This November the third edition of the Bonn School on Environment and Health took place virtually, focusing on creating transformative public health leadership in the WHO European Region. The Bonn School addressed technical gaps and raised awareness on environment and health challenges in countries, building capacity at the national and local levels to strive for safer and healthier communities.
Organized by the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health (ECEH), the Bonn School gathered more than 50 participants from over 20 countries and areas in the European Region. Over 4 weeks, participants were immersed in state-of-the-art science and knowledge in the areas of contaminated sites and health impact assessment. The Bonn School has also established a cross-sectoral collaboration and exchange network to build a community of practice for environment and health professionals across the European Region.
“The Region is facing multiple sources of challenges including health, environment, energy, security, and social and economic issues. Pandemic recovery must address these challenges in a resilient and sustainable way,” said Dr Nino Berdzuli, Director, Division of Country Health Programmes, WHO/Europe. “An urgent and integrated response is required that brings together multidisciplinary experts and multiple sectors, also including a wide range of stakeholders. For actions to be resilient and sustainable they should be based on equitable and evidence-based policies.”
A quarter of the global burden of disease is associated with environmental risk factors. In the WHO European Region, nearly 1.4 million people lose their lives every year, due to exposure to environmental factors. At the same time, environmental pollution, climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss challenges are becoming more intense and frequent – putting health and ecological systems under unprecedented pressure.
Solving real-life environment and health challenges
The third edition of the Bonn School, which was entirely virtual and ran 3–24 November 2022, addressed the complexity of environment and health topics, and focused on strengthening participants’ ability to work in multidisciplinary and multisectoral settings. For that reason, it also offered training in cross-cutting skills such as teamwork and risk communication.
As the Bonn School aimed to strengthen leadership in these areas at country and local level, participants were tasked with solving selected environmental and health challenges related to the study areas. The challenges evolved as the courses advanced, simulating design and implementation aspects related to contaminated sites and their redevelopment, and offering ways of enhancing health impact assessments. Eventually, through a role play session on the concluding day of the school, participants were able to present and experience an array of perspectives and arguments concerning environment and health challenges. The goal of this exercise was to increase the direct relevance of the training experience to the daily professional life of participants, and to raise awareness on the importance of interaction between different disciplines and sectors to face environmental and health challenges. The activity also aimed to model evidence-based decision-making processes, and to highlight impacts on vulnerable groups.
With this programme of training, ECEH supports Member States in strengthening their capacities to respond effectively to diverse health and environmental challenges. The Bonn School on Environment and Health is part of that commitment to achieve better health and well-being for all, as outlined in WHO’s European Programme of Work, 2020–2025.