2026 CSIDNet Virtual AGM

Join us for the 2026 CSIDNet Virtual AGM | 3 December

Communities as Knowledge Holders: Building Climate-Health Work from the Hyperlocal to the Regional

How do we bring people together around shared climate and health challenges? What makes a community of practice meaningful, and how can it grow and sustain itself over time?

Join us on Thursday 3 December, as our CSIDNet fellows open the Virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) with a public conversation about building communities of practice at different scales, from a single neighbourhood to a national health system or a region that crosses borders. Rather than mere project updates, our fellows will reflect on the process of building these communities: how they brought people together, established connections and solidarity, navigated differences, and considered what it takes to sustain and scale collective efforts.

Meet our speakers:

• Henok Tadesse Bireda (Ethiopia) – Ethiopian Public Health Institute, building a community of practice within the national public health system.
• Amber Abrams (South Africa) – Future Water Institute, University of Cape Town, building a community focused on water-related, climate-sensitive infectious diseases in Southern Africa, starting with local resident groups.
• Sabrina López (Argentina) – ARPHAI Research Consortium, whose community initially focused on dengue in Argentina and has since expanded to climate-sensitive infectious diseases across Latin America.
• Angkana T. Huang (Hat) (Thailand) – Presidential Young Professor at the National University of Singapore. A designer turned biologist, Hat is bringing together municipal officers, health volunteers, AI researchers and public health academics in Thailand to advance locally led responses to mosquito-borne diseases.

Moderated by: Sisay Wondaya Adall, biostatistician and postdoctoral fellow at East China Normal University, Shanghai.

Discussant: Kim Fortun, anthropologist at the University of California, Irvine, whose work explores how knowledge infrastructures shape what communities can anticipate and respond to.

Closing remarks: Isabel Fletcher, Wellcome Trust

Event Details

• Date: Thursday, 3 December 2026
• Time: 14:00 – 16:00 UTC
• Format: Virtual | Open to the public

The session will include French and Spanish interpretation, and participants are welcome to submit questions in English, French or Spanish

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/997rSNR6R_mJn6jab2bJ_Q

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.