Ongoing Projects:
Project: Global health treaties to tackle the global polycrisis in an era of nationalism and populism: what factors impact consensus building?
This project explores how countries build consensus on major global health treaties, using the recent Pandemic Agreement negotiations and past successes like the WHO Tobacco Control treaty and the Paris Agreement as case studies. By identifying what helps or hinders international cooperation, the team aims to offer practical recommendations to improve future treaty negotiations and strengthen global health governance.
Led by Dr. Joanne Liu.
Project: Toward a Pan-Canadian Civilian Emergency Reserve
Canada鈥檚 public health and emergency systems are facing increasingly frequent and complex crises鈥攆rom pandemics and climate-related disasters to toxic drug deaths and growing health inequities, without a coordinated civilian surge capacity to support response and recovery. In the absence of a national civilian reserve, provinces and territories have relied heavily on the Canadian Armed Forces, an approach that is costly, unsustainable, and misaligned with military mandates. While several provinces have begun developing civilian emergency reserves, these efforts remain fragmented and disconnected from federal, Indigenous, and public health systems. This project examines how Canada can build a coordinated, equitable, all-hazard Pan-Canadian Civilian Emergency Reserve that strengthens public health resilience, reduces reliance on the military, and supports communities before, during, and after emergencies, drawing on public health systems research, economic analysis, and stakeholder co-design to inform practical, scalable solutions.