COP27, the things that we took away is just to collaborate more with people, and just watch out for like-minded organisations, both in Uganda and abroad, and walk together to reach our goals, which for us is obviously just making climate education more accessible for young people. So there is something that we're really doing now.
Mita: Definitely. Building a cohesive movement.
Heizal: Also seeing that movement take place, if that makes sense. A funny thing is, I think I don't know if you noticed it, but, outside all the negotiations, there were a lot of young people at COP. So seeing all these young people, and they're like, “Are you from Uganda? What do you do?” And someone is like, “Oh, I have my own organisation. Oh, I'm a part of this organisation” and I'm like, “Oh! We're also doing the same thing.” We all literally have the same visions to a certain point, but we are not working together, and, if we did work together much faster and create those networks and have community amongst all of us, we could do something really cool in the end.
Mita: I think that everyone has that really unique perspective that is powerful when applied to a common goal. Holistic movements are important in that way. I was gonna ask what's next for Climate Operation. But I do think that you've touched on that a bit. Any additional exciting news ahead?
Heizal: Yes, I created something. I created something that can tell people about anything climate related. You just go in and ask the thing a question. Google gives you a bunch of things, and you have to tap a bunch of links. But if you just come to this place and just type in whatever it is you want, it should give you an answer and all the resources that you need- a one-stop shop for things like climate education.
Mita: Wow! So when you say “this place”, you're talking about a platform, like a web platform, not a search engine. Or is it a search engine?
Heizal: To be honest at the moment. It looks like a search engine, because Hans [Communications and PR Manager at Climate Operation] and Crispus used it for the climate cafe to get questions for the quiz as well as possible answers. I feel like it was the first test run, cause I really wanted to just talk with people that are not part of Climate Operation. Hans told me that it went really well. So basically for one, it's leveraging AI. So it's the AI that actually gets the information. Something that I need to do is continue to improve it. I've only been working on it for a month.
Mita: That’s really neat. Your dynamic background really brings a lot to the space, and it's really wonderful that you're continuously putting pressure on the education side of things, and finding ways to build tools and things for people to use, especially when resources are far and wide and vast, but also largely developed by Global North thinking. What do you call it?
Heizal: So I've called it Atara. I might keep the name, because Hans really loves it.
Mita: It's very techy. I like it. Final question. I wanted to talk about New Year's resolutions. What is yours for 2023?
Heizal: I think it is the same for me and for Climate Operation at the same time. So there's this thing. It's like embarrassing courage. Don't be afraid to embrace the courage if you want to do something, do it. It might be really embarrassing, but I know that if I want something to happen, it’s up to what you do. And I think for me in 2023 I’m going to practice this because literally Climate Operation happened when I said, “You know what? Let’s try this out. It might work. It might not work.” But look at where we are now. So I think, for me, for 2023, just taking the leap, and not being afraid, like when I say you have nothing to lose, you might have something to lose. Who cares so just go for it. I think for me that would be my New Year’s resolution. I never make new resolutions, but that would be the most important one.
Mita: I really like that embarrassing courage. I think I’m going to take that on too. Thank you for speaking with us and for contributing to Quarterly. We’re looking forward to seeing what Climate Operation is up to in the new year, and how we’ll take our partnership farther within EEE!
Heizal: Thank you
Academic Highlights: Race & Health Edition
2022 was a big year for Race & Health research. We developed several new academic contributions spanning racism and health conceptually through the Lancet Series, to climate change and health through the EEE project.
Developing a Guide to Climate & Health Justice Education: Process and Content
The Journal of Climate Change and Health 2022
Mita Huq, Sonora English, Heizal Patricia Nagginda, Jon Bonifacio, Thilagawathi Abi Deivanayagam, Rita Issa, Sorcha Ni Chobhthaigh, Priscila de Morais Sato, Hans Mulindwa, Delan Devakumar
In this Technical Note, the Envisioning Environmental Equity (EEE) team outline the development, underlying pedagogical approaches, priorities, and evaluation of the EEE Educator’s Guide to Climate and Health Justice. This educational guide is designed to equip teachers, activists, and other community educators to deliver lessons on the nexus of health and climate justice that centre Most Affected People and Areas (MAPA) communities. The content of the guide, which delves into climate change, its impacts on human health and interactions with power structures and injustice, and proposed action focused on structural change, was developed collaboratively by the EEE team: Climate Operation, Uganda; Race & Health, UK; University of Sao Paulo, Brazil; YACAP, Philippines. It is grounded in Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and bell hooks’ engaged pedagogy. Alongside these pedagogical approaches, development of the guide also prioritised relatability in MAPA communities, ease of delivery, and adaptability to diverse contexts. The EEE Educator’s Guide to Climate and Health Justice has undergone an evaluation by key stakeholders through a semi-structured survey. Draft versions are currently accessible on Race & Health’s website, and the final guide will become available for free across collaborator websites following incorporation of feedback.
Climate change, health, and discrimination: action towards racial justice
The Lancet 2022
Thilagawathi Abi Deivanayagam, Sujitha Selvarajah, Jason Hickel, Renzo R Guinto, Priscila de Morais Sato, Jon Bonifacio, Sonora English, Mita Huq, Rita Issa, Hans Mulindwa, Heizal Patricia Nagginda, Chetna Sharma, Delan Devakumar
“Racism kills, and climate change kills” (p. 1). In this comment piece, Deivanayagam and colleagues trace the intersection of these killers, and critique the inequalities in responsibility for climate change and the burden of disease and illness it creates. Responsibility for climate breakdown falls squarely on Global North countries; while these countries represent only 14% of the world’s population, they are collectively responsible for 92% of emissions in excess of the safe planetary boundary. As discussed in this comment, such disproportionate responsibility for climate change is rooted in colonialism and the persistent power structures it has created. Colonial power structures are also at the root of the inequitable health burden of climate change borne by minoritized people within any country, and by the Global South more broadly, increasing vulnerability and reducing adaptive capacity. According to the authors, the health community has a central role to play in tackling these injustices. Firstly, they must integrate power analyses into their view of climate change and health. Research conducted by the health community should highlight inequity and discrimination, and more granular quantitative data should be made available. Finally, the voices of Most Affected People and Areas (MAPA) should be prioritised and headed, including calls for reparations and decolonisation.
The Lancet Series on racism, xenophobia, discrimination, and health.
The Lancet 2022
This four-paper Series examines how the historic systems and structures of power and oppression, and discriminatory ideologies have shaped policy and practice today, and are root causes of racial health inequities. Racism, xenophobia, and discrimination exist in every modern society causing avoidable disease and premature death among groups who are often already disadvantaged. Furthermore, by applying a global lens and intersectional framework, overlapping forms of oppression such as age, gender, and socioeconomic status and their impact on discrimination are analysed. Interventions to address the spectrum of drivers of adverse health outcomes with a focus on the structural, societal, legal, human right, institutional and system level are reviewed. Research recommendations and key approaches for moving forward are proposed.
Paper 1: Racism, xenophobia, discrimination, and the determination of health
Delan Devakumar, Sujitha Selvarajah, Ibrahim Abubakar, Seung-Sup Kim, Martin McKee, Nidhi S Sabharwal, Angela Saini, Geordan Shannon, Alexandre I R White, E Tendayi Achiume
Paper 2: Racism, xenophobia, and discrimination: mapping pathways to health outcomes
Sujitha Selvarajah, Susanna Corona Maioli, Thilagawathi Abi Deivanayagam, Priscila de Morais Sato, Delan Devakumar, Seung-Sup Kim, Jonathan C Wells, Marcella Yoseph, Ibrahim Abubakar, Yin Paradies
Paper 3: Intersectional insights into racism and health: not just a question of identity
Geordan Shannon, Rosemary Morgan, Zahra Zeinali, Leanne Brady, Marcia Thereza Couto, Delan Devakumar, Ben Eder, Ozge Karadag, Mala Mukherjee, Maria Fernanda Tourinho Peres, Marcelo Ryngelblum, Nidhi Sabharwal, Amos Schonfield, Pamela Silwane, David Singh, Manya Van Ryneveld, Siyasanga Vilakati, Chelsea Watego, Eleanor Whyle, Kui Muraya
Paper 4: Confronting the consequences of racism, xenophobia, and discrimination on health and health-care systems
Ibrahim Abubakar, Lu Gram, Sarah Lasoye, E Tendayi Achiume, Laia Becares, Gurpreet Kaur Bola, Rageshri Dhairyawan, Gideon Lasco, Martin McKee, Yin Paradies, Nidhi S Sabharwal, Sujitha Selvarajah, Geordan Shannon, Delan Devakumar
Commentary: Post-COP27 Reflections
By Mita
This year, Race & Health joined the climate and health community at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt to connect with a global health community, exchange stories and knowledge, and host our first ever in-person events since our inception in 2020. Our events centred climate and health justice, and our work on the Envisioning Environmental Equity (EEE) Collaborative. The EEE project aims to raise awareness about the impact that colonialism, racism, and climate has on health injustices by telling stories. At COP27, we engaged the health community to tell these stories and urge the health community to take action that adopts anti-racist, anti-colonial values.
Health is a clear platform for climate action. The climate justice movement is a vibrant and mobilising force built by a creative and passionate community. This community demands systems change to secure the survival of planet and people. Within this movement, Race & Health is attempting to generate momentum in the health community. While there is a large body of work within the climate and health space, arguments rooted in anti-colonialism and anti-racism remain a small corner of the discussion.
We heard stories from around the world, discussed our work, and forwarded health as a critical platform on which sustainable, justice-oriented climate action could stand on. Our small team traversed both the Blue and Green zones, learning about ways that health manifests at the Conference of Parties. Team members in the Green Zone engaged in conversations about how knowledge from Indigenous women is critical to provided ground-rooted climate action with the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance and met with other prominent voices in the climate justice movement. Back at the Youth Pavilion, we hosted a joint event at the Children & Youth Pavilion with Climate Operation and YACAP where we highlighted the importance of film as a platform to convey MAPA experiences with climate and health. Our final event was our UNFCCC side event on justice-oriented health systems in partnership with Amref Health Africa and Centre for 21st Century Issues. Here, we discussed the needs and actionables required of a health system that confronts systems of inequality produced by climate change.
We also networked with the wider climate and health community at an event hosted by the Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA), where we met doctors, activists, non-profit leaders, researchers and more who are advancing climate and health work around the world. R&H Team member Sonora interviewed people around the Blue Zone to see what they thought about climate and health justice. Team members Mita and Heizal connected with young activists at the first ever Youth Pavilion and sat for an interview with MAPA Post to discuss our conception of climate justice.
After several months of preparation and planning, COP27 was a key milestone for our team. Though contentious, COPs serve as an important rendezvous for communities, movements, countries, and activists to represent their issues in climate conferences where they may otherwise experience exclusion. With a newly promised loss and damage fund following an extended negotiations process, justice remains a critical theme in our approach: resources must be distributed in an equitable and timely manner, the distribution must be thoroughly informed, and we must scrutinise those who facilitated this distribution for representation, responsibility, and accessibility.
On the tails of COP, Race & Health remains eager to maintain pressure on anti-racist, anti-colonial approaches to climate justice within and through the health community. We are keen to forge stronger partnerships with MAPA organisations and diversify our ground-engagement. As for post-COP activities, EEE will be showcasing our work at upcoming film screenings, workshops, and more across Kampala, London, Manila and São Paulo. If you are interested in the work we do, visit www.raceandhealth.org/eee to access EEE’s docuseries, podcasts, comics, webinars, and more!