Advancing Societally Engaged and International Planetary Health Education: Innovations, Lessons, and Recommendations for Educators

The delivery of planetary health education continues to grow across many disciplines, institutions, and geographical regions. To equip students with the transformative competencies needed to become agents of change in the planetary health field, educators must adopt innovative educational approaches. The course Planetary Health and Climate Resilient Health Systems aimed to pioneer this effort by integrating challenge-based learning, community-engaged learning, and Collaborative Online International Learning within a collaboration between multiple universities in the Netherlands and one in the Philippines. The challenges encountered during its development revealed a significant gap between the recommendations and practices conceptualized and promoted in higher education, and the supportive structures available for implementing these innovations. This commentary outlines three key lessons learned from developing and delivering the course. It offers practical insights for educators worldwide to design and provide innovative, international, and societally engaged education to meet current and future planetary health challenges.