Africa-Asia Health and Climate Change Fellowship

The Africa–Asia Health and Climate Change Fellowship Program is a fully online collaborative fellowship that connects emerging and mid-career leaders from Africa and Asia to accelerate practical solutions at the intersection of climate change, health, and sustainable development.

Rather than focusing primarily on lectures, the Fellowship is built around collaborative action-research and problem solving. Fellows work in multinational teams to address real climate-health challenges faced by governments, universities, hospitals, local communities, and civil society organizations. Throughout the program, participants exchange experiences across two continents, recognizing that many countries share common challenges—including heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food insecurity, water insecurity, air pollution, disaster preparedness, urban resilience, and climate financing for health systems.

Hosted by Climate Action Labs International (CALI), the Fellowship leverages the growing network of university-based Climate Action Labs as platforms for experimentation, knowledge exchange, and innovation. The Fellowship seeks to move beyond isolated training by cultivating a long-term community of practice capable of co-developing solutions, influencing policy, and supporting implementation within their own institutions and countries.

The program is delivered entirely online, making participation accessible regardless of geography while fostering continuous cross-border collaboration.

Objectives

The Fellowship aims to:

1. Build a network of climate-health leaders across Africa and Asia capable of collaborative action.

2. Develop practical climate-health innovations, policies, research, or implementation strategies through multidisciplinary international teams.

3. Strengthen institutional partnerships among universities, ministries, hospitals, NGOs, and development organizations.

4. Generate scalable knowledge products and collaborative initiatives that can continue beyond the Fellowship.

Fellowship Structure

Duration: 6-12 months 

Delivery Mode: 100% Online

Components include:

1. Self-Paced Learning

Curated readings, videos, case studies, and toolkits available through the online learning platform.

Participants complete modules at their own pace.

2. International Team Collaboration

Fellows are organized into diverse teams comprising members from multiple African and Asian countries.

Teams work throughout the Fellowship on a shared climate-health challenge selected from priority themes.

3. Monthly Global Check-in

Each month all Fellows participate in a 90-minute Zoom session featuring:

• Team progress updates

• Peer learning

• Guest speakers

• Case presentations

• Problem-solving discussions

• Networking across countries

These sessions maintain momentum while allowing flexibility for working professionals.

4. Team Coaching

Each team receives periodic mentoring from faculty members, practitioners, or subject matter experts drawn from the Climate Action Labs network.

5. Knowledge Exchange Platform

A shared online collaboration space enables Fellows to:

• Share resources

• Discuss challenges

• Exchange datasets

• Collaboratively draft reports

• Build partnerships beyond the Fellowship

Sample Challenge Areas

Teams may work on topics such as:

• Heat and urban health

• Climate-resilient primary healthcare

• Climate-informed disease surveillance

• Air pollution and health

• Food systems and nutrition

• Water security and public health

• Disaster preparedness and resilient health systems

• Mental health and climate anxiety

• Climate-health financing

• Hospital sustainability and decarbonization

• Community adaptation and health resilience

• Planetary health education

• Climate-health policy development

• Digital tools and AI for climate-health governance

Expected Outputs

Each Fellowship team produces one or more practical outputs such as:

• Policy brief

• Action research paper

• Local implementation roadmap

• Climate-health toolkit

• Innovation concept

• Grant proposal

• Pilot project design

• Cross-country comparative study

• University teaching resource

• Community engagement model

The emphasis is on producing outputs that can be adopted or implemented by partner institutions.

Target Participants

The Fellowship welcomes participants from Africa and Asia, including:

• Faculty members

• undergraduate and graduate students

• Public health professionals

• Ministry of Health officials

• Climate change practitioners

• Hospital leaders

• Local government officers

• NGO leaders

• Researchers

• Development professionals

• Early-career professionals interested in climate and health

Multidisciplinary participation is encouraged to enrich collaboration.

Guiding Principles

The Fellowship is built on several core principles:

• Learning through collaboration

• Practice over theory

• Cross-country knowledge exchange

• Multidisciplinary problem solving

• Open innovation

• Systems thinking

• Adaptive leadership

• Evidence-informed action

• Long-term partnerships

Role of Climate Action Labs

Climate Action Labs serve as the Fellowship's collaborative backbone by:

• Identifying local climate-health challenges

• Connecting researchers with practitioners

• Supporting pilot implementation

• Facilitating university-government partnerships

• Sharing innovations across the global CALI network

Rather than operating as isolated projects, Climate Action Labs become connected nodes within a growing Africa–Asia learning network.

Long-Term Vision

The Africa–Asia Climate Health Fellowship Program seeks to establish a durable community of climate-health innovators who continue collaborating beyond the formal Fellowship. Alumni become part of the Climate Action Labs International network, contributing as mentors, project partners, researchers, and faculty for future cohorts. Over time, this network can support joint research, policy dialogue, funding proposals, and implementation partnerships that strengthen climate resilience and health systems across both continents.