ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1582550
This article is part of the Research TopicSystem Dynamics Modeling in Public Health: Implementations and ImplicationsView all 3 articles
Collective Learning for Resilience in Global South Cities: A Community-Based Systems Mapping Approach to Integrated Climate and Health Action
Provisionally accepted
Lidia Maria De Oliveira Morais1*
Elis Borde1
Lambed Tatah2Meelan Thondoo2
Feyisayo A Wayas3
Georgiana Gordon-Strachan4
Charles O. Obonyo5Felix Assah6Tolu Oni2Waleska Caiaffa1
Leandro Garcia7- 1Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- 2University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- 3University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- 4Caribbean Institute for Health Research, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica
- 5Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi, Kenya
- 6University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon
- 7Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
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Introduction: Cities in the Global South face escalating climate change challenges, including extreme weather events that disproportionately affect marginalized populations and exacerbate health risks, such as non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Climate resilience, defined as the capacity to adapt and recover from climate-related events, requires intersectoral collaboration between governments and civil society. Methods: This study employs a Community-based System Dynamics approach, leveraging shared learning across four cities-Belo Horizonte (BH, Brazil), Yaoundé (Cameroon), Kingston (Jamaica), and Kisumu (Kenya)-through the Global Diet and Activity Research Network (GDAR). An implementation of the method in BH is detailed, examining drivers and interdependencies shaping community-based climate resilience strategies against heavy rainfalls. Results: In BH, findings highlight the interplay between urbanization risks, vulnerabilities, heavy rainfall, and NCDs, with visibility, resources, education, and training identified as critical intervention points. Conclusions: This study underscores the importance of aligning community action with public policy and highlights opportunities for collective learning and resilience-building for climate change in Global South cities.
Keywords: Climate resilience, systems thinking, Community-based System Dynamics, Intersectorality, Global South, Climate change, Causal loop diagram, Urban Health (Max. 8)
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Morais, Borde, Tatah, Thondoo, Wayas, Gordon-Strachan, Obonyo, Assah, Oni, Caiaffa and Garcia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lidia Maria De Oliveira Morais, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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