The Centre for Global Health, UiO is excited to be a member of the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA), a consortium of over 200 universities, non-governmental organizations, research institutes and government entities from around the world committed to understanding and addressing global environmental change and its health impacts.
Increasing infectious and non-communicable disease burden, heat-related mortality, and decreasing nutrition are all global environmental challenges that pose enormous risks for our health and wellbeing. We can no longer ignore the human-caused disruptions of our natural environment and we can no longer ignore the impacts that global environmental change has on our health. These challenges provide opportunities for cross-disciplinary action and therefore, CGH has joined PHA to support the safeguarding of our health and that of future generations.
Planetary Health Alliance
Planetary health is a field focused on characterizing the human health impacts of human-caused disruptions of Earth’s natural systems. Despite the hard-won public health gains of the past decades, the world is increasingly faced with degraded air quality, threatened food production, new infectious disease exposures, decreasing access to fresh water, new natural hazards, and negative consequences for our nutrition, mental health, and susceptibility to injury and disease.
PHA supports the growth of the field of planetary health and to support the rapid growth of a robust, interdisciplinary field of planetary health, the PHA is focused on:
- Building a global planetary health community that crosses sectors, disciplines, generations, and geographies;
- Facilitating the training of the next generation of planetary health leaders through the development of mentorship opportunities and foundational open-access educational resources from primary to university levels; and
- Mainstreaming planetary health science through broad public outreach and direct engagement with policymakers.
PHA launched in 2016 with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and has been integral to the rapid growth of planetary health through its engagement in advancing planetary health research, education, and policy. Now with a highly effective coalition of 200+ member institutions from 40+ countries, the PHA is supported by a Secretariat based at Harvard University and a Steering Committee of international experts.
Being a member of the PHA represents our commitment to collaboration on some of the most urgent challenges of our time. Learn more about planetary health science, solutions and ways to get involved here.