Climate Change and
Health: Creating Leadership
Leadership Development Programme -
Cohort 15 selected
May, 2010
LEAD Pakistan
A seventeen member cohort comprising of health professionals
working at middle and senior management level in the health
sector of the country is selected as LEAD Pakistan’s Cohort
15 for the 2010 - 2011. The theme of the Cohort is “Climate
Change and Health: Creating Leadership.” All these
professionals are well reputed and renowned in the fields of
community medicine and environmental health.
In Pakistan, like in other developing countries, apart from
a dedicated few, health professionals have not come to the
climate change debate or their participation is negligible.
Therefore LEAD Pakistan has just hired the health
professionals in this cohort with a purpose to maximize the
exposure of these sector specific professionals on the
issues of climate change. This cohort will create a bridge
between the country’s health related scientific community
and its policy makers, by enabling the former with the
necessary skills required to understand climate related
risks to health which will in turn be made available to
decision makers for sectoral adaptation plans.
Like the previous conventional cohorts, this cohort will
also undergo a series of national and international
sessions, undertake an action research and develop policy
papers. These papers will be done in the groups instead of
individuals and will in turn be published in related
international and national journals. In addition to this,
findings from these papers will be made available to the
concerned decision makers within the Ministries of health
and environment with a view that these form the essential
basis for future planning regarding climate change agenda in
the country.
Read More:
www.lead.org.pk/ldp
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Climate and
Development Knowledge Network (CDKN)
2010
LEAD Pakistan
LEAD is part of a consortium for the Climate and Development
Knowledge Network (CDKNetwork) that aims to link over 60 of
the world’s poorest developing countries with leading
climate and development experts and services. Over the next
5 years the
Network will provide services to developing country
policymakers in government and civil society to help them
tackle the inter-related issues of poverty and climate
change.
Services will be provided in 3 areas, research, technical
assistance and advisory services and knowledge services.
A UK government funded initiative; the CDKNetwork is part of
the UK’s commitment to climate finance for developing
countries. Launched in March 2010 the Network is in its
inception phase. For more details, refer to the website
http://www.cdknetwork.net/ which provides basic
information on the Network.
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Capacity Development of the Scientific Community for
Assessing the Health Impacts of Climate Change:
Asia Pacific Network- Trainings
2010
LEAD Pakistan
To address the yawning information gap in the area, LEAD in
collaboration with the Asia Pacific Network for Global
Change Research has envisioned a project that aims to
strengthen the health scientists’ research capacities on
health effects of climate change. With their knowledge about
the effect of weather on the incidence and prevalence of
diseases serving as baseline, this exercise would enhance
their understanding of the risks and vulnerabilities posed
by climate change to human health.
In the above
context LEAD Pakistan has planned
trainings in the mid of June, 2010. These trainings are
aimed at increasing members’ understanding of the climate
change phenomena and its impacts and dynamics, especially on
human health, at the global and local levels; developing
their understanding of linkages between climate change and
health research; creating in them the awareness of knowledge
gaps in the climate change and health research sector and
building their capacity to analyse climate data in the
context of health impacts and indicators.
Read
More:
www.lead.org.pk/apn
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LEAD Climate Leaders Action Network
(CLAN)
2010
LEAD Pakistan
 A
global network of LEAD – the Climate Leaders Action Network
(CLAN) - has been recently set up. The Network, being
managed by LEAD Pakistan, aims to leverage the expertise and
commitment of LEAD Fellows to form a network for collective
climate actions. CLAN aspires to provide an active platform
for sound, relevant, multi-sectoral, and crisply defined
inputs.
CLAN was formally launched during the LEAD – ECI joint
initiative platform in October 2009. So far 78 Fellow have
joined the network. The membership will also become open to
selected institutions and other networks. For further
details, refer to CLAN’s website
http://climate.lead.org/
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LEAD Climate
Briefs
December 7-18,
2009
LEAD Pakistan,
Islamabad
 
In view of the Conference of Parties (COP-15) in December
2009, LEAD
Pakistan has published a LEAD Climate Brief on “Countdown to
Copenhagen” which gives a highlight of the
circumstances building up to COP-15, the position of
developing counties and an overview of the global climate
debate. For post conference analysis click COP-15
Copenhagen Postmortem
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LEAD Pakistan Introduces the Ecological
Footprint Tool for Innovative Resource Management
2009
LEAD Pakistan,
Islamabad
In continuation of LEAD Pakistan’s effort to respond to the
critical issue of climate change, LEAD Pakistan in
collaboration with Asia-Pacific Forum for Environment and
Development (APFED) and the United National Environment
Programme (UNEP) has embarked upon a journey towards
Greening Organizations to Reduce Ecological Footprints. The
purpose is to initiate eco-friendly and sustainable resource
conserving trends among corporations and private sector
organizations in Pakistan through the Ecological Footprint (EF)
assessment tool. The EF tool – developed for the first time
in Pakistan using local factors - estimates the
environmental and climatic consequences of business
operations and helps to adopt and manage sustainable office
practices.
  LEAD Pakistan intends to
introduce this innovative concept of the EF tool for the first time with
various stakeholders especially corporations. For this
purpose, stakeholder workshops are being
held in October 2009 in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad in
which the EF framework will be introduced and participants
will learn how they can effectively apply and benefit from this
resource management tool within their own work spaces.
For further details,
refer to the Ecological Footprint website:
www.lead.org.pk/efc
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Civil Society Consultation on World Bank
Climate Change Strategy for
South Asia
March 19-20, 2009
Kathmandu, Nepal
LEAD Pakistan was invited by Climate Action Network South
Asia (CANSA) to participate in the regional consultation on
the Climate Change Strategy for South Asia developed
recently by the World Bank. The civil society consultation
was held from 19-20 March 2009 and was organized with the
support from Oxfam GB and Heinrich Boll Foundation (India).
Ms. Hina Lotia represented LEAD Pakistan at the
consultation.
Over 30 civil society organizations in South Asia from 6
countries participated in the consultation to review and
draft recommendations. The initiative focused on informing
the World Bank’s strategy with civil society perspectives.
The meeting covered themes as outlined in the World Bank’s
Draft Strategy document. The discussion during the
consultative meeting revolved around 1) Strategic Priorities
outlined by the World Bank in its Draft Strategy document,
such as financing adaptation and mitigation; 2) Sectoral
contexts and strategies including water and climate change,
agriculture and rural sector and others as defined in the
document; 3) and CANSA recommendations to the ‘World Bank
South Asia Region Climate Change Draft Strategy’ (with a
special focus on civil society.
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Paper on Corporate Response to Climate
Change launched
February 18, 2009
Karachi Press Club
LEAD Pakistan launched occasional research paper, titled
Corporate Response to Climate Change in Pakistan by Dr.
Harish Kumar Jeswani, at the Karachi Press Club, on February
18, 2009. Dr. Jeswani, a Research Associate from the
University of Manchester, UK, is an eminent researcher with
a doctorate in climate change. This paper represents one of
the first researches in Pakistan on corporate response to
climate change. The paper also recommends several measures
to encourage more proactive responses from companies in
Pakistan.
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2nd National Training Session:
Climate Change-Exploring Adaptation Strategies for Pakistan
(Cohort 13)
January 12 – 16, 2009
LEAD Pakistan, Islamabad
LEAD Pakistan organized a five day training for the mid
career professionals on the theme of Climate Change:
Exploring Adaptation Strategies for Pakistan. The
training was scheduled from January 12th – 16th, 2009 at LEAD
House, Islamabad. This training was a part of the Leadership
Development Programme for Cohort 13.
The training revolved around the overall objective of
considering strategies for adapting to climate change, in
particular to water, agriculture, and infrastructure sectors
in Pakistan. The session also summarized the key
internal interests that need to be considered in the
formulation of major national policies related to climate
change and the external negotiating position of Pakistan.
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Megacities and
Climate Change – “Sustainable Cities in a Changing World”
November 16-22,
2008
Mexico
To discuss the impact of increased urbanization on our
environment and challenges of ever increasing Climate
Change, LEAD International organized an International
Session on
Megacities and Climate Change,
at Mexico City from November 16-22, 2008.
The
International Session aimed to spearhead a debate on the
role of leadership in addressing the direct and indirect
problems of climate change in megacities. Placing the debate
in the context of the world’s third – largest megacity,
Mexico City, the session focused on exploring the
opportunities and challenges presented under the following
key issues of: Water and Sanitation, Energy production and
consumption, Land Use and Urban Development, and Urban
Transport and Mobility.
More than 150 LEADER’s (Associates, Cohort 13 and Fellows)
from all 14 member programmes, participated in the seven
day, training programme. Through presentations, interactive
panel discussions, dialogues and site visits, participants
were provided the opportunity to better understand the
aforementioned four core issues, placing them in a local
dimension while also considering the broader picture, of how
these issues impact at a global level and interact with
cross cutting themes, like governance. The Minister for the
local government and rural development, and other renowned
professionals talked through the various sessions as faculty
and speakers.
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MoU signed between
LEAD Pakistan and Global Change Impact Studies Centre
October 28,
2008
Islamabad,
Pakistan
LEAD Pakistan and the
Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC) signed a MoU on
October 28, 2008 to formally extend institutional support to
each other for furthering the Climate Change agenda.
According to terms of agreement both organizations pledged
to share strategic benefits of research and capacity
building for supporting a range of climate change
initiatives undertaken by both partners.
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Ecological Footprinting Technology in
Pakistan
As part of its Corporate Greening mission, LEAD Pakistan is
set to pilot the project “Climate Change Mitigation:
Greening Organizations to Reduce Ecological Footprints”. The
project intends to adopt scientific and evidence based
approaches for raising awareness of climate change and
sustainable development among the target audience and will
introduce the innovative Ecological Footprinting (EF)
technology in Pakistan. The EF calculator developed by the
project will be promoted among target organizations in
Pakistan as a consumption planning tool and will guide
decision makers on reducing the ecological impacts of their
work related activities. Information of applying and
utilizing the technology will be provided to selected
organizations through training workshops, documentaries and
case studies.
The project is co-sponsored by the APFED Showcase Program,
2008
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The Planning Commission Task Force on
Climate Change
October 14, 2008
Islamabad,
Pakistan
Mr. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh (National Program Director, LEAD
Pakistan) has been selected as a member of the task force
established by The Planning Commission to address the
challenges related to the phenomenon of climate change. The
task force comprises prominent scholars, renowned scientists
and managers, having vast experience in dealing with the
subject. Science and Technology Adviser/Minister of State
Planning Commission Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, a prominent scholar and
a highly reputed scientist would chair the task force. It would be co-chaired by former
chairman of WAPDA Shamsul Mulk, who is considered an
authority on Pakistan’s water resources.
The task force will comprehend the scope of impact due to
the climate change to Pakistan’s economy and devise
guidelines for mitigation and adaptation to cope with the
challenges. Besides, it will evaluate institutional
weaknesses and suggest measures for strengthening the
capacity of relevant institutions in addition to promoting
programme for advocacy and awareness.
Mr. Sheikh, will represent the civil society on this forum
and will contribute based on the experience that it has
gained in the area of
Climate Change. LEAD Pakistan is well poised to advise
the task force as they have policy advice structure in
place, that are An Advisory Board
consisting of eminent experts, the National Network on Climate
Change (NNCC) and the Knowledge
Network on Climate Change (KNCC), for furthering
the climate change agenda and promoting knowledge exchange
and communication among diverse actors.
Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel, former United Nations
Environment Programme deputy executive director, who has
vast international experience at policy level and is well
versed with the challenges and opportunities associated with
climate change in Pakistan’s context, is also a member of
the task force. The other members include Environment
Secretary Khushnood Ahmed Lashari, WAPDA Chairman Shakeel
Ahmed Durrani, Pakistan Meteorological
Department Director General Dr Qamar-uz-Zaman and Global
Change Impact Study Centre Executive Director Dr Arshad M
Khan.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=140902
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\10\14\story_14-10-2008_pg5_16
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ASEM Seminar on Adaptation to Climate Change
October 02-03, 2008
Tokyo, Japan
As a result of our credible work related to Climate Change,
LEAD Pakistan was invited to attend the seminar under
the auspices of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on Adaptation
to Climate Change. Ms. Dina Khan represented LEAD Pakistan
at the seminar jointly organized by the European
Commission and the Government of Japan, held on
October 2008 in Tokyo, Japan.
This forum was an opportunity for participating
countries and organizations to showcase policy and research
developments, as well as future plans to address the issue
of Adaptation. Ms. Dina Khan presented LEAD
Pakistan's work in a
presentation. The Chair's conclusions will feed into the ASEM Summit, to be held in Beijing in late October. Further
event information can be found at:
http://www.aseminfoboard.org/Calendar/Activities/?id=243
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2008 Asia – Pacific Leadership Programme
On Environment for Sustainable Development
September
15-20, 2008
Tongji University, Shanghai, China
http://www.rrcap.unep.org/leadership/ptcp.cfm
Our colleague from LEAD Pakistan, Isma Sana from training
unit shares reflections from her recent visit to China, as
she participated in 2008 Asia – Pacific Leadership Programme
on Environment for Sustainable Development, held from 15th
to 20th September in Tongji Institute of Environment for
Sustainable Development, Shanghai, China.
The Asia Pacific Leadership Programme aims to improve the
overall thinking and decision making abilities of young and
emerging leaders working with government organizations, NGOs
and private enterprises in the Asia - Pacific Region, direct
and guide them to take into account the balance between
environment and sustainable development in decision making
and foster their insight, enabling them to coordinate
factors of human, environment and sustainable development,
while dealing with complex rather demanding practical
problems.
Read
more about the reflections, experiences and
international exposure
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MoU signed between LEAD Pakistan and Pakistan
Meteorological Department
July 08, 2008
Islamabad, Pakistan
An MoU was signed between LEAD Pakistan and PMD with the
intention to promote collaboration and coordination on a
broad range of climate change activities. The agreement
states that:
PMD and LEAD wish to support each other in their work and
provide strategic benefits of research, management,
training, and development programs on Climate Change.
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PMD agrees to collaborate with LEAD in utilizing
knowledge and expertise for designing and implementing
development activities that can be effective in the
field of Climate Change. PMD and LEAD will work
together, in a mutually beneficial arrangement to
advance the use of said expertise and knowledge. This
MOU may be amended, modified and/or extended only by
mutual consent and in writing from both of the Parties
hereto.
-
LEAD agrees to work with PMD to identify and establish
relationships which, mobilize, capacitate and provide
training to communities and stakeholders at various
levels to effectively work on the identified climate
change issues and to provide services tailored to their
needs.
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