The Indonesian Medical Education and Research Institute (IMERI) and Clinical Epidemiology and Evidence-based Medicine (CEEBM) Unit, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia had the chance to host the Catalysing Transformative Change in Planetary Health Education (CATA – Earth) Face to Face Meeting and Project Launching from August 6 to 8, 2024 at IMERI, Jakarta.
The Catalysing Transformative Change in Planetary Health Education (CATA – Earth) is a multi-year project that aims to develop a competency framework and educational program related to planetary health for students in health sciences. CATA – Earth project is funded by the European Commission through ERASMUS+ capacity building program and brings together 7 higher education institutions from the Netherlands (UMC Utrecht & Elevate BV), Spain (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), Bangladesh (Asian University for Women & Noakhali Science and Technology University), and Indonesia (Universitas Indonesia & Gadjah Mada University), along with 6 local stakeholders organizations and Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht (UMC Utrecht) as the project coordinator.
On the first day of the meeting, the consortium member representatives from the Netherlands, Spain, Bangladesh and Indonesia gathered for the first time and were welcomed by Prof. dr. Diantha Soemantri, MMedEd, PhD as the UI Project Coordinator at IMERI to discuss the project’s current progress and upcoming plan for every work package. The discussion was carried on well to the second day of the meeting and followed by the co-creation activity.
The Co-creation activity involved not only the consortium members, but also representatives from Universitas Indonesia’s Health Science Cluster, Faculty of Medicine from various universities in Jakarta, Dinas Pendidikan, Kesehatan dan Lingkungan Hidup Provinsi DKI Jakarta, Perhimpunan Dokter Keluarga Indonesia (PDKI), Yayasan Kusuma Buana, Pure Earth Indonesia, Pemerti Kali Code, Yayasan Keanekaragaman Hayati Indonesia and other related local organizations in a focused group discussion regarding the planetary health framework that had been drafted by the consortium members before.
The series of events was concluded with the Official Launch of CATA – Earth project on August 8, 2024. The official launch commenced with opening remarks from the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine UI (Prof. Dr. dr. Ari Fahrial Syam, Sp.PD-KGEH, MMB), UI Director of Research and Development (Munawar Khalil, S.Si.,M.Eng.Sc., Ph.D), and IMERI Director (Prof. dr. Badriul Hegar, PhD, SpA (K)).
During the official launch, George Downward MBChB, PhD from UMC Utrecht presented the CATA – Earth project overview, followed by a keynote speech from the Director of Environmental Health, Ministry of Health, Republic of Indonesia, dr. Anas Ma’ruf, MKM. The official launch was also attended by representatives from Universitas Indonesia’s Health Science Cluster, Academic Health System Hospitals, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Nuffic South East Asia, and co-creation activity participants.
