Foreword - IDL-BNC @ IDRC - International Development Research ...

1 Ecohealth: Origins and Approach
on health, the World Bank and partners have developed an extensive agriculture and
gender sourcebook that includes training modules for many different contexts relevant
to ecohealth research (gender and food security, livelihoods, and crises) (World
Bank, FAO, IFAD 2009 ) . Others have presented the case for integrating social and
gender analysis in development research (Vernooy 2006 ) . Beyond the development
and adaptation of analytical tools, there is a need for further conceptual development
of the implications of gender and social inequities in ecohealth research, education,
and practice. This appears to be an area ripe for new contributions from
experiences in ecohealth research.
Principle 6: Knowledge to Action
The notion that knowledge from research is used to improve health and well-being
through an improved environment is fundamental to an ecosystem approach to
health. A variety of terms are used to describe this process, but in the context of
ecohealth, knowledge-to-action is preferred to the commonly-used knowledge
translation . The point is not to achieve some near-prefect level of knowledge before
making a change (the translation). In transdisciplinary and participatory research
involving decision-makers, the situation may be changing while new knowledge is
being produced over time through a series of research–action cycles. Other authors
have defi ned knowledge-to-action in health research to include trailoring of knowledge
and a defi ned number of steps for sustained use of knowledge (Graham et al.
2006 ), but these steps are not always applicable in ecohealth research.
That research conditions change at the onset of participatory research is widely
understood in social science research (e.g. Bernard 2000 ) , but is not as commonly
considered in public health. Many of the case studies in this book describe in detail
how the research became an ongoing intervention process, and yet some of them
also invoke epidemiological designs like case-control studies, wherein conditions
are assumed to remain the same or where changes are measured and controlled in
the analysis. This tension between scientifi c endeavour and action to improve sometimes
terrible conditions of people and their environment is characteristic of ecohealth
research. Researchers have a responsibility to be aware of this tension and to
document both pre-existing conditions and changes wrought by the research process.
Outcome mapping (Earl et al. 2001 ) can be a useful tool for this.
The innovations, actions, and changes that result from ecohealth research involve
multiple sectors, agencies, and stakeholders. In addition, ecohealth research may
generate unintended positive (and sometimes negative) outcomes that can be diffi -
cult to link to the results of research or to the original research question. Ethical
dilemmas are expected to arise – and researchers who anticipate and consider these
beforehand are sometimes better equipped to navigate them (Funtowicz and Ravetz
2008 ; Lambert et al. 2003 ) .
There is already a strong emphasis on uptake and application of knowledge in
public health (Pablos-Mendez et al. 2005 ; WHO 2004 ) as refl ected in the concepts
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