Discover the latest research on environmental health challenges following the war in Ethiopia, with a special focus on Tigray. Hear findings from peer-reviewed studies, learn about ongoing research, and join an interactive discussion on humanitarian recovery, global health, and strengthening collaboration between the Global South and Global North.
Environmental health services, including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and infection prevention and control (IPC), are essential for disease prevention and quality healthcare delivery. However, these services are often severely disrupted during war and humanitarian crises. The war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia (2020-2022) caused widespread destruction of WASH infrastructure, weakened IPC practices, and increased the burden of preventable diseases. This seminar presents evidence on community and healthcare facility WASH and IPC conditions in war-affected Tigray, highlights key environmental health challenges, and discusses opportunities for further research, collaboration, and sustainable recovery to strengthen health systems and community resilience.
Researchers, practitioners, policymakers, students, and humanitarian professionals are all welcome.
Speaker Profile
Akeza Awealom Asgedom is an Environmental Public Health Specialist with over 16 years of experience in public health research, teaching, and academic leadership. His work focuses on environmental and occupational health, humanitarian crises, conflict-related health impacts, and health systems resilience. He has published more than 45 peer-reviewed articles and has led numerous externally funded research projects. He previously served as Head of the School of Public Health at Mekelle University (2020-2023). He currently serves as a Community Fellow at York University's Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research and as an Affiliate Scholar at The Africa Institute, Western University. He is also a Middle-Level Manager (MLM) for Technical Professionals trainee at The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, Toronto Metropolitan University.
The gentleman's climate cafe is a guided conversation space designed by men, for men to explore the emotional and psychological impacts of the climate crisis. Many men feel pressure to stay silent, stay strong, or stay "logical" - even when the future feels heavy. But climate change isn't just a scientific or political issue. It's a human one. A masculine one. A mental health one.
This cafe offers a space to:
Talk openly about fear, anger, grief, and hope
Explore what climate courage means to you
Connect with others and feel less alone
Reclaim emotional honesty as strength
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05 October
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Climate Café & Climate Fresk
Local Time
Timezone: Asia/Hong_Kong
Date: Tuesday, October 06, 2026
Time: 2:30 am - 3:30 am
The collaborative Climate Café & Climate Fresk combines two proven approaches to engaging about climate change:
Climate Fresk is an interactive workshop that helps participants understand the science, causes, and impacts of climate change through collaborative learning. Using information based on IPCC research, you’ll work with others to explore how climate systems are connected and gain a deeper understanding of today’s climate challenges. Climate Café provides a safe space to talk about how you are being impacted, share thoughts and feelings, and begin to identify how you can take meaningful climate action.
Together this combined event gives you the knowledge you need, process the emotions you have and builds your resilience to take action for the benefit of you, your community and our planet.
Help us test out this novel idea, while developing your skills and having fun! Drinks and snacks will be provided.
Monday 5th October, 2026 – 2:30 PM, In Person
Organized by WIL – Wellness Impact Lab and The Office of Sustainability.
Transforming the Global Health Architecture: From Crisis to Opportunity? with Kelley Lee
Local Time
Timezone: Asia/Hong_Kong
Date: Tuesday - Wednesday, October 20 - 21, 2026
Time: 11:30 pm - 1:00 am
Location
Hybrid
Global health is at a critical juncture. Geopolitical shifts, declining and increasingly uncertain funding, changing patterns of global interdependence, and declining public trust have placed unprecedented pressures on the institutions and arrangements through which countries cooperate to protect and improve health. Yet this disruption also creates an opportunity to ask a more fundamental question: rather than continuing to reform the existing system, should we rethink its architecture altogether?
In this special 90-minute event at the Dahdaleh Institute of Global Health, Professor Kelley Lee will explore the case for transforming the global health architecture. Drawing on her 2025 Wellcome Trust-commissioned paper, A Proposal for Transforming the Global Health Architecture, and referring to the ideas put forth by four other regional papers, she will begin by examining the historical evolution and current shortcomings of the global health system. The existing architecture, she argues, has developed in a largely ad hoc manner, resulting in fragmented institutions, overlapping mandates, insecure financing and governance arrangements that can struggle to respond to an increasingly interconnected world. The current disruption may therefore represent not simply a crisis, but a rare opportunity to go “back to the drawing board.”
Dr. Kelley Lee is trained in International Relations and Public Administration with a focus on international political economy. She spent over twenty years at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She was a core member of donor-led studies of WHO reform during the 1990s. She co-established the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Change and Health, and chaired the WHO Resource Group on Globalization, Trade and Health. Dr Lee also co-led the Guildford Archiving Project to secure public access to internal tobacco industry documents, and then the Global Tobacco Control Research Programme to analyze their contents in relation to the globalization of the tobacco industry. Her research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Cancer Research UK, European Research Council, Health Canada, New Frontiers in Research Fund, Nuffield Trust, Rockefeller Foundation, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, UK Economic and Social Research Council, UN Population Fund, US National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, Canadian Biomedical Research Fund, World Health Organization and several governments.
She has authored 140+ peer-reviewed papers, 70+ book chapters and 15 books including The World Health Organization (Routledge, 2009), Researching Corporations and Global Health Governance (Rowman and Littlefield International with Ben Hawkins, 2016) and the Oxford Handbook of Global Health Politics (OUP with Colin McInnes and Jeremy Youde, 2020). She joined the Faculty of Health Sciences in 2011 as Associate Dean, Research and Director of Global Health. She is a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Inuit Wellbeing, Tuberculosis Prevention, and Climate Resilience in the Circumpolar Region
Local Time
Timezone: Asia/Hong_Kong
Date: Tuesday - Wednesday, October 27 - 28, 2026
Time: 11:30 pm - 1:00 am
Location
Hybrid
The Canadian government and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami committed to eliminating tuberculosis in Inuit Nunangat by 2030. That goal is off track. At the same time, the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, compounding the health, food security, and infrastructure pressures Inuit communities already face. This session brings together practitioners and researchers working directly on these issues to share what solutions look like on the ground, and where the gaps remain, across the circumpolar North.
This event is co-sponsored by Social Science & Health Innovation for Tuberculosis (SSHIFTB).
Speaker Profiles
Amy Caughey
Amy Caughey is a public health nutritionist in Nunavut, working on Inuit country food, food security, diabetes education, prenatal nutrition, and zoonotic disease prevention and food safety in the Arctic. Over 20 years, she has worked with and learned from families, Elders, hunters, researchers, health professionals, and Inuit organizations across Nunavut. She is a registered dietitian with an MSc in Human Nutrition and Metabolism from the University of Aberdeen, and recently completed a PhD in Public Health at the University of Guelph focused on Inuit country food and nutrition in early life. Amy is of Euro-Canadian settler ancestry from rural Ontario and now lives in Iqaluit with her family.
Naomi Tatty
Naomi Tatty is the Inuit Intercultural Lead at SeeChange Initiative. A former tuberculosis health worker with the Government of Nunavut, she led the Inuit Intergenerational Healing Journey, bringing survivors and family members to former TB sanatoriums in Hamilton, Ontario, to confront a history that displaced thousands of Inuit for treatment, many of whom never returned home. Her work bridges frontline health experience with community-based healing, grounded in Inuit knowledge and lived understanding of how TB has shaped generations of families across Inuit Nunangat. Naomi is also a longstanding community activist, working across health, culture, and intergenerational wellbeing.
Carol Devine (Event Moderator)
Carol Devine is a Humanitarian Affairs Advisor with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Canada. She co-leads a project on climate, environment and health for MSF and has contributed to the 2018 Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change. Carol has worked with MSF in Rwanda, East Timor, Peru and South Sudan as humanitarian advisor and was the Canadian liaison for MSF's Access to Essential Medicines Campaign. She's also a writer, conceptual artist and social scientist who's led and participated in ocean pollution and research initiatives in the UK, Arctic and Antarctic.
Sara Ferwati (Event Moderator)
Sara Ferwati is a mental health epidemiologist, strategically positioned at the intersection of public health, climate action, and health system innovation in the Government of Nunavut, Canada. Tasked with the mission of addressing mental health issues, particularly mental illnesses and suicide, she shapes health indicators, builds comprehensive databases, and designs efficient surveillance tools. This work assists in better understanding and addressing mental health needs in the territory. This experience has exposed her to the stark realities of mental health challenges and the need for innovative solutions.
Profiling Health for Equitable Benefit-sharing in the Global Critical Mineral Value-chain in East and Southern Africa
Local Time
Timezone: Asia/Hong_Kong
Date: Tuesday - Wednesday, November 24 - 25, 2026
Time: 9:30 pm - 12:30 am
Location
Online (register for details)
Register for call-in details
The panel session will:
Summarise opportunities, challenges for profiling health for equitable benefit-sharing in the global critical mineral value-chain
Provide a broad overview of health challenges in the critical minerals sector, health impact assessment as a tool for exposing and addressing these challenges and its policy and implementation to date
Share selected HIA evidence on key issues in and options for the critical minerals sector in Zimbabwe, Zambia and DRC
Speaker Profiles
Panel Moderator and Presenter
Dr. Rene Loewenson, FRSPH, TARSC/EQUINET, Zimbabwe
Rene is a Zimbabwean epidemiologist, public health practitioner and Director of the Training and Research Support Centre. She has since 1980 implemented and led research consortia, including on participatory action research, policy analysis, training and mentoring of work focusing on equity in health, social and commercial determinants of health, health impact assessment and health systems. She is a founder member of EQUINET and has been a technical/strategic advisor to UN.
Panel Presenters
Mr. Lyman Mlambo, Zimbabwe Country Manager, AEGT Zimbabwe
Lyman is an independent mining policy consultant and an adjunct lecturer of mineral economics at the University of Zimbabwe. He was a mineral economics research fellow and chairperson of the Institute of Mining Research (University of Zimbabwe) for several years. He holds a BSc and MSc in economics, and a certificate in mineral resource valuation.
Mr. Philippe Dunia, Researcher, Centre of Expertise and mining governance (CEGEMi-Catholic University of Bukavu); DRCongo; PhD. Student at IOB-Uantwerpen
Phillipe has a masters degree in development studies, with a special focus on development, environment and society from the University of Liege and the Catholic University of Louvain. He is now doing his PhD in Development studies at the University of Antwerp. His doctoral research focuses on social protection in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector in the DR Congo.
Mr. Derrick Bwalya, Research Associate, Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR) Zambia
Derrick holds a bachelor's degree in Geography and Environmental studies and a Master of Science in the same field from the University of Zambia. He is a Research Associate at Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR) in Lusaka, Zambia. He is also a research assistant on the African Extractivism and Green Transition (AEGT) project. He has over 10 years of experience in coordinating projects including health impact assessments, population, politics and democracy, environmental and climate change projects
Thank you for your interest in our event programming at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. Please visit, https://www.yorku.ca/dighr/events/ for more information.
