CSIDNet Outreach at the 2025 Pan-African Conference on Climate Change, Environment & Health
By Gerald Odhiambo and Angela Okune
The recently concluded Pan African Conference for Climate Change, Environment and Health which was held in Nairobi, Kenya gave CSIDNet a chance to engage with dozens of participants curious about its approach to community-led collaborations in climate-sensitive infectious disease work.
The three-day conference, organized by the Kenyan Ministry of Health and Ministry of Environment and Climate Change in partnership with regional institutions, brought together over 400 participants from 35 African countries. Represented by Gerald Odhiambo from the Governance Committee, and Angela Okune, (interim Managing Director), the network hosted a booth to share its work and connect with practitioners, researchers, and policymakers from across the African continent. We were delighted to reconnect in person with CSIDNet Finance Committee member, Haingotiana Rakoto from Madagascar whose attendance also helped deepen conversations around language diversity.
At our exhibition table, we highlighted how, in addition to facilitating opportunities to collaborate on CSID models and tools, our community creates opportunities for members to build essential professional skills like facilitating equitable group decisions and constructively navigating conflict. Many of the insights we shared drew from discussions at our Annual General Meeting held in July in Thailand. The booth attracted a steady stream of visitors eager to learn more about our work and explore ways to get involved.
Conference Themes We Found of Interest
Across the three days, discussions surfaced several cross-cutting concerns relevant to our community:
- Collaboration needs investment. Dr. Sam Oti from International Development Research Centre (IDRC) called on funders to intentionally set aside resources for coordination and warned against waiting for “perfect science” before acting. There is already enough evidence to begin shaping practice and policy.
- Regional hubs are growing. African Population and Health Research Center and Amref Health Africa both shared updates on climate-health evidence hubs currently being built or seeded across Africa. These networks aim to strengthen capacity and consolidate expertise.
- Measurement drives action. The Lancet Countdown team emphasized the importance of locally relevant indicators and the persistent gap in skilled capacity to generate and interpret data.
Throughout the conference, a few messages resonated strongly with CSIDNet’s mission:
- Trust is built through engagement, transparency, and shared value.
- Data-sharing requires relationships, not just technical infrastructure.
- People must be approached with empathy, not extractive agendas.
- Coordination across initiatives will prevent duplication, especially as more hubs come online. A nice quote stuck with us from the conversations – Professor Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi from the Lancet Countdown in Africa noted, “Don’t lead with an agenda, lead with empathy.”
Why It Matters for CSIDNet
As a network, we are actively exploring how to partner with newly established climate-health hubs to support evidence synthesis, strengthen capacity and build shared sociotechnical infrastructure for data and software stewardship. To this end, conversations of the Pan African Conference for Climate Change, Environment and Health affirmed that our community-of-practice model is well-timed, as we realised that many organizations are searching for opportunities to connect across continents, disciplines, and sectors.
Reviewed and Edited by: Sharon Tshipa, Chloé Morin (members of the CSIDNet Communications Committee)
About the Author
Gerald Odhiambo is a governance committee member of the CSID Network and a recent Biochemistry graduate from the University of Nairobi. He integrates his interests in climate change, infectious diseases, and epidemiology to understand how environmental shifts influence the transmission and evolution of infectious diseases in Kenya. He has contributed to malaria epidemiology research, focusing on parasite dynamics in response to climate change. At broader population scales, he is interested in how climate variability shapes disease patterns and health outcomes. Beyond research, Gerald is committed to advancing community-based approaches that strengthen public health resilience in climate-vulnerable regions.