Community is Built Through Shared Work: A CSIDNet Fellowship Update
By: Henok Tadesse Bireda
Hello readers! My name is Henok, and I am a CSIDNet fellow working on CSIDNet Ethiopia, an initiative focused on building a community of practice around climate-sensitive infectious diseases (CSIDs) within Ethiopia’s public health system. I am one of five fellows who joined the program in April 2025.
If you are new to our journey, you can explore previous fellowship updates from April 2025, July 2025, and December 2025. In this update, I reflect on what we have learned during the last quarter of 2025 and the beginning of 2026.
Reflections from Our December Call
In December, the fellows and CSIDNet staff came together for a reflective discussion on our experiences during the nine months of the fellowship. Although our projects operate in very different settings, an interesting common theme emerged from our conversation. We all appreciated how meaningful communities do not form with mere invitations and gatherings but they form when people find value in working together.
This lesson strongly resonated with me because when I first envisioned CSIDNet Ethiopia, I imagined that bringing together people interested in climate-sensitive infectious diseases would naturally create a vibrant community. Yet, what I have learned in the last nine months is that collaboration grows most naturally around real challenges. In Ethiopia, some of our strongest engagement emerged while working on practical public health problems. Discussions around genomic-surveillance sentinel site selection, public health intelligence products, and climate-health analytics brought together people who might not otherwise have worked together. The focus was not on building a community for its own sake; the community emerged because there was meaningful work to do together.
We also reflected on the importance of ownership. Across the fellowship projects, people became invested when they could see how their expertise contributed to something tangible and this created a sense of belonging/ownership to the community. Perhaps most encouraging was the realization that small successes really matter during community building. A training delivered, a webinar organized or a new collaboration established may seem modest in isolation. Yet these small wins gradually build trust and reinforce the idea that working together can achieve more than working alone. So, we closed off the call in style, by celebrating our small wins together!
Transitions in the Collaborative Committee
As we move into 2026, we would like to thank Yanina Bellini Saibene and Ritwik Agarwal for their contributions to the Collaborative Committee. Their support and guidance have helped shape the fellowship during its formative stages.
At the same time, we are thrilled to welcome Eftal Efeçınar, Richard Maude, and Natasha Naidoo to the committee, who will continue working alongside Junwen Guo, Alberto Morales, and Nkirote Kalaine. We look forward to the fresh perspectives and energy that this committee brings to the network.
Fellow-by-Fellow Progress Updates
Sabrina López (Argentina)
Sabrina’s work to co-create a Community of Practice (CoP) for climate-sensitive infectious diseases in Latin America continues to gain momentum. More than thirty participants who expressed interest were invited to a meeting on December 16 to begin shaping the CoP’s main objectives. Through collaborative and reflective activities, participants discussed which voices are missing and need to be sought, the minimum elements required to launch the community, and what actions to prioritize for 2026. For those who could not attend, all materials and the recording were shared for asynchronous participation. The CoP will reconvene after the summer break to outline its 2026 agenda. If you want to join, please complete this form!
Chloé Morin (French Polynesia)
Chloé continued strengthening the dedicated platform connecting researchers and health stakeholders across Pacific Island countries and territories. Her recent efforts focused on improving access to key resources, including official reports, technical guidelines, and public information materials developed by regional and national partners. Discussions around establishing an official partnership between stakeholders have progressed and are currently pending a funding decision. In the coming weeks, the BRIGHT Pacific funding decision is expected to be finalized, enabling Chloé to move forward with the project’s next phase in close collaboration with partners.
Henok Tadesse Bireda (Ethiopia)
For CSIDNet Ethiopia, this has been a rewarding phase of the fellowship so far.During this period, we conducted our second round of regional-level capacity-building activities.We brought together thirty public health professionals from across the country for hands-on training in data analytics using real climate-sensitive disease case studies. Beyond the technical content, one of our goals was to demonstrate how open science approaches can help practitioners access tools, resources, and communities that may otherwise feel out of reach.
At the end of the training, one participant from a remote part of Ethiopia approached us and said, “…The training really connected us to the world.”
That comment really struck me because across Ethiopia there are talented researchers and practitioners facing some of the world’s most pressing climate-sensitive disease challenges head on. Yet many have limited opportunities to engage with the broader open-science ecosystem or access the tools increasingly used in climate-health research. A central motivation behind CSIDNet Ethiopia has been to help bridge that gap. If you are passionate about open science and resonate with our story, please fill out our expression of interest form and be part of the Ethiopian CoP.
Angkana “Hat” T. Huang (Thailand)
Hat’s work this quarter focused on understanding the interconnected landscape of data, tools, and people that underpin efforts to address climate-sensitive infectious diseases. Even though significant work is underway across these domains, many initiatives remain fragmented. Data systems are often heterogeneous and difficult to integrate, while those expected to use emerging tools frequently face competing priorities and limited capacity to engage with them.
Despite these challenges, Hat identified encouraging signs. Growing recognition of the importance of climate-health adaptation and the shared need for better early warning systems provide opportunities to build communities around common goals. The next phase of Hat’s work will focus on expanding networks across data, tools and people and identifying practical pathways toward systemic change.
Amber L. Abrams (South Africa)
During this quarter, Amber met with local resident groups to begin to try to unpack key questions related to water-related climate sensitive concerns. Her engagements highlighted the complex relationship between environmental concerns, health, and broader socioeconomic realities. Through engagement with local resident groups and community organizations, Amber learned that concerns around health in the context of water necessarily come second to concerns around and efforts towards securing income for basic food needs. Environmental impacts related to health are not salient in contexts where food needs are not being met.
During this period, Amber also hosted a conference where she raised discussion amongst local resident groups and NGOs about salient topics related to water and climate concerns. Alongside the conference, Amber has continued engaging researchers interested in the development of a future community of practice despite returning from maternity leave recently. In the next phase, Amber is preparing to formalize community meetings and looks forward to facilitating discussions at an international public health conference in Cape Town in September
What Now?
As we move further into 2026, many of the fellowship projects are entering a new phase. The first year focused largely on understanding local contexts, identifying partners, and laying the foundations for future collaboration. The challenge now is to translate those foundations into scaffolds which support the forming communities.
For CSIDNet Ethiopia, the next major milestone is a national gathering that will bring together stakeholders working across climate, health, data science, and public health practice. The aim is to create a space where people tackling similar challenges can learn from one another, identify common priorities, and build new collaborations. In Latin America, Sabrina’s CoP is gearing up for its first coordinated activities. Chloé awaits the BRIGHT Pacific funding decision that could unlock the next phase of her platform while Hat will continue to expand networks across data, tools identifying practical pathways toward systemic change. And Amber is looking forward to hosting a workshop at the International Public Health conference which will be hosted in Cape Town.
While there is still much work ahead, it is encouraging to see these communities beginning to take shape. We look forward to continuing the journey and sharing what we learn along the way!
If you are interested to join us, make sure to check out our working groups, committees and upcoming regional gatherings.
About the Author
Henok is a Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) officer and researcher at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI). Through the CSIDNet Fellowship, he is working to build a community around climate-sensitive infectious diseases through open science, capacity building, and collaborative problem solving.