WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN CLIMATE-SENSITIVE INFECTIOUS DISEASES POLICY IN SOUTH AMERICA

Director: Romina Rekers

This project is supported by the Oxford-Johns Hopkins Global Infectious Disease Ethics Collaborative (GLIDE). GLIDE is funded by a Wellcome Humanities and Social Science Award.

The greater degree of vulnerability of women to climate-health impacts demands their inclusion as a target group in adaptation policies and their participation in the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of climate-health policy. However, formal and informal participation is often constrained by gender. In the South American region, progress in this direction is still limited.

In this project, we aim to identify the ethical training that women's organisations' members need to participate in developing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating national climate-health adaptation policies. Women's participation can significantly contribute to embedding the climate-health policy of ethics. Women´s contribution to the identification of necessities, priorities, and pathways toward climate-resilient health policies is particularly relevant in the area of climate-sensitive infectious disease.

In this project, we will conduct a series of ethics conversations with members of women's organisations in South America to map the key aspects of climate-sensitive infectious disease ethics. For this, we developed a method that we call Transdisciplinary Reflective Equilibrium. This method integrates dynamic public reflective equilibrium with transdisciplinary research. It involves 1) an ethical conversation with social impact, in which 2) participants' views have equal value and are not just supplies for philosophical reflection. In these conversations, 3) participants' views are relevant in two moments: a. in the identification of the relevant ethical principles, the background theories, and the considered moral judgements at stake and b. in the revision of the principles and judgements. 4) the outcome of this conversation is normative rather than statistical.

RESEARCH TEAM 

Director - Romina Rekers

Postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Graz. Currently leading the project "A political conception of transitional justice", funded by the FWF. She is also a Research Associate in the project Global Health Justice: Duties of International Cooperation for Infectious Disease Control at the Oxford-Johns Hopkins Global Infectious Disease Ethics Collaborative (GLIDE). She serves as a mentor at the Fogarty International Center at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is a member of the editorial committee of the Latin American Journal of Political Philosophy. Her research was supported by grants from the Argentine Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Contact: romina.rekers@uni-graz.at

Assistant Researcher - Carlos Yabar

Biologist, Federico Villarreal National University (Peru). Master in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia (Peru). PhD in Biological Sciences, National University of San Marcos (Peru). Diploma in Bioethics, FLACSO (Argentina). Researcher and President of the Institutional Committee of Research Ethics of the National Institute of Health of Peru. Research professor at the San Martín de Porres University (Peru) and the National University of Trujillo (Peru). Reviewer of the Pan American Journal of Public Health since April 2015. Principal investigator and co-investigator of several research projects in Molecular Biology and Bioethics. He has 22 scientific publications and 24 recognitions.

Assistant Researcher - Cintia Rodríguez Garat

She is a PhD candidate in Philosophy from the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences of the National University of La Plata. Master in Philosophy from the National University of Quilmes. She is a Fogarty International Center (FIC) - National Cancer Institute (NCI) Scholar from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO, Academic Headquarters of Argentina) of the Training Program in Research Ethics in the Master's in Bioethics. She has a Higher Degree Bioethics (FLACSO). She completed postgraduate studies in Political Science and Sociology (FLACSO); and she has a Higher Degree in Special Educational Needs, Inclusive Practices and Autism Spectrum Disorders (FLACSO).

Assistant Researcher - Victoria Gerbaldo

Lawyer (National University of Córdoba), Outstanding Graduate and University Award 2016. She is working on the Master's Degree Thesis in Law and Argumentation (National University of Córdoba). Teaching Assistant in Constitutional Law. She participates in research groups on human rights, public health and philosophy of law. She has coordinated work teams related to accountability, transparency and strategic litigation.

Assistant Researcher - Marcia Videla Ayala

Lawyer by the National University of Córdoba. Trajectory in Public Policies from a rights, gender and inclusion approach.
Director of formal and non-formal education spaces for youth and adults. Coordinator of workshops and trainings on human rights in prisons.

Assistant Researcher - Lucas Rekers

Climate policy adviser. Lead Auditor ISO IQNet 14001 and 50001. Environmental educator. Student of the Bachelor's Degree in Political Science at Universidad Tres de Febrero.