The recently established Global Environmental and Occupational Health Hub for Eastern Africa launched Jan. 3-5, 2016, at the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre headquarters at the Gullele Botanical Garden in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Lead investigators representing eastern Africa partner institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, as well as the University of Southern California, attended the meeting.
During the three-day launch the team aimed to finalize publications and disseminate findings from the recently concluded situational analysis and needs assessments conducted in all four partner countries to re-enforce common understanding of issues including indoor/outdoor air pollution and health, occupational health and safety, and climate change and health.
The lead institution for eastern Africa is Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, while the partner institutions comprise Uganda’s Makerere University; Rwanda’s University of Rwanda; and Kenya’s Massai Mara University, University of Kabianga, and Great Lakes University of Kisumu.
The GEOHealth Hub was established through a joint $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (USA) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre. It is part of a network of seven hubs from around the world funded through the same mechanism. The other hubs are based in Bangladesh, Thailand, India, Peru, Suriname and Ghana.
