Quotes from a Poet (Mary Between Parasites and Planets: Science - PDF document

Quotes from a Poet (Mary Between Parasites and Planets: Science Oliver) in the Muggled Middle To pay attention, this is our endless and proper David Waltner-Toews Community of Practice for Ecosystem Approaches to Health – Canada work. CoPEH-South and Southeast Asia Veterinarians without Borders/ Vétérinaires sans Frontières Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health Look, I want to love this world Population Medicine, University of Guelph Dirk Gently Gang as though it’s the last chance I’m ever going to get to be alive and know it At the other end there is At the one end there is An example: the parasitic cycle of echinococcosis (Hydatid Disease) Dog Infection rate Feces disposal In the middle there is Canine behaviour Access to infected offal Death Tapeworm Causes and places of death Hygiene Human-Dog Cultural and Relationships dietary habits Occupation Person with cyst Ruminant Economics with cyst

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1991- 1994: Intensive Conventional Proposed solutions Investigations • Estimated infection rates in dogs & people • Build new slaughterhouses (Denmark) • Identified risk factors • Animal Safety & Inspection Act & regulations (Denmark & Nepal) • Suggested certain possible solutions & • Ensure garbage collection & clean the controls (controlling risk factors) streets (GTZ) • Provide information for public education • Treat house dogs and kill street dogs program (television) (Various Health Agencies) 1991-1994 - Nothing Changed - Why? Problems with our approach • Inappropriate theory • Inappropriate action • Inappropriate goals Reducing the problem to fit the models: An Epidemiological Risk Factor Model Of Hydatid Disease in Kathmandu People don’t People Outdoor Dogs Eat Dogs Defecate Wash Get Butchering Offal In House hands Sick

Simple Systems An alternative to linear models: Thinking in Systems • S imple systems: linear, stable equilibrium, cause • Everything is of course connected & effect, predictable systems. Respond with expertise: If you are in a car accident, you want – Therefore everything we do has unintended experts who know what to do for your broken leg, consequences and others who know how to fix the broken car! • Scholarly Response: modeling • Not all things are connected in the same • Practical response: good education and training. way (strength, directness, time & spatial Hierarchy of command. Efficiency is good. lags) – Therefore not all consequences are worth paying attention to Complex Systems Complicated Systems • Complex systems: complex systems are descriptions of • Complicated : big or messy simple systems – you can complexity. There are many such descriptions possible – create quantitative models. Still expert-reliant but observer dependent. Raising children and managing need more checks and balances as the math is sustainable food systems are activities for which one would difficult: epidemic modeling (?), sending a landing invoke complex systems of practice. craft to Mars. • Complexity Issues (all contentious): Feedback loops • Scholarly Response: Modeling (uncertainty); Scale (boundaries, stakeholders); Multiple Perspectives (whose version counts?) • Practical Response: Good education and training. Build redundancy into the system – lots of checks and • Scholarly Responses: Scenarios, Principles, Narratives balances. Effectiveness is better than efficiency. • Practical Responses: Expand the peer group. Iterate across temporal and spatial scales. A different simplification The World Body is not Flat! Drug and alcohol abuse Noise pollution International Community Nation Air pollution Stray dogs Street vendors Who are What are the Awareness in Regional Landscape Human health the key Key Issues? Slaughter House Actors? Water quality hygiene Open drains Geographic Community garbage Water availability management Household Squatter areas Individual Land availability Population literacy density Family planning Urban immigration Scale - a nested hierarchy A influences B only Bi-directional influence, A -> b and b-> A Figure !

Whose Story Who decides? Who decides who Counts More? decides? • Some perspectives may be privileged reasons of gender, values, power, wealth, sustainability. • Some perspectives are based on fear, fantasy and ideology and absence of evidence. • Take ownership! Multiple Perspectives Butchers were providing a service, but also carrying on family, caste and Dogs were a source of disease, but also community police and companions cultural traditions Garbage collection is the responsibility of multiple jurisdictions, and all are Whose story is this? Why isn’t she in school? under-funded

I think I found the Problem I’d better ! go back to school Neither Pass an Animal Health act? Ecosystem approaches to health • Systemic, participatory approaches to understanding and AMESH promoting health and wellbeing in the context of complex social- ecological interactions . David Waltner-Toews • Encompass concerns for both systemic outcomes and appropriate process. Analysis of: 2 Entry point Presenting Situation: Entry point and initial 1 Stakeholders description - Why are you here? Presenting Issues Issues Governance • Guiding Questions The Given History – How did the current situation come about? Interactions among social, economic, and Collaborative Learning and Action 3 People and Their Stories political developments? Monitoring and Evaluation: 7 – Who have been the agents of change? At what scale? Understanding Social-Ecological Systems Implementation 4 Understanding Understanding Nature Culture • Methods – Government Documents, Design of an adaptive approach 6 5 Literature What are the options: constraints and Trade-offs & Solutions. Where do people want to go opportunities

Analysis of the relationships among stakeholders, Stakeholder analysis issues and governance: Issues • Guiding Questions – Stakeholder identification & analysis • Guiding Questions – How do we identify the stakeholders? Who are they? – What are the critical issues, and how to the relate to – What are the relationships among and between stakeholder groups each other? (coalitions, conflicts)? – At what spatial and temporal scales do these occur? – Who is making the key decisions? – For which stakeholder groups are these issues critical? – Who benefits from the system as it is? Who loses? Who is excluded? – What happens if you exclude one stakeholder group? – How does gender affect people’s roles and opportunities to participate? – What are the roles of researchers? How are they viewed by the community? What kind of power do the researchers have? Multiple narratives: a more complex history Analysis of the relationships among stakeholders, • Guiding Questions issues and governance: Policies – What stories do the different groups tell about how the current situation came to be? These include • Guiding Questions stories by virologists and economists as well as – What are the important rules and policies that influence the various farmers and village animal health workers, and issues? – Which of these are explicit (published, formal) and which are both men and women. implicit (gender, economics, cultural). – What is the main purpose of the system from each – Do these enable or hinder the development of solutions? stakeholder group’s perspective? – Who creates those rules and policies? Are they local, national, international? • Methods: Interviews, key informants, • Methods: Mixed methods – literature, focus groups, key stakeholder-specific focus groups, literature informants Systems analysis Systems Synthesis • Guiding Questions – What are the key ecological and social processes that define the system? • Guiding Questions – What are the important spatial and temporal scales of – What are some possible scenarios and visions observation? (individuals? Households? Landscapes? for the future, what are the conditions under Measured over a week? A year? Ten years? – eg climate which they might occur, and what are the trade- change takes many decades to discern; rainfall and nutrition might be over years; disease patterns over months). offs? – How do the variables related to each other? – What are some feasible and desirable • Methods: Multiple qualitative and quantitative management actions models, rich pictures, influence diagrams, GIS, – Methods: scenario development, looking at Complex Systems Models how subsystems related to each other