Climate Change and Health and Well-Being: A Policy Primer

Roles and Responsibilities - Building Collaborative Partnerships

The wide range of health issues associated with climate change necessitates the collaborative involvement of a broad spectrum of decision makers, especially at the municipal level where many of the public health programs are delivered.

A particularly useful framework for the facilitation of collaborative approaches to policy development is a policy network. The six Policy and Planning Conference breakout sessions involved participation by a range of public and private decision makers from a specific region and will be tasked with launching the development of collaborative policy networks, or alternative mechanisms, to begin addressing the health effects of climate change related to air and water quality, vector-borne infectious diseases and vulnerable groups. Each breakout session defined the scope of the activity of its respective group based on the following key guiding questions:

2 Questions Per Health Issue to Be Answered During Breakout Sessions

• Question 1: What are you currently doing to address this health issue? What are the current policy gaps (public and private sector) with respect to this health issue?
• Question 2: What are the priority actions that can be taken now by a collaborative network to begin addressing the policy gaps?

2 Questions Per Breakout Session Group

• Question 1: How would you make a collaborative network function (i.e., who would lead it, who should be involved, linkages, resources, communications)?
• Question 2: What help would you require from Health Canada to enable a network to achieve its goals? (e.g., roles of members, facilitation, coordination, information management, etc.) What help would you require from other federal partners?

Some of the possible functions of a policy network include:

• Contribute to the coordination and interaction of the climate change and health & well-being impacts and adaptation policy community to provide greater visibility and understanding of the issues and needs.
• Integrate of climate change considerations into a range of relevant public health policies to manage risks to Canadians.
• Provide a mechanism for stakeholder involvement in impacts and adaptation policy development and in the identification of priority adaptation actions.
• Participate in climate change health impact assessments, and liaise with the research community to identify policy related needs and gaps.

The results of the National Policy and Planning Conference and the Research Conference can inform efforts to collaboratively assess and manage the health & well-being issues in Canada. Health Canada has established a Climate Change and Health & Well-being Technical Program Committee to oversee and to coordinate the research work needed to fill the present knowledge gaps. The committee is comprised of federal and provincial/territorial representatives of Ministries of Health, other federal climate change partners, the Climate Change Secretariat, and representatives from a sample of health, environmental and non-governmental organizations such as stakeholders. It also includes a representative from the health research funding community.