Planning Group on Health and Wellbeing in the Urban Environment
Terms of Reference | Membership

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Terms of Reference

Background and Terms of Reference for an ICSU Planning Group on Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment

Brief background

Human Health is an identified priority in the ICSU Strategic Plan 2006-2011 with the overall goal (p32-33):

to ensure that health considerations are duly taken into account in the planning and execution of future activities by building on the relevant strengths of Scientific Unions and Interdisciplinary Bodies.

And the following specific actions:

• ICSU will establish an ad hoc Scoping Group to more clearly define how it might contribute to science for human health taking into account the ongoing development of two new research initiatives:
  • Science for Health and Wellbeing (SHWB) is an ambitious initiative, bringing together the perspectives of many ICSU Unions in an integrated approach to human health;
  • Global environmental change and Human Health is a new project that is being planned as part of the Earth Systems Science Partnership; and
• New Partnerships will be developed as necessary…… to ensure that any ICSU initiatives are needs-based and policy-relevant.

The prescribed ad hoc Scoping Group was established by the Committee on Scientific Planning and Review (CSPR) in 2006 and liaised with the aforementioned ICSU initiatives to produce its report “Towards a Systems Analysis Approach to Health and Wellbeing in the changing Urban Environment”. This report was sent out to Members for consideration and presented at meetings of the Scientific Unions and ICSU Executive Board in April 2007. It was positively received and the decision of the Board was:

To request CSPR to establish a Planning Group in consultation with the Inter-Union initiative and ICSU membership, to take forward the recommendations of the ad hoc Scoping Group.

In making this decision, the Board emphasised that the aim should be to develop a single integrated interdisciplinary ICSU programme in this area and that the planning process should be designed so as to ensure ongoing consultation with the Membership and with the Unions in particular. In the light of the Scoping Group report, the Unions participating in the SHWB initiative had already begun to plan for a workshop in January 2008 on Urban Health. It was agreed to have this co-organised with CSPR/ICSU and thus incorporated into the planning process for the new programme. To this end, a member of CSPR was appointed as co-chair of the workshop organising committee. The International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) was subsequently approached and agreed to host the workshop in Austria.

Planning Group Draft Terms of Reference

Taking into account the report of the CSPR ad hoc Scoping Group on Human Health – Towards a Systems Analysis Approach to Health and Wellbeing in the changing Urban Environment, and

the workshop jointly organised by ICSU, IIASA and the International Scientific Unions on this topic (Vienna, January, 24-25, 2008),

to:

1. consult with the relevant stakeholders (WHO, city policy-makers, business and NGOs) and define the key health policy questions to be addressed in relation to the changing urban environment;
2. define in detail the short, medium and long-term goals and deliverables for a new interdisciplinary programme in this area;
3. develop an inventory of existing (sub-system/sectoral) models applicable to the urban environment;
4. develop an overall systems analysis model framework that incorporates 1, 2 and 3 and also takes into account the interactions between key external drivers and sectoral factors (see report of the ad hoc Scoping Group );
5. define the data and information sources necessary to carry out an informative systems analysis using this framework;
6. identify a small number of cities in which this model could be tested and refined;
7. define the structures and identify possible funding sources that would be necessary to ensure the initial implementation of the programme in the identified cities;
8. develop a mechanism that, during both the planning itself and subsequent programme implementation, ensures the full involvement of all interested ICSU constituents (Unions, National Members, IBs and Regional Offices);
9. provide an interim progress report to the ICSU General Assembly in October 2008.

Planning Group composition/profile

All ICSU Members and IBs were consulted for nominations for the Planning Group. Areas of relevant expertise for which nominations were sought included:

• Systems analysis/modelling
• Specific urban sectoral areas, including:
  • water,
  • food,
  • sanitation,
  • health systems,
  • energy,
  • transport
• Public health, including:
  • Epidemiology/health monitoring
  • Health care delivery
  • Medical sociology
  • Health policy/policy studies
  • Statistics/indicators
• Social sciences, including:
  • Behavioural science
  • Political science
  • Social innovation, vulnerability and change
• Human geography, including:
  • demography
  • Urban planning
• Environmental change
• Economics

For reasons of cost and efficiency, the maximum size of the Group was fixed at 15 members and so individuals who had cross-disciplinary expertise were likely to be particularly valuable. The importance of ensuring different regional perspectives, including developing and developed countries, was also recognised. It was important also to try and ensure some continuity with the Scoping Group, SHWB and GEC-Health initiatives.

Timetable

• July 2007 Consultation with members and nominations for Planning Group
• July-Oct. 07 SHWB coordinating committee proceeds with plans for workshop
• September 07 CSPR agrees final ToR, establishes programme Planning Group and approves plans for workshop co-organised with the Scientific Unions
• Nov 07 Planning Group Members and workshop participants invited
• Jan 25-26, 08 2-day Workshop, IIASA, Vienna
• Jan 27-28 1st Planning Group meeting
• Jun/July, 08 2nd Planning Group meeting (and poss. ‘open consultative forum’)
• Oct 08 Interim report to the ICSU General Assembly
• 2009-2010 Continue planning, publish programme plan and launch programme

Resources

ICSU will cover the costs of Planning Group meetings (economy class travel and accommodation). The costs of January workshop will be jointly covered by the SHWB grant that was awarded to the Unions in 2006, ICSU and IIASA .

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Membership

Chair :

Khotso Mokhele, the chairman of the ICSU Committee on Scientific Planning and Review (CSPR) will chair the first meeting of the Planning Group on 26 January, 2008

Members:

• Francoise Barten (Netherlands)
• Susan Bennett-Johnson (USA)
• Ranjan K Bose (India)
• Osman Galal (Egypt)
• Edgar Gutierez (Costa Rica)
• Dov Jaron (USA)
• Landis MacKellar (USA)
• Elijah Ogola (Kenya)
• Pierre Ritchie (Canada)
• Gerard Salem (France)
• Wuyi Wang (China)

In addition to the 11 listed members who have accepted to participate, a maximum of four additional members will be recruited to address disciplinary, geographic and gender gaps. In addition, the chairperson of the Group has still to be identified.