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Communities: Centre on Global Change and Health
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Designed by Adrian Cousins
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London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  Climate Change  Communicable Disease  Communities  Economy  Energy  Governance  Security  Tobacco Control 
Participatory Research with Communities
Ensuring environmental justice requires policies and actions which treat people equitably, and policies and actions to address current and historical injustices. Environmental justice also cuts across many policy areas: health, transport, housing, employment, waste, and policies for many social groups.
Research shows that to achieve environmental justice, a change in policy and practice is needed in participation and capacity. Decision-making should involve those affected, and those groups or individuals enduring environmental injustices need support in order to increase their control over decisions which affect them.

As recognised by the Århus Convention (1988), governments and public authorities have obligations regarding access to information and public participation and access to justice. Specifically, every person has the right to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being.... The main pillars of the convention are three ‘enabling’ rights:
  • The right to know - rights to environmental information

  • The right to participate in decision making processes - the right to be consulted and participate in proposals, plans or activities

  • The right to access to justice - a guaranteed right to the enforcement of the above rights via access to courts or other independent bodies

To further the achievement of these “rights”, we have developed participatory methods to address environment and health decision-making in a range of communities, and environmental issues. The Transport and Health project was conducted in four different London boroughs, and involved the New Horizons Programme, Department of Transport, Local Governments and the Regions, as well as the Community Development Foundation. The students from local schools started working with them to find out what health and transport problems the children were facing.


Projects
  • Our health and transport

  • European Latin American Alliance for Telemedicine to reach isolated communities in Peru, Cuba and Colombia.

  • "Las Semillas de La Vidaî Participatory Evaluation of organic agriculture and health in NW Argentina. A three year study of organic agriculture and food security in North-West Argentina using popular epidemiology.
  • It's our Science, our Society, our Health: a collaborative research project to engage low income children in public health science.
 
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