Counting Down to Nairobi

Now that the semester has ended and my round of conferences is over, I am counting down to my Environmental Policy Fellowship at the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya. My current plan is to start my 10 week fellowship at the UNEP in Nairobi on Mon July 25 after I have written the first two chapters of my dissertation. I have looked over the UNEP website and they are doing some really interesting things. The thematic areas that looked most interesting from the UNEP website were:

• South-South Cooperation, looking at local technology production and transfer within the Global South for environmentally sustainable initiatives
• Health, Gender & Environment, looking at the connections between health and the environment (this most closely combines my dissertation interests with work at UNEP)

As I anticipate learning more about my work assignment, I have begun thinking about the connections between the work that UNEP is doing and my dissertation research on avoidable blindness. Specifically, I am aware of the following connections:

Water and Sanitation Management & Avoidable Blindness by Infectious Diseases

• decreases in trachoma (low vision in 80 million people) and trichiasis (blindness in 11 million people; caused by trachoma) through aggressive programs on the African continent
• decreases in incidence of onchocerciasis (river blindness) on the African continent

Climate Change & Avoidable Blindness by Cataracts and Particulate Matter

• decreased ozone means increased ultraviolet radiation. High levels of UV radiation have been correlated with increased incidence of cataract disease (17 million people are blind worldwide due to cataract) a disease which predominantly affects low-income women
• unknown levels of particulate matter caused by the use of wood or coal burning stoves. This indoor air pollution has been implicated in cases of low vision (again predominantly affecting women) among many other diseases.

While I do not yet know what my assignment is I am looking forward to working with interesting people and learning about how an international institution such as the UN operates.