Led by: Dr Chandni Maria Jacob and Dr Wassim Dbouk
Date: 24 January
Location: Highfield Campus / Hybrid
Using the examples of two key organisations, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the session will cover the following questions:
What are the core functions of the organisations and how are they structured?
How do these organisations use research evidence in their activities, such as the development of guidelines?
How do they commonly engage with academic research? Examples will be shared from Southampton' academic engagement with the above organisations under the themes of health and climate change.
What are the main opportunities and challenges for academic engagement with them such as knowledge brokerage networks, and identifying pathways/mechanisms for academic-policy engagement?
Chandni is the Specialist Policy Officer for the Faculty of Environment and Life Sciences at Southampton and Research Coordinator Consultant, at WHO, in Geneva.
She is a medical doctor with an MSc in Public Health and holds a PhD in Human Development and Health. She has extensive experience in research on multiple life stages such as preconception, pregnancy and childhood and has collaborated with WHO Headquarters and EURO on relevant topics addressing life stages and life course.
She currently works with the Department of Universal Health Coverage - Life Course (WHO HQ) on a collaborative research to policy program 'Extending the Benefits of Healthy Ageing across the Life Course'. The programme aims to develop WHO guidelines to optimise and measure health trajectories that focus on person-centred health and support connecting each life stage (including children, adolescents, adults, older adults) in light of learning and evidence on life course approaches in practice.
Wassim is a Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute post-doctoral researcher in marine and maritime policy and the marine and maritime specialist policy officer at Public Policy|Southampton.
He has a background in maritime law, a broader interest in sustainable development, and an expertise in translating research into policy-informing evidence
Wassim has been part of the University’s delegation to meetings of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26, COP27, Bonn Climate Change Conference 2023 SB58) and has recently become part of the Lebanese delegation to those meetings.
In January 2023, Wassim delivered a presentation at the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Ocean where he shared his reflections on COP27 and what it entailed for the ocean.