Intersectoral Municipal Leadership for Health in Latin America

This project aims to build ecohealth leadership at the municipal level in Colombia and Venezuela to address health priorities, including vector-borne diseases and food systems interventions for non-communicable disease prevention. Dengue fever and chikungunya In Colombia and Venezuela, research and governmental institutions from the Latin American Ecohealth Leadership Consortium on Vector-borne Diseases have decreased Aedes mosquito populations significantly through municipal interventions. This mosquito is responsible for transmitting two viral diseases: dengue fever and chikungunya. Dengue and chikungunya interventions will be scaled up in three affected municipalities. Both diseases are responsible for rapidly growing health and economic burdens in the two countries. The project is expected to generate new knowledge on factors affecting policy adoption and scaling up: -institutional capacity gaps -early involvement and leadership of municipal players -good governance -costs -validating impact on disease incidence The evidence should help researchers and governments replicate the project at a larger scale. National and municipal governments and the World Health Organization are providing co-funding for the project. Food systems, healthy diet, and incentives The food systems and healthy diets study will take place in a rural municipality of Colombia. This region has one of the highest agricultural outputs in the country. However, it also has high rates of malnutrition among children and obesity in adult populations. The study will analyze local factors associated with the rise of obesity and diabetes, such as food systems and lifestyle determinants that favour unhealthy diets in rural areas. In the study's second step, researchers will pilot test an inter-sector approach. The aim is to promote municipal regulatory incentives for food and health systems, and community and workplace environments. Researchers will use a participatory methodology that involves multi-sector municipal committees, together with qualitative and quantitative methods. Testing ways to decrease diseases The project will analyze the feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of scaling up interventions aimed at dealing with two emerging mosquito-borne diseases. The food and healthy diets study will analyze the basic food basket per home, family anthropometric indicators for nutritional status (underweight, stunting, etc.), feeding habits, and blood glucose levels. The project is expected to contribute to -stronger municipal players acting as public health leaders -effective scaled up solutions that decrease dengue and chikungunya incidence rates -municipal inter-sectoral approaches that contribute to preventing obesity and diabetes