CSIDNet Fellowship Updates
By: Amber Abrams
Hello! Amber Abrams here. I am a CSIDNet fellow working on developing a water-related, climate-sensitive infectious disease community of practice, starting in Cape Town, South Africa, with the aim of expanding globally. As one of five fellows who joined the program in April 2025, I am excited to be building a CoP that focuses on water-related CSIDs.
If you are new to our journey, you can explore previous fellowship updates April 2025, July 2025, and December 2025. This update provides a window into the first half of 2026.
Reflections from Our Fellows Townhall
In April, the CSIDNet fellows came together for a Townhall to present our projects to the larger CSIDNet community. This Townhall provided space for us to share our progress and reflect on our experiences so far in the fellowship. Although our projects operate in very different settings, and we are all working our fellowships across different timelines what is clear is that there is concerted effort to build networks across the globe; starting small at first, with a vision for a connected and well informed global community on the realities of climate sensitive, infectious diseases.
One really important take away, that I am learning to embrace through this fellowship is the importance of slow, steady building. In the academic research field, we often work on tight time horizons, seeing projects launched and completed within 2-3 years, but CSIDNet is here to stay and the space we are all working to develop here will take time. So, instead of sprinting to a finish, we are planting seeds for a slow walk across the globe . . . building up momentum and understanding along the way. This slow build allows us to conserve energy without stifling momentum, making space for self-care, and very importantly, self reflection (see my fellow blog from May 2026 on why self-reflection is so important in the work we do). Self-care here might make you stop and think, but in a context where we are building a network to attend to climate futures, it is useful to remember that Audre Lorde suggested that, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Building on Henok’s reflection from the last fellows update, where trust is part of a central emergent theme, care connects well – the idea that care, and slow building processes can build trust; this is important to building spaces of learning and sharing that outlive the initial champions . . .
Fellow-by-Fellow Progress Updates
Chloé Morin’s (French Polynesia) fellowship that created BRIGHT Pacific has come to a close, but she continues to lead BRIGHT Pacific
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. The CoP has developed an agenda for 2026 and meetings have begun. If you want to join, please complete this form!
The first part of the year was really busy and engaging! As a CSIDNet’s Events and Gathering Committee member, I’m part of the organizing team together with Universidad de los Andes for the Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Convening happening in Bogotá, Colombia, this September. The period for submit expression of interest is now closed, and the final participants will be notified in the following weeks. We hope to have a fruitful meeting to strengthen our ties in the face of the challenges of the region.
Regarding the Community of Practice (CoP) of climate-sensitive infectious diseases (CSIDs) in Latin America, we met again and we started thinking about our name, logo and common objectives. We also created an outline for the year, focusing on two types of events: a Webinar Series and an in-person meeting in November. For the in-person meeting, we are still thinking about the type of event that we want to have, and have started conversations with other communities to have a more impactful convening. The Webinar Series aims to catalyze regional conversations around CSIDs’ different dimensions like funding, ethics, and community initiatives, featuring speakers in their own languages. Although the webinars have a clear focus on Latin America and the Caribbean region, we encourage everyone to join, as we have so much to learn from each other. We started the series on July 31, with Mauricio Santos Vega (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia) and Andrés Lescano (Clima, Centro Latinoamericano de Excelencia en Cambio Climático y Salud) as speakers introducing the regional situation around CSIDs. The second session was held on August 31, which focused on the funding landscape. We had the opportunity to learn from the experience of Elizabet Estallo (Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas, CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina) and Gilda Follietti and Constanza Fernández Oubeid from the community of practice Bridge to Excellence Grants & Research Management (Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria, IECS). The third webinar, centered on the co-creation of CSID tools, is scheduled to take place in the last week of September, so stay tuned!
CoP’s meeting screenshot showing some members outlining this year’s events on a collaborative document.
Henok Tadesse Bireda (Ethiopia)
For Henok and CSID-NET Ethiopia, this quarter has focused on preparing for the community’s next major gathering event. The community have been working to align the planned national CSID gathering with Ethiopia’s priority needs in climate-sensitive infectious disease surveillance and response. In parallel, they have been engaging national and international partners to explore potential support and sponsorship for the event, while continuing preparations for a gathering that can bring together stakeholders from across the CSID landscape.
Alongside these preparations, Henok has continued making progress on a simple climate-sensitive infectious disease forecasting pipeline. The work is still ongoing, but the aim is to develop a practical and open-source entry point into infectious disease forecasting and modeling that can be further developed and used for learning, preparedness, and early warning.
In the coming quarter, CSID-NET Ethiopia aims to complete these activities. The national CSID gathering will be undertaken alongside the planned CSID consultative workshop, creating a space to bring together stakeholders around shared priorities and future collaboration. They also aim to finalize the initial forecasting pipeline and continue building the tools and collaborative foundations of CSID-NET Ethiopia.
Angkana “Hat” T. Huang (Thailand)
Hat’s work this quarter focuses on three main pillars. Attending the CSIDNet Regional Gathering in Kanchanaburi was motivating. International exchanges and climate data integration took center stage there, and it underscored the need to build infrastructure and receptivity for CSID tools to take root, so that high-resolution climate data and advanced models can move from potential to real public health impact. Building a single unified infrastructure with the national office, instead of regional side patched systems, is urgent. Four regional disease control offices of Thailand’s Northeast, known locally as ISAN, have long championed knowledge sharing and were a natural choice to pilot this collaboration. When information technology (IT) staff from across the offices met online, a common thread emerged. Generic national systems fail to serve disease specific needs. IT teams are stretched thin, and disease managers lack the data skills to close the gap themselves. This is made harder by the fact that each office has built its own patchwork on a different technological stack, shaped by whatever resources it happened to have. Out of that conversation came a clear next step: choose a single disease issue as a focused pilot, and bring disease managers into the process to understand the real needs and design infrastructure that integrates into the national system. In parallel, receptivity also needs to be built. Together with Keerati and Thitiya at the Epidemic Simulation and Aetiology Nexus for Infectious Diseases (ESANID), we are crafting a workshop to demystify epidemic modeling: what it is, how it can support public health decisions, and how to interpret its results. It will be delivered on August 18 at the 2026 Community Public Health Council Annual Academic Conference, reaching people closest to communities.
Amber L. Abrams (South Africa)
Amber has formally launched the Water-Related Climate Sensitive Infectious Diseases Community of Practice (WRCSID CoP) and is looking for suggestions on a catchy name. The launch coincided with circulating an expression of interest form. The form looks to understand who is interested in the CoP and willing to share their expertise and knowledge, while developing an understanding for priority topics. To join, please fill in the form. The first few CoP meetings will take place this year. Agenda setting priority topics and calendaring are our top priorities.
Amber has presented the plans for the CoP in workshops and conferences in Cape Town since April, as well as through the Fellows hosted Townhall. In August she will present the CoP to a workshop at the University of Cape Town, and in September to a workshop convened through the 18th World Congress on Public Health. In these workshop settings, Abrams is working to understand key priority areas of focus, and mobilizing support for the CoP by developing an understanding of who is interested and willing to contribute; so far participation across sectors has been appreciated; public health, disaster risk recovery and local government sectors are really well represented. Next steps involve finalizing priority areas of focus for webinars and meetings, developing a calendar for these meetings, and continued hosting of workshops with local NGOs to develop co-learning spaces.
Amber is also a member of the training committee with whom she assisted in hosting a webinar in June. This webinar was led by Sisay Wonday, and provided insights into CSID Early warning systems for early detection. The webinar was held on 24 June 2026. The training committee will be hosting the rescheduled workshop led by Sebastian Bernal Garcia (originally scheduled for May 2026, but cancelled due to Sebastian’s accident) in September 2026 with plans to host one more workshop before year end.
What Now?
As we move into the second half of 2026, we welcome the further development of the regional communities of practice and fellows projects, as well as the start of hosting regional events. If you are interested to join us, make sure to check out our working groups, committees and upcoming regional gatherings.
About the Author
Amber Abrams is a Senior Research Officer at the Future Water research institute, based at the University of Cape Town. Through the CSIDNet Fellowship, Amber is working to build a learning and sharing community and network around water-related, climate-sensitive infectious diseases.