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Salzburg Global Takes Active Role in Discussions at International Meetings on Planetary Health
Clare Shine and other participants at this year's strategic event held by the InterAction Council (Picture: Helen Corvus)
Salzburg Global Takes Active Role in Discussions at International Meetings on Planetary Health
By: Oscar Tollast 

Clare Shine presents at events organized by the InterAction Council and the Planetary Health Alliance

Salzburg Global Seminar has reaffirmed its commitment to helping create healthier and more inclusive societies after taking part in a strategic event held by the InterAction Council.

Clare Shine, vice president and chief program officer of Salzburg Global, was invited to take part in a high-level planning meeting on Monday, May 28 to design a roadmap for Collaborative Action on “One Health for People and Planet.”

Shine was one of a select group of participants invited to Edinburgh to help build on the Dublin Charter for One Health, adopted by the Council in June 2017.

The Dublin Charter for One Health calls for the strengthening of multi-sector solutions to enable the Sustainable Development Goals. It advocates for preventative approaches for peace and security and resilience in emerging threats. It highlights the need for the mainstreaming of One Health within health systems for universal health coverage and the strengthening of One Health governance mechanisms for systems reform. Last, but not least, it calls for the building of planetary health leadership for future generations.

Shine presented to the group on the topic of planetary health, outlining the challenges to and opportunities for scaling up action. After lunch, Shine moderated a panel discussion on multi-sector responses that could enhance a healthy planet for all. This discussion included Dr Mandeep Dhaliwal, director of HIV, Health and Development Practice, UNDP; Sophie Howe, commissioner for future generations, Welsh Government; Professor Virginia Murray, from Global Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Health England; Judith Diment, a Rotary International representative to the Commonwealth; Dr Fiona Adshead, deputy CEO and director of strategy and partnerships at the NCD Alliance; and Professor Vajira Dissanayake, president of the Commonwealth Medical Association.

Salzburg Global Fellows, including Tracey Cooper, chief executive of Public Health Wales, and Joanna Nurse, strategic advisor for InterAction Council, were also present at the meeting.

Shine said, “Wherever we live, our health, security and life chances will increasingly depend on the health of our planet, climate, and natural systems - which are themselves fundamental to sustainable economies in a fast-urbanizing world. Given Salzburg Global’s commitment to transform systems for healthy and inclusive societies, we are delighted to work with the Interaction Council, composed of former heads of state, to advance the One Health for People and Planet agenda as a framework for the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The InterAction Council, established in 1983, consists of former world leaders and former heads of government. It is co-chaired by Bertie Ahern, from Ireland, and Olusegun Obasanjo, from Nigeria.  The outcomes of this meeting will be under discussion at the next InterAction Council Plenary session, which will be held in China later this year.

This meeting acted as a precursor to the second Planetary Health Annual Meeting, which took place in Edinburgh between May 29 and 31. This event aimed to “bring together new communities around the world to stimulate interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration towards ground-breaking solutions to major planetary health challenges.”

The three-day event included keynote addresses, panel discussions, and networking opportunities. Topics under discussion included food, nutrition, environmental change, mental health, agriculture, and animals.

On Wednesday, May 30, Shine spoke as part of program event titled, “Solution Space: Creating and Collaborating.” She will reflect on nature, cities, and children’s well-being while discussing the work and impact of Salzburg Global’s Parks for the Planet Forum.

For more information on the Planetary Health Annual Meeting, click here. Review live coverage of the meeting on Twitter using the #planetaryhealth2018 hashtag.

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Salzburg Global Session Highlighted in International Journal for Quality in Health Care
Participants in discussion during the Salzburg Global session, Better Health Care: How do we learn about improvement?Participants in discussion during the Salzburg Global session, Better Health Care: How do we learn about improvement?
Salzburg Global Session Highlighted in International Journal for Quality in Health Care
By: Oscar Tollast 

Supplement featuring several peer-reviewed articles reflects on discussions at Salzburg Global health session

A supplement highlighting the conclusions reached after a Salzburg Global Seminar session has been published in the International Journal for Quality Health Care (ISQua).

The publication, authored by M. Rashad Massoud, Leighann E Kimble, Don Goldmann, John Ovretveit, and Nancy Dixson, reflects on the discussions and deliberations which took place at Better Health Care: How do we learn about improvement?, a session held in July 2016.

This program sought to examine how health and health care professionals could better understand how results achieved were attributable to interventions conducted.

In the background section of the supplement, readers are informed, “The field is at a stage where we must now improve our understanding of how we learn about the changes we test and implement. This means that we need to better understand whether or not the results being realized are related to the interventions we are testing and implementing. If so, we must also understand to what extent, how they worked and why, as well as whether the changes are generalizable or only specific to that context. The answers to these questions are not straightforward. The purpose of the Salzburg Global Seminar — Session 565 was to convene and address these questions and to think through how to approach this concern emerging in the field of quality improvement.”

Following an informative four-day program, participants took away knowledge to help in the design, implementation, and evaluation of improvement. They also left Salzburg with a greater understanding of which activities under which conditions were most effective at achieving sustained results in health outcomes.

Salzburg Global organized the session in partnership with the USAID ASSIST Project and the New Ventures Fund. M. Rashad Massoud, director of the USAID ASSIST Project and senior vice president of the Quality and Performance Institute at University Research Co, took on the role as session chair.

Work undertaken at the session helped enable several peer-reviewed articles to be included in the supplement, all of which address a key component of the discussions which took place.

Among the conclusions reached, the authors behind the supplement agreed, “The session quickly revealed that to find solutions to these issues, implementers, evaluators and researchers must work together to better learn about improvement activities. This is in contrast to the current situation in which evaluators too often work independently, rather than collaboratively, with improvement program designers and implementers…

“… In essence, participants concluded that the principal accomplishment of the Seminar was to ‘marry’ the world of improvement and evaluation to bridge gaps. A ‘wedding ceremony’ between rigorous implementation and insightful evaluation concluded the Seminar in the inspiring environment of the Schloss Leopoldskron and its magical surroundings where the 'Sound of Music' was filmed.”

To read the supplement published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care, please click here. To learn more about Better Health Care: How do we learn about improvement? and explore other related articles, please click here. Salzburg Global’s report of the session can be read below.

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Research Communication Takeaways from Interdisciplinary Research for the SDGs
Participants in discussion during Salzburg Global session Climate Change, Conflict, Health and Education: Targeting Interdisciplinary Research to Meet the SDGs. (Photo by: Herman Seidl/Salzburg Global Seminar)
Research Communication Takeaways from Interdisciplinary Research for the SDGs
By: Sajid Chowdhury 

Fellow reflects on his experience at Salzburg Global and identifies his key takeaways from the session

This op-ed was written by Sajid Chowdhury, director at Big Blue Communications. Chowdhury attended the Salzburg Global Seminar session, Climate Change, Conflict, Health and Education: Targeting Interdisciplinary Research to Meet the SDGs.

In March, I joined a brilliant three-day seminar of 60+ researchers, funders and policymakers brought together to highlight opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinary research in meeting Sustainable Development Goals.

The session was convened by Salzburg Global Seminar in partnership with the UK Global Challenges Research Fund and with UK Research and Innovation.

Salzburg Global has held 500+ similar events since post-World War II, bringing people together to address complex challenges and build networks.

Interdisciplinary research is what it sounds like. It brings together minds from diverse fields, attempts to break siloed thinking, and tackles research challenges from varied viewpoints. It also has challenges. According to journal Nature in 2015: ‘Research that transcends conventional academic boundaries is harder to fund, do, review and publish — and those who attempt it struggle for recognition and advancement.’ This sentiment was echoed through the seminar.

Through interactive exercises and discussions, we mapped interlinkages and tensions between the SDGs that relate to four sectors of climate change, conflict, health, and education. We also discussed strategies for communicating complexity and shaping policy to help countries meet those SDGs. Finally, we jointly offered recommendations to research funders, policymakers, and practitioners for future research.

Day 3 Panel: ‘Communication for the Infobesity Era’

On Day 3, our four-person panel discussed research communication in an era of information overload. How can communicators compete for audiences’ attention? How can research teams ensure that their engagement with audiences is meaningful, relevant, and current? Where do concepts such as social media, mobile phones, fake news, and increasingly aggravated perceptions of 'experts' fit in? My take:

  • More than ever, research findings must compete with a whole lot of other messaging. That means research communication should be targeted, with the fat trimmed off so that a journalist or politician or citizen can understand the important bits right away.
  • By nature, research findings can be complex, and complexity takes time to clarify. Assuming that audiences such as citizens and government representatives and politicians may not have much time, then it makes sense for research teams to ensure their messages are clear, compact, and punchy.
  • Research findings will often need to exist in different formats, whether as news, a series of memorable events, communication campaign, or visual experience featuring stories that audiences can connect with. This can be a new, but exciting, world for research teams that may be more accustomed to [the] production of written content for academic publications.
  • For research teams that want to rise above the noise, there is incredible value in finding great communicators. Just as there are people who love conducting cutting-edge research, equally, there are people who love to communicate it.

A great starting point, then, is for research teams to align with people who know and love research communication. Yes, information overload is real, but there are also tremendous storytelling opportunities for research teams that take the plunge into the world of faster, visual, online communication.

Four Key Research Communication Takeaways from Salzburg

Not everyone sees science and research in the same way. In general, researchers see empirical knowledge, science, and expertise as necessary, but they are not the ‘be all, end all’ to influence behavior and lead to positive change. Some audiences may just value science and research differently or may see research as vulnerable to politics, corruption, and falsification.

Dialogue, not dissemination. Researchers can tend to see ‘communication’ as one-way, and indeed, this is reflected even right down to project terms of reference, when research teams are asked by donor teams to produce a ‘dissemination’ strategy that assumes that production will lead to uptake. But at Salzburg, we repeatedly returned to the idea that localized, contextualized dialogue and conversation can be more effective creators of change.

Communication throughout the research process. Communication and conversation around research needs to start before the research, not as an add-on at the end.

Involve communicators, and craft your research messages. We talk about the gap between research and policymakers, but this overlooks communities and citizens. For well-thought communication, researchers need to consider message, language, and medium.


The session, Climate Change, Conflict, Health and Education: Targeting Interdisciplinary Research to Meet the SDGs, was held in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). More information on the session can be found here.To join in the discussions online, follow the hashtag #SGSsdgs on Twitter.
 

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The Asia We Want - A Clean and Green Asia
The Asia We Want - A Clean and Green Asia
By: Salzburg Global Semianr 

Report from the first in new series on regional cooperation in Asia offers innovative solutions to achieve “a clean and green Asia”

In November 2017, as the world met in Bonn, Germany to agree upon the finer details of the Paris Agreement, 25 young Asian leaders gathered in Salzburg, Austria to develop a shared vision of a “Clean and Green Asia,” strengthen commitment to sustainable and equitable development that is inspired and informed by inter-regional cooperation, and to advance innovative approaches to environmental sustainability and inclusive low-carbon development in their communities. 

The inaugural session of the new, multi-year program The Asia We Want: Building Community through Regional Cooperation, supported through a generous grant by the Japan Foundation and with support from the Korea and Nippon Foundations, was the first step to form a network of dynamic young leaders from across the region and to build their capacity to work together to address such environmental, climate and energy concerns.

Over three intensive days, the 25 leaders heard from veterans in the region and devised their own innovative projects to achieve “a clean and green Asia”: promoting regional, integrated approaches to address air quality; catalyzing small, sustainable and scalable (3S) financing; encouraging community-led waste management schemes; and designing a framework for multiple sectors to achieve goals in contributing to a low-carbon or decarbonized society.

“Rising leaders in Asia are aware of their responsibility to steer transition to sustainable and climate resilient economies and are strongly committed to Asian community development inspired by cooperation at local and global levels,” said Tatsiana Lintouskaya, Program Director, Salzburg Global Seminar.

“Our new multi-year program, The Asia We Want: Building Sustainable Communities Through Regional Cooperation, is there to support and empower young leaders working to advance inclusive low-carbon development in their communities. We aim to expand this program in the coming years and build a dynamic cross-border network for practical collaboration and lasting results in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The report, written by Lintouskaya and Salzburg Global Fellow Roli Mahajan, was dedicated in memory of multi-time Fellow and friend of Salzburg Global Seminar, Surin Pitsuwan. The former secretary general of ASEAN died three weeks after helping to facilitate the November 2017 session. 

The report also compiles the Fellows and facilitators’ insightful and often provocative op-eds written ahead of the session. A full list of their op-eds is available below.

Download the report as a PDF

Marifrance Avila – “For us to achieve the Asia that we want, we need to start with achieving the country that we want”

Wilson John Barbon – “Disasters are not natural phenomena. They are the result of human and social conditions”

Xixi Chen – We need integrated, collaborative and bottom-up leadership to build a cleaner and greener Asia

Sandeep Choudhury – “Asia we want should be one based on equitable growth and not the disparity we see today between the rich and the poor”

Chochoe Devaporihartakula – A clean and green Asia needs compliance and transparency

Salinee Hurley – Replacing kerosene with solar power: an incomparable way to mitigate climate change

Abner Lawangen – “Asia can truly be a resilient towering continent if all countries pull together”

Tari Lestari – “A clean energy transition is the only way to create a better future for Asia”

Roli Mahajan – The case for mandatory environmental service

Niall O’Connor – We need to take a “business as unusual” approach

Minh Nguyet Pham – “Air pollution is a spider web”

Magdalena Seol – Business and Investment Can Drive a More Sustainable Asia

Trinnawat Suwanprik – “We must know the past, understand the present, and plan for the future”

Qingchan Yu – “A credible alternative to fossil fuels is critical”

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Keshav Jha - Cities Are Leading the Battle for Climate Change
Keshav Jha (center) in conversation at Salzburg Global SeminarKeshav Jha (center) in conversation at Salzburg Global Seminar
Keshav Jha - Cities Are Leading the Battle for Climate Change
By: Oscar Tollast 

ICLEI South Asia's Senior Officer discusses his relationship with Salzburg Global Seminar and taking the work forward

Keshav Jha is focused on promoting the transfer of knowledge and expertise in Asia-Pacific. In his role as a senior officer at the Energy & Climate Division of ICLEI South Asia, he is looking to improve mitigation and adaptation measures in Asian cities. He has assisted number of emerging countries and subnational authorities on low-carbon climate-resilient development and is currently developing the sustainable urban development framework for a growth-triangle involving Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. He has also recently co-authored a case analysis on resilient economies from emerging countries in the Asia-Pacific region which was published by Springer International Publishing, Cham, Switzerland. It’s this background and expertise which brought him back to Salzburg Global Seminar.

Jha took part of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation – The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I – A Clean and Green Asia. Working alongside 29 other participants, representing 14 countries, Jha represented India and sought to address key questions around sustainable development and ensuring a low-carbon future.

Describing his latest experience in Salzburg as “constructive,” Jha said Fellows had discussed the frameworks and processes to assist countries on their low emission ambitions and sustainable development goals. He says, “We have a unique set of professionals from different countries with varied background who have shared their insight and their dynamic situations in which they perform…” It’s not just about defining processes, however. It’s about building on this thinking and moving forward.

“Fellows are going to individually test those iterative frameworks back in their home countries dynamic settings,” Jha added. “It’s important to document the processes experience, outcomes and challenges that we encounter. Eventually, the process outcomes will be disseminated with larger audiences and public/private sectors stakeholders for its wider visibility and recognition and replicability across Asia.”

The UN publication, The World’s Cities in 2016,  suggested by 2030, “urban areas are projected to house 60 per cent of people globally and one in every three people will live in cities with at least half a million inhabitants.” Jha believes the rise of the global urban population will present an unparalleled amount of challenges and opportunities. He said, “Cities [are] where the main actions are happening and countries do not realize the cost-of-inaction which is getting unaffordable for number of least developed and island countries. I feel this discussion [at the session] is extremely crucial with respect to the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement to achieve climate neutrality and a low-emission world in the second half of the century.” By infusing this wisdom into day-to-day work, Jha says we can move forward quickly on the low carbon development agenda.

One idea proposed to participants was the creation of regional knowledge hubs in countries across Asia. Jha said, “I think we should pursue it and fellows should converge more often and undertake initiatives to address the consequences of a changing climate. It is also important for decision makers in governments and businesses institutions to ensure that their plans and actions are technically sound, robust and based on scientific evidences.”

Jha previously attended Salzburg Global Seminar in June 2013 for the session, A Climate for Change: New Thinking on Governance for Sustainability. This session resulted in a Salzburg Statement on New Governance for Sustainability. Describing his relationship with Salzburg Global, Jha said, “Personally, Salzburg defines who I am right now and it helped me tremendously in my personal and professional life. I am very happy to witness and be part of the work at Salzburg which will advance the development of country-specific strategic plans to promote economic growth while mitigating carbon emissions – without causing trade-offs to environmental pressures—in the Asia region.”


Keshav Jha was a participant of The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia, the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation. For more information on the session, please click here. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session on social media, follow #SGSasia.

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Niall O'Connor - We're Seeing a Bigger Impact on Natural Resources
Niall O'Connor presenting at Salzburg Global SeminarNiall O'Connor presenting at Salzburg Global Seminar
Niall O'Connor - We're Seeing a Bigger Impact on Natural Resources
By: Oscar Tollast 

Director of SEI's Asia Centre discusses business as "unusual" approach and rewarding people taking positions on long-term sustainability

“Everything we work at is to try and get the right research to support people and to support the environment to be sustainable,” remarks Niall O’Connor, director of the Stockholm Environment Institute’s Asia Centre. O’Connor is speaking during a break at the Salzburg Global Seminar session, The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia. O’Connor is acting as one of several facilitators for the session, offering advice to leaders stemming from ASEAN +3 and India.

Speaking earlier, O’Connor says, “Given that I’m now kind of overseeing the development of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in Asia it is interesting for me to hear what other people think the vision for the future is - what is it that they want to achieve?” Without knowing what people living in Asia want, he can’t direct where his organization should be heading. “There’s a good opportunity here of meeting people from maybe 10 [or] 11 countries,” he continues. “We’re all experts in our field. We're all working at various institutions… I have an opportunity to grow a bigger network and reach out to people, so that’s kind of an interesting opportunity for me.”

At the time of recording, O’Connor has been in his role at SEI for around a year and a half.  He had spent the previous 15 years in senior leadership and management positions in Western, Eastern and Southern Africa. He has worked for the likes of Concern Universal, WWF, and the government of Gambia. His experience has enabled him to view frustrations from the perspective of a researcher, developer, and implementer. He asks, “How do you get all of the development initiatives right? How do you get all of the environmental initiatives right? How do you get the right data and information to implement properly? I kind of went full circle and said, let’s go back to the research side. With SEI, the beauty of it is even though it says environmental institute, it is an environment and development institute.” In short: O’Connor is absorbing knowledge with the intention of being able to push back toward implementing and developing changes.

When asked for his thoughts on the main environmental challenges specific to Asia, O’Connor says, “The population explosion that’s happened over the last 20, 30, [or] 40 years is causing huge pressures on natural resources. In many cases, you can probably find ways around that, but couple that with levels of mismanagement, with corruption, with poor political leaders and institutions driving sustaining economies, sustainable business, sustainable environment, sustainable whatever form you want to look at. We’re not seeing a solution; we’re seeing a deepening of the problems. We’re seeing a bigger impact on all natural resources, less respect for the environment over a greater need to drive economic profit. While that’s bringing people out of poverty, it is fundamentally knocking away the foundations for long-term sustainability.”

This is the biggest challenge in O’Connor’s eyes. How do you recreate solid foundations on which sustainable economies can be built? We can no longer have a “business as usual” approach. He says, “What’s unusual is working with businesses to make sure that they fully understand the issues of sustainability and that business is linked then to the Sustainable Development Goals, that business has seen that the bottom line is not necessarily your investment.” O’Connor suggests challenging the financial set-up of business industries. In quarterly reports, sustainability could be seen as much of an achievement as profitability. He adds, “Change the paradigm, change the approach, and make sure that we actually credit people for taking positions on long-term sustainability.”

In and among the discussions at Salzburg, O’Connor has recognized the diverse pool of participants who have brought experience from the public, private and civil society sectors. He says, “Everybody else that’s here has similar experiences they may have and may have been able to overcome them, or they may have solutions. I think that peer-to-peer [networking] is going to be very important, but it also takes people out of the context for a little bit out of their own working day. It gives then just a blue sky thinking approach, which I think is quite useful.”


Niall O'Connor was a facilitator at The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia, the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation. For more information on the session, please click here. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session on social media, follow #SGSasia.

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Salinee Hurley - We Work With the People and Put Them in Charge
Salinee Hurley presenting at Salzburg Global SeminarSalinee Hurley presenting at Salzburg Global Seminar
Salinee Hurley - We Work With the People and Put Them in Charge
By: Oscar Tollast 

Director of Border Green Energy Team discusses empowering communities and living sustainably

As an engineer and a social entrepreneur, Salinee Hurley likes to solve problems. In her capacity as director of the Border Green Energy Team (BGET), Hurley has been providing renewable energy technology to underprivileged communities along the Thailand-Burma border. This type of experience encouraged her to take part in the Salzburg Global Seminar session, The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia. “We all have common issues that we go through, you know, in different countries, but we’re similar, right. The program is really interesting because it’s only including ASEAN, India, Japan, Korea, and China… I thought, maybe, I could learn from other Fellows and also share some experience.”

In addition to her work with BGET, Hurley has also been working on behalf of Sun Sawang, a company she founded in 2013. This social enterprise offers solar-powered products and services for rural villages in Thailand. Hurley concedes this has proven to be more sustainable. By focusing only on solar energy, it has been able to deliver products and services. It’s a topic she knows well, having graduated with a Master’s degree in solar energy engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2005. But how has this enterprise affected the BGET? Hurley says, “The Border Green Energy Team is a shift to focusing on the educational part by providing the knowledge of sustainable living techniques, renewable energies, and how to use the resources from the land and to grow rice and crops in the area.”

Farmers within communities in Asia depend on natural resources, according to Hurley. She says, “It is difficult to manage the resources when [farmers] only think about taking advantage of the land.” Hurley believes there is a greater benefit if more farmers are educated about how soil can be nourished and continually used over time.

This idea of living sustainably is something Hurley practices, as well as preaches. Just over seven years ago, Hurley took a course on sustainable living. She learned how to make her own shampoo and soap. She learned how to harvest produce and make food. Last, but not least, she learned how she could build herself a home. Four years after first taking part in the course, she decided that’s what she would do.

Hurley viewed several houses made out of natural materials such as bamboo, mud, and wood, but she left unimpressed. She told herself, “I could do better than this.” Using most of her savings, Hurley built a home in Mae Sot, a district in Thailand which shares a border with Myanmar. Despite the occasional problem here and there, Hurley said the experience had been good. She says, “I think that was the best decision that I’ve made - to actually do it… now I can talk about it because I would not be confident just talking if I had not done it.”

Ahead of the session in Salzburg, Hurley authored an op-ed on her experience convincing people to switch from kerosene lamps to solar powered products. She admits people were apprehensive to go from a cheaper option to a product which was more expensive. Hurley’s solution was to come up with a model which would allow products and services to be paid for over time. Thought was also put into how the system could be maintained and not become a one-off exercise if something were to break.

“We bring in the knowledge,” Hurley says, “and then we look for the local person and then hire them and train them as a technician who would be in charge of maintaining this unit. That’s how we earn the trust from the people. We [are] not just an outsider, but we work with the people and give them the job[s], so they can be in charge of this.”

Hurley was included in the BBC’s list of 100 women in 2014 considered to be changing the world. When asked what inspires her work, Hurley replies, “I honestly have to answer God.” She enjoys the results of her work and being close to the people who have benefited from it. “You hardly find these kinds of communities in urban settings, or in the big cities, these days. I feel blessed to be able to work in this position.”


Salinee Hurley was a participant of The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia, the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation. For more information on the session, please click here. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session on social media, follow #SGSasia.

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Charles Morrison - Asian Leadership Will be Needed to Help Address Climate Change
Charles Morrison speaking at Salzburg Global SeminarCharles Morrison speaking at Salzburg Global Seminar
Charles Morrison - Asian Leadership Will be Needed to Help Address Climate Change
By: Oscar Tollast 

Former president of East-West Center reflects on new multi-year series and importance of collaboration

Two years ago, Charles Morrison, the former president of the East-West Center, took part in a planning meeting to discuss ways in which to increase capacity in Asian regional organizations. He and others identified two or three areas where progress could be made. The output of this meeting was a new multi-year series held in partnership between Salzburg Global Seminar and the Japan Foundation. The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia is the first of three meetings which will hopefully lead to a synthesis program convened in Asia in 2020.

“Climate change [and] environment was the first area,” says Morrison, speaking during the session he helped plan. “It’s an incredibly important issue, not just for Asia but for the world. It’s one in which Asian leadership will be needed…” Morrison is at Schloss Leopoldskron, the historic home of Salzburg Global Seminar, as a facilitator. After complimenting the selection of participants, he says, “I think it’s generally really lively discussions and a lot of learning because people are talking to other people with whom they share interests but not necessarily with whom they’ve ever met before or had discussions.”

Morrison first joined the East-West Center in the 1980s, moving to Hawaii to work as a research scholar. At the start of the next decade, he became the director of the Center’s economic and politics program. In 1998, he was selected as the Center’s president. After nearly 20 years at the institution, Morrison still underlines the importance of bridging divides and bringing people together from different parts of the world.

“The biggest thing that has happened during my lifetime, aside from the kind of rise of Asia, has been this continent - Europe - where two world wars started,” Morrison says. “People are now growing up in France, Germany, Britain, Italy [and] can’t even imagine their countries at war… It’s a transformation, not just in international relations, but in a way that people that think. They can squabble [on] the soccer field, but the idea of countries being at war is unimaginable.”

Morrison says this is a 20th-century achievement which is continuous and requires constant work. No achievement is necessarily forever, he warns. Reflecting on Asia, he says, “There’s a lot of regional rivalries, and with the development, there’s a lot of new issues. Climate change is only one of the many issues that Asia faces. Building those relationships between Europe, North America, and Asia, I think, is incredibly important.”

Alongside his role as president, Morrison has written on Southeast Asian international relations, US foreign and trade policies toward Asia, and Asia-Pacific regional organizations. He adds, “The East-West Center works mainly on [the] North America, East Asia - to some extent - and South Asia relationship, and it does [in] the same ways as Salzburg Global. It’s [a] very complementary institution from my perspective. We work with young people. We do educational programs and research activities, and we do dialogues for prevention and development.”

Morrison stepped down from his position as president last year. He remains involved with the Center as a distinguished senior fellow. He assists with fundraising and activities where he feels he can contribute. Commenting on the presentations he’s witnessed at Salzburg during the latest session, he indicates some of the projects proposed may be, in his opinion, “overly ambitious.” That said, he doesn’t rule any of them out from succeeding. He adds, “I think as long as people are committed to work together, the projects will be further refined and actually achieve something.”


Charles Morrison was a facilitator at The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia, the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation. For more information on the session, please click here. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session on social media, follow #SGSasia.

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Inspiring Change - Seven Tips for Storytelling
Photo by Nong Vang on Unsplash
Inspiring Change - Seven Tips for Storytelling
By: Oscar Tollast 

CEO of PCI Media Impact outlines how to inspire positive change through storytelling

A decade ago, Sean Southey realized if he wanted to change the world, he’d have to give everyday people the belief to take care of their own lives and the knowledge to do it well.

As chief executive officer of PCI Media Impact, Southey sets out to empower communities worldwide to inspire positive social, health and environmental change through storytelling and communications.

The most important aspect when producing stories is knowing your audience, according to Southey. Without knowing who they are, or what they care about, you can’t reach them effectively.

Southey is also a “huge believer” in the power of positive messaging – love, not loss. When telling a story, he advocates communicating what can work and what already works and to resist solely focusing on the challenges.

Content, however, is only powerful if people truly engage with it. It is important for organizations to have effective distribution strategies and to know where their audience resides.

The messages which stem from the content should be given a “surround sound” experience. Southey believes people need to hear things from different sources before they are prepared to trust what they are hearing and become further engaged.

This links to another piece of advice: work with trusted voices. The spokesperson behind the message has to believe in what they are saying.

If successful, media content will help drive discussion, and it is these conversations which will drive behavior change.

Southey highlights the power of radio call-ins and TV talk shows which enable audience members to feel they are part of the conversation, even if they are not in the room. It’s one example of where old technology can still carry influence.

In a nutshell, stories work. Southey believes stories can drive more people than facts and data. It is easier for someone to relate to a story than a set of statistics.

As author Janet Litherland said, “Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us to understand. They imprint a picture on our minds. Consequently, stories often pack more punch than sermons. Want to make a point or raise an issue? Tell a story.”

Download Issue 3 of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change


Sean Southey took part in the Salzburg Global session Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change, the fourth seminar of the multi-year Parks for the Planet Forum. The Forum is hosted with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Children and Nature Network, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Outdoor Classroom Day. More information on the session can be found here. You can follow all of the discussions on Twitter using #SGSparks.

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Interlinking Challenges, Interdisciplinary Solutions
Interlinking Challenges, Interdisciplinary Solutions
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Latest Salzburg Global Seminar session looks at targeting interdisciplinary research to meet the Sustainable Development Goals in climate change, conflict, health and education

The 17 global goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are nothing short of ambitious. Building on from the Millennium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to “transform our world,” calling for action in both developed and developing countries. While the broad goals each have specific targets, no one goal can be achieved in isolation. Efforts to achieve one goal will help to advance another—and failures to address some will lead to negative impacts on others. 

Quality education (SDG 4) greatly improves health and well-being (SDG 3), which in turn can increase prosperity, but increased consumption that often comes with that can hinder local and global efforts to tackle climate change (SDG 13). Similarly, reducing conflict (SDG 16) may have benefits for employment and economic growth, but these cannot be sustained unless inequalities in education and access to health care are also addressed. Without holistic action for equality and social justice, peace may be short-lived or conflict may continue by other means. Achieving the targets set out in any of the SDGs thus calls for an interdisciplinary and cross-sector approach. 

Recognizing the significant challenge that comes in adopting such an approach, Salzburg Global Seminar is convening the session, Climate Change, Conflict, Health, and Education: Targeting Interdisciplinary Research to Meet the SDGs, at Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg, Austria, starting this Sunday, March 18.

The intensive three-day session will bring together 65 researchers, policymakers and development experts to explore how research can be more effectively translated into policy and practice in order to identify the interlinkages—and tensions—between the SDGs, and how top research funders can help lead the way.

One such leading research funder is session partner, the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), which is a £1.5bn fund established by the British government to help UK researchers work in partnership with researchers in developing countries to make significant progress in meeting the SDGs. Representing the GCRF at the session is UK Research and Innovation, a newly created body that brings together the seven UK research councils, Innovate UK and Research England.

Professor Andrew Thompson, Chief Executive, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and UK Research and Innovation Champion for the Global Challenges Research Fund, said: “We're delighted to partner with Salzburg Global Seminar to explore the ways excellent research of the kind being undertaken through the Global Challenges Research Fund can help to tackle the most stubborn development challenges across and between the Sustainable Development Goals.” 

The session will enable discussion and exploration that span research, policy and practice. This will be achieved through a series of panel discussions and hands-on exercises that will examine the opportunities, challenges, and trade-offs involved in developing interdisciplinary approaches to the implementation of the SDGs related to climate change, conflict, health, and education. The session will also look to identify current research gaps and look at how to communicate the complexity of interdisciplinary research in order to shape evidence-based policy and practice. 

Through its programs, Salzburg Global Seminar seeks to bridge divides, expand collaborations and transform systems. In order to take the work of this session beyond Schloss Leopoldskron and advocate for change in their own sectors, participants will co-create a Salzburg Statement. The Statement will offer key recommendations for various stakeholders and serve as a call to action to help participants personally as well as their institutions and communities.

“Finding solutions to long-standing, seemingly intractable problems and the specific challenges that the SDGs look to mitigate against requires new ways of thinking and new approaches,” says Salzburg Global Program Director Dominic Regester. 

“We are delighted that so many experts across different sectors and geographies have given willingly of their time to come to Salzburg. We very much hope that the Statement that will be collectively authored during and after the session will help advance understanding of and opportunities for interdisciplinary research.”


The session, Climate Change, Conflict, Health, and Education: Targeting Interdisciplinary Research to Meet the SDGs, is being held in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). More information is available online: www.salzburgglobal.org/go/605 To join in the discussions online, follow the hashtag #SGSsdgs on Twitter

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Nature and Childhood - Bringing Together Ideas for a Salzburg Statement
Group 2 discussing their ideas for the Salzburg Statement at Schloss Leopoldskron's library. (Photo by: Sandra Birklbauer/Salzburg Global Seminar)
Nature and Childhood - Bringing Together Ideas for a Salzburg Statement
By: Oscar Tollast 

Participants of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change explore next steps forward

Following three and a half days of discussion, participants of the Salzburg Global Seminar session, Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change, came together to present their ideas for a new Salzburg Statement.

Before this, 27 representatives from different regions, sectors, and disciplines had split up into four working groups to develop specific policy ideas and recommendations to form the backbone of the Statement.

The first group to present on Friday afternoon focused on principles and processes for identifying and working with key audiences and change-makers.

The group recognized the different types of audiences which existed, such as global leaders, national figures, sector representatives, families, and children.

In light of this, participants devised two process steps which could be aimed at any of these levels. The first process step is to adopt an interest and influence matrix and target policymakers with the highest potential for either. The second process step involves thinking about the hierarchy of sectoral influence and coming up with the correct language for the problem that would meet the needs of different hierarchy levels.

For example, if the overarching statement is, “To enhance engagement of all with outdoor space to connect with nature,” a justification is required for each audience.

Participants created template “in order to” statements for several audiences, such as “in order to improve mental health.” Further to this, a “how” statement is required as to how change will be effected.

This group went through the policy cycle to highlight areas of influence, identifying that the cycle often starts with advocacy to set the agenda. The problem is then defined before a solution is put forward. An implementation scale follows afterward.

One participant suggested the Salzburg Statement could act as an advocacy statement, but consensus was required for it to have a strong influence. Another participant, meanwhile, reminded the group that trillions of dollars would be spent on infrastructure in the near future. If stakeholders could get into the discussion and help decide the share of money spent on children and nature, that could represent the biggest opportunity for short-term influence.

The second group to present discussed the value of forming or working with existing partnerships, alliances and collaborations for impact.

Participants began this exercise by identifying seven existing barriers to children being outside in nature. This included concerns about safety and security of children; diminishing outdoor spaces; highly structured free time; social norms; technology; academic pressure; and a knowledge gap.

For each issue, participants identified partners and sectors which could help remove these barriers and act as “partnerships for impact.”

The group acknowledged clusters of partners which could help tackle more than one issue. This list includes educators, planners, storytellers, policymakers, gatekeepers, the economy, platforms, leaders, and corporations.

The next step would involve assessing the clusters further, drawing lines between them, and seeing what potential outcomes could emerge.

Participants working in Schloss Leopoldskron’s Venetian Room spent their time looking at tackling the
disparities in access to nature and capacity to scale or implement.

When presenting their findings to the rest of the group, they revealed they started with the problem: urban childhood has moved indoors.

They began by identifying causes in their own communities, followed by secondary causes, and consequences. Participants considered what was needed to flesh out how disparities are happening and how to communicate them. Together, they agreed on five fleshed-out policy suggestions, building on recommendations that featured in the Salzburg Statement on The Child in the City - Health, Parks and Play.

  1. All children must have access to an outdoor natural/play space within a safe 10-minute walk.
  2. Cities collect and use disaggregated data on outdoor public play space usage.
  3. All schools must have an outdoor space for play and learning.
  4. All safeguarding policies must include the right to play.
  5. City planning/design is co-created with local children.

These suggestions could lead to increased access, convincing data, equity, rights-based language, and capacity and process which is inclusive of children.

The final group to present ideas worked on developing strategies for embedding nature in everyday spaces that children use and to activate a broader cadre of leaders. Instead of coming up with several
strategies, however, they devised just one which one of the group members defined as “completely outside the box.”

This group identified what they wanted to see in an ideal society, such as the feeling of being valuable, heard, and celebrated.There are obstacles to this happening, however, which the group said needed to be eliminated.This could be achieved by creating a structure within governments around the world which provides a platform for children’s voices to be heard.

An “Interministry for Children and Childhood” would prevent children’s interests from being siloed. A body or a network of people would exist with the responsibility to listen. Listeners become conduits between children and the “Minister for Children and Childhood.”

One participant suggested that while every policymaker might not care for children, each of them did have a childhood. It lives within them.

As part of this approach, stories would need to be collected and taken to multiple sectors as part of a cross-sector approach. Progress can be achieved by bringing resources from all sectors together to address the need. For this to be effective, however, this has to be a statutory process.

Ideas and recommendations put forward by participants have been recorded and will be used to draft a
Salzburg Statement that will be published later this year. Keep up to date with the progress of the Statement by visiting salzburgglobal.org/go/608.

Download Issue 3 of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change


Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change is the fourth session of the multi-year series, Parks for the Planet Forum. The Forum is hosted with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Children and Nature Network, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Outdoor Classroom Day. More information on the session can be found here. Follow the conversation on Twitter using #SGSparks.
 

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Cath Prisk – There's So Much More to Learn Outdoors
Prisk attended Salzburg Global session Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change (Photo by Sandra Birklbauer/Salzburg Global Seminar)
Cath Prisk – There's So Much More to Learn Outdoors
By: Carly Sikina 

Global partnerships director for Project Dirt and head of international campaign Outdoor Classroom Day, emphasizes the importance of play and creating family-friendly city plans and policies

As a lover of nature and an advocate for children’s fundamental right to play, Cath Prisk understands the importance of re-evaluating the existing legislation affecting this field. Not only is Prisk global partnerships director for Project Dirt, but she has also undertaken many different initiatives to get children learning and exploring the outdoors through play.

An instrumental figure in the movement, Prisk works in partnership with Dirt is Good to head the global campaign Outdoor Classroom Day – originally known as Empty Classroom Day – which was formed by environmental educator Anna Portch. In addition to this endeavor, Prisk is the founder and director of Outdoor People, a Hackney-based shop, consultancy, research organization and NGO that strives to get children, families, and communities outdoors.

Prisk attended the Salzburg Global Seminar session Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change, part of the Parks for the Planet Forum, which took place at Schloss Leopoldskron. Prisk shared her insights during a panel discussion on “Smart Action for Nature-Based Solutions” where she emphasized the importance of play and outdoor learning.

Throughout the panel, she stressed the urgent need for policy change, indicating 56% of children around the world are only getting one hour or less of outdoor play per day. “Teachers must realize that literacy can be taught outdoors” she explains, “You take schools outdoors and they are still schools. Children are still children whether they are indoors or outdoors and outdoors, there’s so much more to learn”.

Prisk believes children learn huge amounts through playing. “They are learning positional language, they are learning forces, they might be learning a bit of science, certainly awe and wonder - the base foundation of all religious teaching - they are learning all sorts of practical things like that.” Furthermore, she believes that when outdoors, children can learn “21st-century skills” such as teamwork, leadership, resilience, and stoicism.

She recognizes there is an urgent need to address this issue. “We’ve got to a point now where our children recognize dialect more than they recognize blackbirds.” She continues, “What children learn when they are learning outdoors, they learn more immediately and they learn more holistically.”

Although many school agendas do not prioritize outdoor play, Prisk believes this can be altered by initiatives like Outdoor Classroom Day and policy change. “How do we make play, how do we make it happen?” she asks, “We have to get the most important thinkers in the planet to be saying ‘This is the way it is.’”

“What if every head teacher [who cut play and outdoor time] expected to have emails from all the parents in the school complaining about this in the same way if [children] went to school and [were told] ‘We are stopping lunch’?”

In Prisk’s view, the best way for children to move is not simply providing them a sports class to take part in: they have to play as well. She says, “The head teachers think that it’s their responsibility to send children home unharmed and clean instead of excited, filthy, dirty, creative and screaming about all of the things that they’ve learned that day.”

When reflecting on potential policy changes surrounding children and nature in urban contexts, Prisk highlights the core planning policy implemented by the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. “Rotterdam has a foundational policy that says that every child at the age of seven should be able to walk to school, to the park and to the shop by themselves, and that shapes the planning decisions… Having that as a foundational policy, that they hold everything up against, just changes the way people think about planning.”

Drawing on the city of Rotterdam’s child-friendly approach to city planning, Prisk put forward three key policy recommendations. Her suggestions include:

  • Every school is required to have a policy for their outdoor spaces that incorporates children’s right to play as well as a responsibility to make those spaces great places to learn.
  • Every community plan has to listen to the needs and voices of young people and families.
  • At the city-wide level, policymakers should be thinking about children as citizens. 

Reflecting on her time in Salzburg and new insights she may have learned, Prisk said the experience had reaffirmed her belief that further cross-sectoral work was required. She also highlighted the need to take action at a city-level. She said, "National policy can frame support for city level action, but actual change happens in real communities... There's a power of a campaign to provide a tipping point, but actual change happens in people's hearts and minds on the ground, and it's a holistic change”.

"Conservation organizations have a big role to play, but part of that role is changing themselves - you know, letting kids pick flowers and jump all over the bushes because if they can only look at the flowers, or look at the bushes, they are never going to want to conserve them."

Download Issue 3 of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change


Cath Prisk took part in the Salzburg Global session Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change, the fourth seminar of the multi-year Parks for the Planet Forum. The Forum is hosted with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Children and Nature Network, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Outdoor Classroom Day. More information on the session can be found here. You can follow all of the discussions on Twitter using #SGSparks.

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Nature and Childhood - Change at Scale
Photo by Gabby Orcutt on Unsplash
Nature and Childhood - Change at Scale
By: Oscar Tollast 

How movements such as the #NatureForAll campaign are helping future generations experience, care about and protect our environment

It’s better to move forward than standing still. By building partnerships across sectors, change can be enacted quicker and reach more people. When considering smart actions for nature-based solutions, however, one has to recognize whether approaches can work in different regions and cultures.

#NatureForAll’s goal is to support and action for nature conservation globally. This work includes raising awareness of nature and its values and creating a culture of conservation. Karen Keenleyside, vice chair for people and parks, IUCN WCPA, suggests the more people connected with nature, the more they support it. Quoting British broadcaster and conservationist, David Attenborough, Keenleyside said, “No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.” 

The movement already has 230 partner organizations and is growing week-by-week. Partners sign up by expressing interest, identifying their contribution, and pledging to take work forward. #NatureForAll is raising awareness, facilitating experiences, and creating pathways to connecting. Keenleyside said the movement provided an opportunity for organizations to speak with a united voice. It is creating a billion moments to fall in love with nature.

Small moments and actions can lead to significant change. Heather Maseko, a response coordinator for Peace Corps Malawi and co-founder of the National Youth Network on Climate Change, has witnessed this first-hand. Maseko reaffirmed how we, as individuals, have different interests, skill sets, and expertise.

In her experience, Maseko discussed the benefits of bringing in partners during campaigns and projects to provide expertise and resources they otherwise didn’t have. In a presentation at Salzburg Global Seminar, she posed the question: How do we move out of our bubble to make meaningful, holistic engagements?

Effective communication is perhaps one of way doing so. It can involve the language, tools, platforms, or strategies used. In her experience, the media helped amplify messages concerning young people and climate change, according to Maseko. Despite their differences, this was one area outlets united and helped share the message the movement put across.

Cath Prisk, global partnerships director at Project Dirt, is heading the global campaign Outdoor Classroom Day. Working in partnership with Dirt is Good (Unilever), the campaign is delivered locally by teachers, for teachers. So far, 304,165 children and 2,872 schools have been involved. Prisk suggests the movement is about thinking global, acting global, and being part of a global unit. By working with others, they want to help more children experience “real play” every day.

Adrian Voce, president of the European Network of Child Friendly Cities, believes a child’s impulse to play is essential to their nature. They have an evolutionary impulse to enjoy their lives in the present. If children are to grow up with a sense of identity and belonging, according to Voce, they must have access to nature on their terms.

When advocating for children’s rights, however, Voce conceded parents’ wants and needs had to be respected too. Many parents do not feel the outside world is safe enough, which makes it important for play advocates to encourage parents to trust their instincts and recognize the value play carries for the present and the future.

Download Issue 2 of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change


Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change is the fourth session of the multi-year series, Parks for the Planet Forum. The Forum is hosted with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Children and Nature Network, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Outdoor Classroom Day. More information on the session can be found here. Follow the conversation on Twitter using #SGSparks. 

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Miguel Lores - Bold Policies Propel Change
Miguel Lores speaking during the Salzburg Global session, Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change (Photo by Sandra Birklbauer/Salzburg Global Seminar)
Miguel Lores - Bold Policies Propel Change
By: Helena Santos 

Spanish mayor shares how his city went car-free and gained the global spotlight

When Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores became the mayor of Pontevedra, Spain in 1999 he and his team had a very simple but concrete idea: create a new city model where the public space was given back to the people. That idea came to life with the concept of allowing citizens to reclaim parts of the city that had been occupied by cars.

Within a month, they pedestrianized the entire historical center, and 18 years later, Pontevedra stopped being a “car warehouse” as Lores describes it and became an internationally acclaimed city, winning awards such as the UN Habitat Award and the Active Design Award.

People still drive cars in Pontevedra, but as Lores explained at Salzburg Global Seminar’s Parks for the Planet Forum session, Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change, owning a car doesn’t mean owning a piece of public space. With his bold policies of using parking lots for other purposes and cutting the traffic in most streets, he managed to decrease the number of engines started every day from 52,000 to 17,000, with only 9% of cars entering the city, compared to 83% in 1999.

“After we went car-free and allowed only the necessary cars, the vital ones to make a city work, we realized, and we show that through our model, that for a city to work not a lot of cars are necessary and that’s perfectly compatible with a great urban quality […] Cars can circulate in the city and we solved it using loops, which means we make them leave through where they came from. So, unless someone needs to do something specific there, it doesn’t even cross their minds to do it since we don’t allow them to cross the city,” Lores explains.

This drastic decrease of cars circulating in the city improved not only the quality of life in Pontevedra but also its biodiversity. The city now emits 66% less of the CO2 than it used to do before the policies were implemented. It now has 223 different species of trees and 131 different species of birds. The city has also become more attractive and has grown economically and culturally. 

“One of the things we did was generate a lot of cultural, sportive and festive activities including in collaboration with local business to fill the public space with activity. When you empty the public space, and if before you could park there and now there’s nothing, you say ‘Why can’t I park my car if there’s nothing there?’ You have to fill it up with activity,” Lores adds.

The children of Pontevedra have especially benefited from this paradigm shift since it makes the city safer. Now, 80% of children walk to school without any adult supervision. The School Path project, which is a collaborative effort between the local police department, the school community, and business owners, contributes to this outstanding number. Through School Path, groups of volunteers monitor the traffic flows in the busiest streets and the business owners have a sign that lets children know they can go in and ask for help if needed.

School Path gives children the opportunity to speak directly to the authorities in the Children’s Council, but that is not the only way this generation of Pontevedra residents is involved in policymaking. In 2016, students from Barcelos Primary School, alongside their parents, presented a project to the city council to transform Barcelos Square into a playground since they felt the need for more space. They proposed taking 50 of 100 free parking spaces and changing the traffic to a one-way flow; the City Council supported them.

“We had to achieve an agreement with education [officials] and Xunta de Galicia [the regional government] to authorize children to leave school to go into the square with all the guarantees so that the teachers' insurance was covered and everything. The kids are delighted, and it’s a participation of children in the city’s design,” the mayor explains.

During his time at the Parks for the Planet Forum, Miguel Lores was very vocal about his idea that only through good policies we can achieve global change and that Pontevedra provides a positive example. He highlighted the idea that every city should find a different and unique project and discussed his pride each time Pontevedra is spoken as a success story.

“I’m very proud because Pontevedra was a city to which people paid no attention. When you talked about Galicia you talked about Santiago, Coruña and Vigo […] Now we are in the spotlight worldwide, and people know that Pontevedra exists, that it is a city, that it is a reference in accessibility, in urban quality.”

Download Issue 2 of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change


Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change is the fourth session of the multi-year series, Parks for the Planet Forum. The Forum is hosted with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Children and Nature Network, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Outdoor Classroom Day. More information on the session can be found here. Follow the conversation on Twitter using #SGSparks. 

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Nature and Childhood - Win-Wins for the Child, City and Planet
Participants of the fourth Parks for the Planet Forum, Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change
Nature and Childhood - Win-Wins for the Child, City and Planet
By: Oscar Tollast 

Panelists reflect on the importance of creating child-friendly policies that allow for greater access to nature

Forward-thinker and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, once said, “Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.” One way to embrace change, whether incremental or rapid, is to provide evidence of “wins” for policymakers, businesses and other stakeholders.

Participants of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Changeconsidered the benefits of providing children greater access to nature and outdoor play, during the second day of the program.

Three panelists helped participants consider the wins which would derive from childhood development, health and well-being, and education. The panel included Margaret Lamar, vice-president for strategic initiatives at the Children & Nature Network; Alexander Plum, director of development and innovation at the Global Health Initiative; and Margaret Otiento, CEO, Wildlife Clubs of Kenya.

Lamar indicated learning in nature can support relationship skills and reduce stress and aggression. It also enables children to focus, sit quietly, and observe their surroundings. When children connect to nature at an early age, they can develop environmental ethics for life.

The Wildlife Clubs of Kenya is already practicing this model. Members of staff visit schools and provide children information about the environment so they can help conserve nature. Otiento suggested nature was the best classroom children could have.

Plum said societies must consider social, economic and environmental factors when developing health and health care initiatives. Building on this point later, Plum noted making nature normative and putting it back into the middle of an urban context could alter current mindsets. Nature doesn’t have to be a distant concept; it is present in cities.

Stephanie Sanderson, a consultant for the WAZA Nature Connect Program, World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, suggested exposure to nature is not enough, however. Speaking in a subsequent panel discussion, Sanderson said a meaningful connection to nature requires contact, emotion, meaning, compassion, and beauty.

South Africa is facing challenges relating to youth unemployment and education, according to Sabelo Lindani, head of Green Futures College at the Grootbos Foundation. Lindani revealed the Foundation uses different activities to connect young people and communicate with nature.

Humans, after all, are part of a wider ecosystem. This view was shared by Jo Nurse, a strategic advisor to the InterAction Council. Nurse, who initially qualified as a medical doctor, said if the planet were a human, it would be diagnosed as “seriously ill.”

Having a common vision is one of the most powerful things we can do – advocating win-win-win solutions that consider the environment, society and health.

Participants explored terms and concepts which could be used to influence systems change and “save the planet” in a short exercise. “Own it,” “Vitality,” “Local,” and “Safety,” “Political Will,” and “WWW (Worldwide Well-being),” were some of the ideas put forward. One participant, meanwhile, put forward the idea of a “utopia” – not an impossible future, but a desirable one. 

Download Issue 2 of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change


Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change is the fourth session of the multi-year series, Parks for the Planet Forum. The Forum is hosted with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Children and Nature Network, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Outdoor Classroom Day. More information on the session can be found here. Follow the conversation on Twitter using #SGSparks. 

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Nature and Childhood - What Are The First Steps Toward Building a Movement for Change?
Photo by Sandra Birklbauer/Salzburg Global Seminar
Nature and Childhood - What Are The First Steps Toward Building a Movement for Change?
By: Carly Sikina 

On the second and third day of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change, participants gave their insights on one of the session's Hot Topics

“I think it has start with a deep frustration… I used to live in Lebanon all my life and [then] I moved out of Lebanon for three years to study… [and] when I came back, I saw that the situation could be better. So, I was very frustrated about the lack of public green spaces in the city and I was very frustrated that I couldn’t go to the park… I think [movements have] to start from a frustration of someone or a group of people. And then you have to have the vision to know that it is possible to [do]… I don’t believe in the top-down approach at all, I believe in the bottom-up [approach]. And it starts with a group of people who are really passionate about [something] and then it becomes so contagious that people start seeing that ‘oh, there is an issue to be solved here.’”

Dima Boulad

Designer and Co-Founder, Beirut Green Project, Lebanon

“I think the first [step] is building or rebuilding love for nature, from childhood to the adulthood… So I think, to build some movements in the [person’s] childhood, to have the connection to nature, this is the first step. But, I don’t think that’s enough because for the decisions, I think it’s important to get it heard and get it known because now if we see what’s going on all around, I don’t think those people really want bad for the earth… but this is just not in their minds when they are doing their daily decisions. So, if we can raise the voice of all of us who believes that the connection to nature is crucial, for all of us… [maybe] it will influence decision-making as well.”

Katalin Czippán

International Consultant, Education and Communication for Sustainable Development Issues, National University of Public Service (NUPS), Hungary
 
“First of all is to really have a simple idea that people can relate to… Then, helping them see that idea in their own context…. [And] being inclusive for everyone – what does this mean for youth? What does it mean for children? What does it mean for, in my world, parks and protected areas?... Then I would say the other preliminary step… is to have a way of getting your stories out there, to make sure that nothing you’re doing isn’t communicated and [everything is] shared in a way that is personal and real… so that others can relate to it. Keeping something to yourself isn’t going to start a movement – it really is a matter of sharing the beginning, middle and end of the process from a personal perspective that will inspire others and ultimately, that sharing of stories… is what starts to affect change.”

Karen Keenleyside

Vice Chair for People and Parks, IUCN WCPA; Co-Chair, IUCN #NatureForAll; Senior Advisor, #NatureForAll, Parks Canada, Canada

“I think it starts with two or more people who identify a common problem and then establish a goal that they want to achieve to remedy that problem. They talk to other stakeholders, people in the community, government officials, other institutions and start to see who shares the belief in the problem and who wants to go along with that goal and who might have ideas to modifying that goal to bring in more stakeholders. And it builds from there.”

Andrew Moore

Director of Youth and Young Adult Connection, National League of Cities, USA

Have an opinion on our HOT TOPIC? Tweet @SalzburgGlobal with the hashtag #SGSparks

Download Issue 2 of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change


The session, Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism To Policies for Global Change, is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Parks for the Planet Forum. The session has being held in partnership with IUCN, Children&Nature Network, NLC and Outdoor Classroom Day. To keep up with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGSparks on Twitter and Instagram.

 

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Nature and Childhood - What do Good Policies Surrounding Children and Nature in Urban Contexts Look Like?
Photo by Myles Tan on Unsplash
Nature and Childhood - What do Good Policies Surrounding Children and Nature in Urban Contexts Look Like?
By: Carly Sikina 

On the first day of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism To Policies for Global Change, participants gave their views on the Hot Topic discussed during the first panel

“Good policies are policies that preserve the nature we already have in cities and make nature in cities accessible to children in a different way than right now. Right now, children have access to use nature on the terms dictated by the city, so there’s a lawn or there’s a tree. But we need trees for climbing and we need big holes for digging and we need lawns that can be completely uprooted and changed so that children actually can have the experience of having an influence on their natural environment.”

Karen MacLean
Co-Founder, The Green Free School (Den Grønne Friskole), Denmark

“When working with a school, one of the first things we ask that school to do is to create their own policy for play. Play is one fifth of the school day, it’s a major part, there’s no reason why that part of the school day shouldn’t be valued and resourced as much as the rest of the curriculum. I think that needs to go out beyond the school now, I think society at the town level, at the village level, at the city level, or wherever, needs to think about their policy, as a community. I think that having a policy for nature… must start with play, with the very young. With that love of nature that’s developed through play, you’ve then got enough for life.”

Neil Coleman
Mentor OPAL Midlands, Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL), UK

“I think one thing that’s critical for strong policies on this topic is that the policies have to have a focus on equity. This is a particular topic that we see a lot of variation and impact… [there’s] not always a clear understanding or use of data to determine impact. In the United States, there is historically a lot of disparity around access to nature, feeling welcome in nature in the way that people’s neighborhoods are designed, the amenities they have access to, the cultural baggage that is either enjoyed or prevents people from being in nature, valuing nature. And so, policies that look specifically at impacts on people with different income levels, different ethnic and racial backgrounds, different geographic communities, holistically is really important”.

Priya Cook
Principal Associate, Connecting Children to Nature, National League of Cities, USA

“I think music [and] the entertainment industry in an urban environment can really, really play a vital role… most of our kids are in urban places, [and] spend most of their time watching television, listening to the radio and you know, with technology these days, there are gadgets everywhere. So the best way to communicate is through the entertainment industry. [The kids can] maybe compose songs [or] a message and you [have to] make sure that you use them, the kids, to pass it on…The more you encourage it, they are encouraged too so they just keep doing it [and] keep doing it. At the end of the day, you [can] find someone actually earning a living through talent and they become successful…”

Charlotte Kalanzi
Environmental Education Officer, C&L Fumigation and Cleaning Co. Ltd., Uganda

Want to join the conversation? Tweet @SalzburgGlobal using the hashtag #SGSparks

Download Issue 1 of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism To Policies for Global Change


The session, Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism To Policies for Global Change, is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Parks for the Planet Forum. The session has being held in partnership with IUCN, Children&Nature Network, NLC and Outdoor Classroom Day. To keep up with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGSparks on Twitter and Instagram.

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Nature and Childhood - Designing Policies for Change
From left to right - Clare Shine, Alexander Plum, Trinnawat Suwanprik, and Andrew Moore (Photo by Sandra Birklbauer/Salzburg Global Seminar)
Nature and Childhood - Designing Policies for Change
By: Oscar Tollast 

Fourth session of the Parks for the Planet Forum begins at Schloss Leopoldskron

Change-makers from different sectors and regions have convened at Salzburg Global Seminar to help more children around the world grow up with nature and outdoor play.

Participants of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change (March 6 to 10, 2018) are taking part in an interactive program featuring presentations, cross-sector panel discussions, curated conversations, and small group work which will lead to the creation of a Salzburg Statement.

This document, to be collectively drafted by the Salzburg Global Fellows of the session, will contain a list of recommendations to help governments, businesses, and community stakeholders put words into action and put forward policies that promote nature access for urban children.

What do good policies look like, however? This was the first question participants were asked to consider after introducing themselves to one another at Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg. To help broaden their thinking, three panelists spoke from their experience.

Speakers included Andrew Moore, director, Youth & Young Adult Connections, at the National League of Cities; Alexander Plum, director, Development and Innovation, at the Global Health Initiative; and Trinnawat Suwanprik, a local coordinator in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for achieving low carbon growth in cities through sustainable urban system management.

Moore suggested cities had the opportunity to connect children to nature equitably through policy infrastructure, programs, and experiences. One way of connecting people from disadvantaged communities to nature is through the creation of green career pathways.

When discussing policy, Suwanprik reminded participants it was important to consider the bottom-up approach as well as the top-down model. The group heard the bottom-up approach was gaining popularity and that leadership, communities, and stakeholders can enact policy change together.

In 2012, the Welsh Government introduced the Play Sufficiency Duty, which requires local authorities to ensure children have sufficient play opportunities. One participant remarked that the word “sufficiency” was used because the concept is difficult to measure.

Linking to this, Plum remarked on the lack of sufficiency in the United States when it came to collecting data surrounding the social determinants of health, suggesting there wasn’t a centralized way to talk about these issues.

Discussions will continue over the next four days, exploring the role of local governments, grassroots movements, urban planning and design, and policymakers. A “webinar” will be publicly broadcast on Facebook Live on Thursday, March 8 on “Policies that Promote Equitable Nature Access for All.”

Download Issue 1 of Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism To Policies for Global Change


Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change is the fourth session of the multi-year series, Parks for the Planet Forum. The Forum is hosted with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Children and Nature Network, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Outdoor Classroom Day. More information on the session can be found here. Follow the conversation on Twitter using #SGSparks. 
 

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Parks for the Planet - Nature and Childhood - From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change
Photo by Maxime Bhm on Unsplash
Parks for the Planet - Nature and Childhood - From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change
By: Carly Sikina 

Thought-leaders, change-makers, and policymakers to convene for fourth session of multi-year series

Exposure to nature can be seen as a crucial aspect of healthy childhood development. Access to nature and green spaces, however, has become an issue of social justice and inequality.

Many studies have shown the positive outcomes that have been realized as a result of nature and outdoor play. Spending time outdoors can increase children’s learning outcomes, improve their health and well-being and help develop their social and emotional skills.

Although the return on such investments is higher if begun in early childhood, many government officials around the world continue to prioritize corrective policies for older children rather than invest in ongoing early years’ initiatives.

This topic will be examined in greater detail at Salzburg Global Seminar’s next session,Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change, which takes place at Schloss Leopoldskron, from March 6 to 10, 2018. This session is being supported by the Children & Nature Network, the National League of Cities (NLC), and Outdoor Classroom Day.

This is the fourth session of Parks for the Planet Forum, a multi-year series created by Salzburg Global in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Forum advances action, investment and leadership to implement the Promise of Sydney and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

During the session, a group of thought-leaders, change-makers and policymakers from different disciplines, sectors and regions will come together to examine the challenges and opportunities of nature and childhood development. 

This session builds on recommendations from the 2017 meeting of the Forum, The Child in the City: Health, Parks and Play. It explores ways to make the city into a natural outdoor classroom, involve children in designing and planning green spaces, increase children’s curiosity and care for nature, and establish cross-sectoral partnerships to promote an inclusive culture of health in cities.

Some of the questions that will be explored during the session include: what do successful child-centered urban policies look like around the world? How can the private sector and urban developers be effectively engaged in this agenda? How can nature and nature learning be better integrated into time spent in pre-school and school? What works to build and sustain genuine multi-stakeholder engagement? How can we better communicate to policymakers the case for investing in comprehensive strategies for children, nature and play?

This session will combine presentations, cross-sectoral conversations, panel discussions, and focus group work. It uses theory, policy, and practice to explore new perspectives and ways to collaborate to evoke sustainable and social progress.

In a first for Salzburg Global Seminar, members of the public and Salzburg Global Fellows all over the world will be able to directly take part in a portion of the session as a Panel discussion on policies that promote nature access for urban children to be broadcast on Facebook Live on Thursday, March 8.

Participants will develop a “Salzburg Statement” recommending policies and practices to help governments, business and community stakeholders to enable children around the world to grow up with nature and outdoor play. The 2018 Salzburg Statement will build on that co-written by Fellows at the 2017 session, the Salzburg Statement on The Child in the City: Health, Parks and Play.


Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change is the fourth session of the multi-year series, Parks for the Planet Forum. The Forum is hosted with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Children and Nature Network, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Outdoor Classroom Day. More information on the session can be found here. Follow the conversation on Twitter using #SGSparks. 

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Salzburg Global Seminar to Host First Facebook Live Event During Fourth Session of Parks for the Planet Forum
This live event is being hosted in partnership with the Children & Nature Network and the National League of Cities
Salzburg Global Seminar to Host First Facebook Live Event During Fourth Session of Parks for the Planet Forum
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Panel discussion on policies that promote nature access for urban children to be broadcast on Thursday, March 8

Members of the public are invited to take part in Salzburg Global Seminar’s first-ever Facebook Live event during next week’s session, Nature and Childhood: From Research and Activism to Policies for Global Change.

A panel discussion titled, “Policies that Promote Nature Access for Urban Children,” will be broadcast live on Salzburg Global’s Facebook page on Thursday, March 8, 2018, starting at 18:00 CET.

This upcoming session, which features as part of the multi-year Parks for the Planet Forum, and in particular the Salzburg Statement from last year's meeting, aims to discuss ways to transform the city into an outdoor classroom, involve children in designing and planning green spaces, build curiosity and care for nature and establish cross-sectoral partnerships to promote an inclusive culture of health in cities.

Drawing on previous sessions of the Parks for the Planet Forum, panelists taking part in this discussion will examine evidence-based, scalable examples of policies that promote regular, equitable access to nature and outdoor play for healthy childhood development. Following this conversation, which will be moderated by Clare Shine, vice president and chief program officer of Salzburg Global Seminar, panelists will take questions from session participants and members of the audience watching online.

Panelists include:

  • Dima Boulad, designer and co-founder of the Beirut Green Project
  • Karen Keenleyside, vice chair for People and Parks, IUCN WCPA
  • Margaret Lamar, vice president strategic initiatives, Children & Nature Network
  • Priya Cook, principal associate, Connecting Children to Nature, National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families

Join us on Thursday, March 8, 2018, on Salzburg Global’s Facebook page between 18:00 and 19:00 (CET) to learn about the importance of creating equitable access to nature as well as to engage in this stimulating discussion. Let us know you are taking part by registering your interest on Facebook.

This broadcast is presented in partnership with the Children & Nature Network and National League of Cities, who both collaborate on the U.S.-based initiative, Cities Connecting Children to Nature. This organization provides city leaders with technical assistance, training and peer learning opportunities to increase access to nature so that children, families, and communities can thrive.

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A Message from Our Vice President and Chief Program Officer
Clare Shine looks back on the journey traveled, new projects and horizons.
A Message from Our Vice President and Chief Program Officer
By: Clare Shine 

Clare Shine reflects on a landmark year celebrating Salzburg Global Seminar's 70th anniversary

As 2018 gets underway, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your continued engagement with Salzburg Global Seminar. In reflection of a landmark year celebrating Salzburg Global Seminar’s 70th anniversary, I wanted to look back on the journey traveled, new projects and horizons.

Our 2017 theme of “Courage” resonated throughout this turbulent year. The 1947 vision of Salzburg Global’s founders – a “Marshall Plan of the Mind” to revive dialogue and heal rifts across Europe - felt fresh as ever. Cracks widened in societies and institutions across the world, compounded by a mix of insecurity, disillusionment, and isolationism.

Yet the world should be in a better position than ever to tackle common challenges. There is an open marketplace for ideas, innovation, and invention, and opportunities to engage and collaborate are growing fast.

In Salzburg, we are privileged to meet individuals from all walks of life who have the courage to tell truth to power, confront vested interests, express artistic voice and freedom, build coalitions for change, and see through tough choices. In divided societies, people need courage to stay true to their beliefs. Leaders need courage to curb their exercise of power. Together, we need courage to rekindle our collective imagination to rebuild society from the bottom up and the top down.

Three strategies guide our own work for this purpose.

1. Given Salzburg Global’s roots in conflict transformation, our programs seek to bridge divides:

  • Our American Studies series – a discipline born at Schloss Leopoldskron – focused on Life and Justice in America: Implications of the New Administration, including the roots of economic and racial division;
  • The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change had its highest-ever participation on Voices Against Extremism: Media Responses to Global Populism and published an interactive playbook “Against Populism”;
  • Our Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention series is now applying tools developed in previous years to promote pluralism and tolerance and address issues of radicalization and violent extremism. Pilot projects to test these approaches are under way in five countries (Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Morocco, and Egypt) with the potential to expand to other countries;
  • The Salzburg Global LGBT Forum marked its fifth anniversary with a major report assessing the influence and personal impact of a cross-sector network that now spans more than 70 countries and has inspired new partnerships and cultural initiatives.

2. Salzburg Global Seminar aims to inspire new thinking and action on critical issues to transform systems, connecting local innovators and global resources:

3. Salzburg Global seeks to expand collaboration by fostering lasting networks and partnerships:

After six years living in Schloss Leopoldskron and meeting the most diverse and talented people imaginable, I often hear myself describe Salzburg Global Seminar as “deeply human.” 2017 brought many reminders of the special bonds forged during our lifetime and the enduring need to advance trust and openness around the key issues facing today’s world. 

Thank you again for your commitment and recognition of Salzburg Global’s importance in your professional and personal development. We hope you will consider joining other Fellows who have already made a donation to Salzburg Global this year. Please click here to learn more.

With very best wishes from everyone at Salzburg Global Seminar, and we hope to welcome you back to Schloss Leopoldskron in the near future.

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Anna Matheson - Reflections From a Palace in Salzburg
Participants of the Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, including Dr Anna Matheson from the School of Health Sciences (Picture: Salzburg Global Seminar/Katrin Kerschbaumer)
Anna Matheson - Reflections From a Palace in Salzburg
By: Anna Matheson 

Dr Anna Matheson reflects on her time as a participant at Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals 

Anna Matheson was a participant of the Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, which took place in December 2017. This article was first published by Massey University. The original article can be accessed here.

Who would have thought there is an organization whose main activity is facilitating pop-up think tanks to challenge current and future leaders to solve issues of global concern? Well, the Salzburg Global Seminar does just that.

The organization runs sessions with invited guests on globally relevant, diverse topics in their glorious home, the Schloss Leopoldskron, in Salzburg, Austria, which also happens to be the where The Sound of Music was filmed. As an aside, although the movie was filmed on the magnificent grounds of the Schloss, the inside was not filmed as a session was underway at the time – and it was considered extremely important the fellows were not disturbed in their ruminating.

Founded in 1947 by three Harvard students, the Salzburg Global Seminar was intended to be an international forum for those seeking a better future for Europe and the world following World War II. As the organization’s website states: “The founders believed that former enemies could talk and learn from each other, even as countries reeled from the ravages of war. Looking beyond Europe’s immediate needs for physical reconstruction and economic development, they argued for a 'Marshall Plan of the Mind' as a critical element of recovery.” Bringing countries together to talk, who had long been at war, was meant to be facilitated by the beautiful and calm setting of the Schloss Leopoldskron.

I arrived at the Schloss, surrounded by snowy mountains and at the edge of the icy lake, the Leopoldskroner Weiher, to participate in Session 592, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals. I was invited to attend because of my research and thinking on health inequalities and complexity in social systems. Most of the other 59 fellows were leaders from health and community organizations from around the world. The largest representation was from the United States of America as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (the biggest public health philanthropy organization in the US and funder of the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health) was a partner in the session.

Schloss Leopoldskron on the edge of an icy Leopoldskroner Weiher (Picture: Anna Matheson)

Throwing About Ideas

The four and a half days of the meeting were full of talking, presenting, sharing, planning and eating in majestic, history-laden rooms. A photographer was continually capturing the discussions; a graphic artist depicted the days’ ideas and each morning on our desks was a four-page newsletter with photos and stories of the previous day's ponderings. Not insignificant was the Bierstube – the basement bar in the Schloss where conversations continued – as well as table tennis, foosball, karaoke and dancing.

Another aside I need to mention was the “dance-off” that spontaneously happened among the men on at least two of the nights – though I would be remiss if I suggested there was a clear winner among the Colombians, the Scottish or the Rwandans.

When we weren’t hanging out in an Austrian basement, we were self-organizing into working groups to come up with tangible plans for action around the main themes that were emerging from the meeting.

Dr Anna Matheson participating at Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals (Picture: Salzburg Global Seminar/Katrin Kerschbaumer)

An Extraordinary Experience

The connecting thread was the imperative to be “people-centered”, even when considering big system challenges. One of the working groups began developing a framework for systems change to create more sustainable health systems; many at the session were frustrated by their inability to sustain health system changes and the often unseen barriers to change that existed. Another group aimed to build a business case for why urgent attention should be given to understanding the intersection between individual, community and planetary health. A third group developed plans to create a global toolkit to help hospitals improve their capacity to contribute to building healthier communities. A fourth group mapped out a strategy for how to take “innovation to scale” in order to impact significant public health challenges. Another focused on the role of clinicians and how services could be developed to assist them to reach further into the community. A sixth group explored how global attention might be moved away from prioritizing big data and more towards people-centered intelligence. While the last working group planned a collection of articles to be written for the British Medical Journal to showcase the session themes and experiences of those attending.

Participating in Session 592 of the Salzburg Global Seminar was extraordinary. Aside from the surreal setting and scintillating company, particularly heartening for me, was hearing all the passionate discussions that normalized talk of complex systems and the need for systems change in relation to health and equity. The tide is really turning. Fragmented, linear thinking and actions that disregard the wider systems within which they are nested is falling out of favor. A deep and considered understanding of social complexity is shifting away from being on the fringe as it becomes clearer that different thinking, and different methods and actions, are necessary if the complex global, and local, challenges that we face are to have any chance of being addressed. Impacting the rising prevalence of chronic health conditions in our communities and reducing health inequalities are just two of these challenges that require systems change in order for progress to be made. I am looking forward to the on-going work, and new relationships formed from Session 592 in pursuit of this progress.

Dr Anna Matheson is a senior lecturer in Public Health from the School of Health Sciences and Associate Investigator, Te Pūnaha Matatini – Centre of Research Excellence for Complex Systems, Data and Networks.

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Alison Tickell – Salzburg Global Is “a Very Special Creature, and I Think It Needs Our Thanks”
Alison Tickell in discussion at the Salzburg Global session, The Art of Resilience: Creativity, Courage and Renewal
Alison Tickell – Salzburg Global Is “a Very Special Creature, and I Think It Needs Our Thanks”
By: Oscar Tollast 

Julie’s Bicycle founder and CEO reflects on Salzburg Global’s impact on her work

“I do think Salzburg has been very, very important to my thinking personally,” Alison Tickell says, reflecting on her experiences at Salzburg Global Seminar. “There’s nothing quite like getting out of your comfort zone for a bit… I have hugely appreciated it. I think it’s a very special creature, and I think it needs our thanks.”

Tickell, the founder and chief executive officer of Julie’s Bicycle, first attended Salzburg Global Seminar to help examine the arts’ role in advancing sustainability. She was one of 58 change-makers who convened at Schloss Leopoldskron in February 2016 for Beyond Green: The Arts as a Catalyst for Sustainability. Tickell says, “It was an incredibly exciting opportunity to meet with people who had been working in the same field as us but from completely different perspectives. It was a very compelling invitation.”

The session concluded with Fellows putting forward proposals for new ways in which the arts could advance sustainability. These ideas ranged from organizing a separate workshop to expand new alliances to producing a “Creative Communication Canvas” tool.

“For me, it was very good to see the relationship between culture, climate and social justice very well-exercised,” Tickell says. “We had some great conversations about that, so it widened my perspective very much.” Participants benefited from hearing from others coming at the same set of problems but from different perspectives.”

Tickell says, “It was also quite validating to recognize that actually we were doing some pretty unique work and that might be of value to others just as their work might be and has definitely been of value to us.”

Julie’s Bicycle was established as a non-profit company in 2007 and set about helping the music industry to reduce its environmental impacts. Julie’s Bicycle has since extended its remit to other art forms and has become a leading organization for bridging sustainability with the arts and culture.

In the same year Tickell attended Salzburg Global, she helped launch Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Leadership Training Program. This program is designed to support and strengthen the emerging cultural movements around climate and the environment. Tickell says, “We’ve run three sessions on it, and it was incredibly useful – Salzburg Global – both for the scale of the ambition, really feeling that there were lots of people out there internationally, but also in terms of format.”

Tickell says she was able to take a few lessons from her first experience in Salzburg and focus on the idea of taking people outside of their comfort zone and pose them with leadership questions. She adds, “All of that has been incredibly useful. [The sessions] get better and better every time.”

At the beginning of 2017, Tickell had the chance to return to Salzburg Global and help convene her own focus group of change-makers for The Art of Resilience: Creativity, Courage and Renewal, which focused on understanding and identifying ways in which artists, cultural workers, and creatives imagine and strengthen the capacities of communities and societies to confront and adapt to the seemingly infinite sources of shock, violence, conflict and disruption.

Among those Tickell invited was Nick Nuttall (pictured below), the director of communications and spokesperson at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). She says, “Although he didn’t attend the whole session, he did attend for enough of it for us to really make the case that climate and the environment needed to have the voice, and the complex and many narratives that culture and the arts provide. His big takeaway promise was to work to promote culture as a key mechanism to communicate climate.”

Nuttall delivered on his promise. Alongside Tickell, he helped coordinate a new #Art4Climate series on the UNFCCC’s website. This weekly series provided a spotlight on arts and cultural responses to climate change and global efforts to take action. The series was launched in the run-up to the UN Climate Conference in Bonn in November, 2017. Among others, there have been features on the world’s first sustainable dance floor, art exhibitions, and comic art. Tickell believes it’s just the “tip of the iceberg” and anticipates further collaboration in the future.

Tickell says she found both sessions at Salzburg Global really interesting and much more challenging than she initially thought they would be. Commenting on The Art of Resilience: Creativity, Courage and Renewal, she says there was a much broader frame which looked at culture through a wider prism. The session covered topics such as sustainable development, immigration and refugees, post-conflict trauma and reconciliation, indigenous rights, and climate justice.

“A lot of my assumptions needed to be prodded and poked and that was one of the great values of Salzburg Global. It’s precisely that. You come away often uncomfortably disturbed and thoughtful, and it takes a while to really process some of that learning and put it into positive practice,” Tickell says.

Looking forward, Julie’s Bicycle is doing policy work with the World Cities Culture Forum and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. “A lot of that has had a lot to do with Salzburg Global because when I went [and] because I was able to curate a [focus group], they specifically asked me to bring people who could help the policy work. That’s why [the group] that I [convened] was very much focused on that, and we’ve really been able to build that into some super work.”

Tickell says Julie’s Bicycle is developing some diagnostic tools for global cities to help bring together climate and cultural policies. She adds, “We’ve written the World Cities Cultural Forum Handbook for City Leaders and will be developing that work in at least six pilot cities [in 2018], so that’s quite exciting.”

“We also are publishing this research which is on the seven cultural trends and, again, it’s been hugely informed by [Salzburg Global], which is really identifying what’s going on across the cultural sector globally and how the cultural sector is beginning to drive very positive change. We’ll be publishing that research in early March at an event, but hopefully, that will be the start of another bigger project.”

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Lynna Chandra – The Way We’ve Been Taught to See Our Work is No Longer Applicable to the Way that Our Lives are Being Led
Lynna Chandra speaking during the Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals
Lynna Chandra – The Way We’ve Been Taught to See Our Work is No Longer Applicable to the Way that Our Lives are Being Led
By: Oscar Tollast 

Founder of home-care facility Rachel House discusses need for change in health care

When details first emerged of the Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, Lynna Chandra, the founder of Rachel House, sensed a new opportunity. “When this topic came up,” Chandra says, “I actually wrote to John [Lotherington] and said, I think I’d like to learn from this.”

Chandra, who describes herself as a problem-solver, was looking to explore why people were still unable to access care in different parts of the world. The topic of building healthier communities was brought up in the previous Salzburg Global session she attended in December 2016: Rethinking Care Toward the End of Life. This session is where Chandra began looking at the role of the health system.

Despite the building of new hospitals and improvements made to health care facilities, Chandra suggests a disconnect remains. She says, “We still see the silent group of the people with chronic disease staying at home and the poor not being able to access the care.”

Between 2006 and 2016, Chandra helped pioneer pediatric palliative care services in Indonesia. Rachel House has provided palliative care to more than 2,600 children and their families and training to more than 6,000 medical professionals and community members.

Chandra is concerned the money spent on health care around the world isn’t being invested wisely. She says, “We continue to not give people what they need, and often give more than what people really want.” Chandra says conversations with fellow participants at Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, have confirmed to her that more frontline staff are needed. This change would lead to more people on the ground understanding people’s needs, not only the things that can be quantified and measured but the subjective factors in each scenario.

“I think Salzburg Global Seminar has so successfully put together doctors who really care, doctors who believe that there has got to be a better ear on the ground to really connect with people one on one in order for us to deliver what the sustainable development goals are, really understanding what would actually make people have better quality of life, and the social determinants of health.”

During the session, Chandra took part in a panel discussion on the smart utilization of technology in health care. She questioned how to build bridges between technological experts and participants in the room who were “ready to create change, ready to disrupt the way we think, and challenge the status quo of the hospital.”

Chandra believes there are blocks in the system that prevent healthier communities emerging. She highlights high profile meetings concerning environmental matters which fail to include Ministers of Health in discussions. She says, “The way we have been taught to see our work is no longer applicable to the way that our lives are being led.”

In September 2016, Chandra stood down from Rachel House and switched her attention to a new project. She has dedicated the past 12 months to “really learn” and has continued to serve on the boards of Assisi Hospice, the International Children’s Palliative Care Network, and Bamboo Capital Management.

Chandra doesn’t have a fixed idea as to what her next chapter will look like, but she knows “inherently and instinctively that it has to be something to do with community care, it has something to do with primary care, [and] it has something to do with bringing care closer to the people and have a better understanding of the people.”

Chandra says she has “learned so much” at the session and will take away the possibility of working with several of her fellow participants in the near future. She congratulated Salzburg Global for bringing together people with great potential to create change and disrupt the status quo.

When asked what inspires her to do the work she does, Chandra draws in a deep breath before replying, “I think to serve.” She adds, “It frustrates me to see that where there is so much abundance, there is so much possibility around, and yet the poorest and the people without a voice continue to be under-served, continue to go without. Fathers continue to see their children die without the ability to help them. Mothers continue to see their children suffer in pain in the final days of their lives, and yet there is no help. Even in a country where we have so much, that population continues to suffer. I think it is… I can’t believe we don’t have a solution. I’m just impatient, I guess, I don’t know."


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Magdalena Seol - Business and Investment Can Drive a More Sustainable Asia
Seol says accelerating sustainable economic growth requires adequate private sector finance
Magdalena Seol - Business and Investment Can Drive a More Sustainable Asia
By: Magdalena Seol 

International expert in sustainable development and public sector innovation identifies critical role for private sector

Seol was a participant at The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia. All participants were invited to share their own vision for "the Asia we want."

Building a sustainable economy is a critical concern not just for policymakers but also for businesses. Our generation lives in a historic time: the next decade will be an inflection point for the next hundred years. If we are to build a sustainable and inclusive society, it is necessary to invite and unleash the private sector resources, creativity, and drive into our grand mission. 90 percent of the jobs created during the 15 years of the Millennium Development Goals were created by the private sector, signaling an essential role that businesses will need to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and lifting the remaining 700 million people around the world out of extreme poverty. Accelerating sustainable economic growth requires adequate private sector finance - especially in critical public infrastructure - to preserve scarce public dollars and reach the scale as needed. Building human capital needs not only finance but innovation and management efficiency that can be drawn from the private sector. Fostering resilience to global and regional shocks also requires a robust participation of the private sector.

Now, let’s look into Asia. Below is a map created by Brilliant Maps. You will see a circled area in it.

Circle centered on 106.6° East, 26.6° North, projected using GMT, created by BCMM - Brilliant Maps

More people live inside this circle than outside of it, with many of the world’s most populous countries located in the circle – China (first), India (second), Indonesia (fourth), Pakistan (sixth), and Bangladesh (seventh). According to the UN DESA, two-thirds of the projected population growth is happening in the high-food deficit regions of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, presenting the challenges of not only “overpopulation” but also “disparity.” The economic transformation the Asian region showed in recent decades is indeed an unprecedented one. However, persistent inequality and environmental degradation can be a threat to the “Asian Century.” Feeding and conserving Asia has now become an urgent problem.

In the meantime, business cases for achieving the SDGs are expanding worldwide, and Asia may be particularly well placed to reap the collective benefits of such cases for a few reasons. Firstly, there are already sizable businesses that have value chains that involve millions of enterprises in the region. Secondly, many governments in Asia are able to shape market activity and set nation-wide goals. Thirdly, culturally, Asian societies tend to value environmental protection, social justice or education, which strongly resonate with the Global Goals. A quantitative analysis conducted by the Business and Sustainable Development Commission and others estimates that companies pursuing strategies aligned with the SDGs in the region with sustainable business models are likely to create economic opportunities worth US$5 trillion in a few key market areas – food & agriculture, energy, cities, and health – and generate 230 million new jobs in Asia by 2030. The total estimated value, US$5 trillion, is even introduced as a conservative number. Additional value can be generated from other sectors such as ICT, education, and consumer goods, which are estimated to add US$12 trillion. Pricing in environmental costs can further increase this size. And if progress is made in gender equality in the region, where women traditionally have not engaged in the economy, the analysis expects it to add another 30 percent growth in the economy of those Asian countries. The good news is that across the region, businesses are already pioneering innovative business models and applying new technologies to unlock sustainable opportunities that are in line with the SDGs.

The private sector – businesses and investments – will have critical roles in our march toward achieving social and environmental sustainability. First and foremost, businesses can address the manner in which they conduct their business activities – compliance, risk management and ‘do no harm’ – across their value chains. Developing new, innovative and inclusive products, services, technologies, and ways of doing business in the market that can contribute to improving people’s lives and environmental performance is also a unique part that businesses can contribute. Scaling the new business models and shifting the pioneers to common practice will require various layers of collaboration within and outside the corporate sector such as project-level financing and implementation partners, industry-level alliances, and multi-stakeholder platforms and networks. To crowd in private capital and investment, we will need to continue developing new and creative financial products. For instance, this could include bonds recently issued by the World Bank that directly link returns to the businesses’ performance in advancing the development priorities set out in the SDGs; drawing in non-traditional sources of finance such as sovereign wealth funds and pension funds with trillions of dollars in liquidity; or “greening” the financial sector with more cases of green bonds at municipal, national, and regional levels.

All of these measures may not be enough to fully tackle the multiplying pressures and mutually reinforcing challenges imposed on the region’s sustainability. This will be an on-going evolutionary process of finding, testing, and establishing innovative models and solutions. While the problems are daunting, I am optimistic that we will be able to unlock the socioeconomic potential of the private sector in collaboration with governments, multilateral institutions, nonprofits, and ultimately, with citizens.

Magdalena Seol is an international expert in sustainable development and public sector innovation. She founded Global Development Advisors, a strategy advisory consultancy that solely focuses on global development and public impact problems


Session 591 - The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia- is the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation. For more information on the Session, please click here. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session on social media, follow #SGSasia.

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Fellows Present Ideas on Enhancing Collaboration and Building Healthy Communities
Fellows of the Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, pose for a group photo
Fellows Present Ideas on Enhancing Collaboration and Building Healthy Communities
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, reaches a conclusion

Participants of the Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, have been encouraged to keep the conversation flowing following the end of the five-day program.

This message came after participants presented their ideas on the final day of the program to enhance effective collaboration and information-sharing between hospitals, social services, and community organizations.

Their presentations explored several areas, building on the discussions and exercises that had taken place over the previous days.

The first group to present did so under the title of “Yearning for Change.” They advocated a framework for system change convening and assisting like-minded leaders in a community social movement to share experiences and test ideas while committing to a sustainable health system.

This would lead to a “Salzburg Community of Practice” – a group of peers from different countries who share a passion for sustainable system change who learn how to do it better through regular interaction on a voluntary basis. Everyone has access to information and each other. All peers share a view of what’s significant.

The group said they’d know if they were successful when an online library was established and actively used. Other markers include active participation by a minimum of five countries, and the sense participants find it useful.

The next presentation focused on creating a resource which would help result in healthy people, healthy communities, and a healthy planet – taking innovation to scale. This group produced a set of values they felt were paramount for successful innovation scale, which they referred to as the Four-Is Framework. Innovation, issue, and influence are the essential domains of interaction that are necessary. Impact, the fourth “I,” is only achieved when the other fields have had time to interface and intersect.

Underpinning this framework are guiding principles of equal partnership and representation, a focus on trusting, respectful relationships among all stakeholders, stakeholder/community engagement and co-creation, continuous involvement of end-users, investment of resources in enabling capacity for stakeholder engagement, and incremental progress.

The third working group showcased an action-oriented research agenda, designed to improve individual, community and planetary health simultaneously. The rationale behind it was that a more conscious research and action agenda on social determinants of health could maximize health system impacts and investments to achieve benefits at all three levels.

The group highlighted several domains where interventions could be identified. These areas included food insecurity, poor and unhealthy housing, energy poverty, transportation, waste management/recycling, air quality, education, violence prevention, and social isolation. An example of a research question could be: What are the most effective partnership models to achieve maximum results?

If health care professionals are to reach out to the community, they’ll need to understand the community first. This message came through during the next presentation. The working group behind the presentation focused on services to help clinicians to improve communication. Members advocated using local community resources and smart and existing technology to integrate, share and disseminate knowledge to improve community health.

The methods of achieving this include identifying community needs and health guardians in the community, using smart technology to develop connectivity and health education, and having a regular review of the whole process. The presentation concluded with the message: “Change will happen. It just needs passion, commitment, and desire.”

Throughout the session, participants considered the capacities of hospitals and the position they were in to support healthy communities. One working group decided to focus on ways to improve their capacities through a global toolkit. The final product would be a dynamic digital repository, which brings together individuals, frameworks, methodologies, tools, and cases to facilitate, strengthen and guide hospital collaboration, co-operation and co-design efforts with communities to improve the health of its citizens.

The group stated hospitals could and should work together with communities and evolve to improve the health and well-being of all citizens by addressing social determinants. While doing so, hospitals should continue delivering on their core mission, which is providing high-value care to its patients and families with “healthy staff.” Resources which could be made available in a global toolkit include partnership agreements, education and training materials, communication strategies, and co-design methodologies.

Members of the sixth working group began their talk by describing the existing system as unsustainable. The speaker said the system “doesn’t know what it doesn’t know.” The group proposed co-producing a learning front end to enable a health-creating system that is accountable to the community.

Members of this group suggested describing a theory of change based on people’s preferences and an understanding of needs and wants. The next steps would be to present a way to invite co-producers and then form or find communities of interest to refine and spread. One participant said what they were talking about was “transformational change” – starting with an individual and then extending to the system.

Taking the work forward

A seventh working group worked on an outline proposal for six peer-reviewed articles to be published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), based on the themes that emerged during the session. The initial plan is to release these articles in 2018.

The articles would be presented on a BMJ Collection page alongside any BMJ Opinion pieces written by Salzburg Global Fellows. Participants heard a working group would meet regularly to ensure the project moves forward. Suggested article themes already include the role of hospitals, lowering the walls and breaking down barriers, and how data can act as a bridge.

Salzburg Global Program Director John Lotherington said Salzburg Global would do everything it can to support Fellows’ ideas, but he encouraged prime movers in each group to keep the conversation moving forward.

Several participants said they would support the idea of producing a Salzburg Statement. Lotherington indicated this was something which could be pursued but would have to stem from a smaller working group first before it could branch out to all participants.

Anne Weiss, managing director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the program had provided her the opportunity to discuss a challenge experienced in more than one country and that the conversation had moved from hospitals to health eco-systems.

Susan Mende, a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said participants had disproved the notion that something that happens in one part of the world can’t be applied to another. To conclude, Mende said participants had seen the "winds of change” at Salzburg Global, and a gale was beginning to build.


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Building Healthy Communities – Prioritizing Health Creation
From left to right – Paul Burstow, Eddie Bartnik, Gael Surgenor and Gary Cohen speaking at Salzburg Global Seminar
Building Healthy Communities – Prioritizing Health Creation
By: Tomás De La Rosa 

Participants consider how to keep institutions focused on health creation and how to manage the trade-offs for everyone

The question of how health creation can remain a priority when institutions are geared to other primary goals is one that’s difficult to find just one answer for. Participants of the Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Roles of Hospital, considered the best strategies on Sunday morning as part of the session’s final plenary discussion.

In addition, participants also explored how to creatively manage the trade-offs for everyone, not just health care institutions. To help them, Gary Cohen, Gale Surgenor, Eddie Bartnik, and Paul Burstow spoke from their experience and provided case studies to reflect on.

Cohen discussed the broader mission hospitals have in supporting people in equitable and healthy societies through environmental sustainability. Calling hospitals “the cathedrals of our time,” he argued they need to reduce waste, use more sustainable energy sources, and eliminate toxic chemicals such as mercury.

He also explained how hospitals contribute to the health of individuals, communities, and the planet, finishing with the open-ended question, “Who else is to defend the human right to health than ourselves who are responsible for healing?”

Sharing the example of communities in South Auckland, New Zealand, where "only the hood can change the hood" is the rule, Surgenor explained how it’s essential to collaborate with communities to educate them about their own health. This type of co-design helps communities by having them teach institutions about human design.

Bartnik, a strategic advisor to the National Disability Insurance Agency, highlighted the importance of connecting with local communities through positive assumptions and asking the right questions to help communities find local solutions.

He also explained how strategic conversations are necessary for a fair and connected support system saying, “We must ensure it doesn’t take over and families or communities always have a say.”

Paul Burstow, former Minister of State for the UK Department of Health, used the example of elderly people in health care losing value and agency due to their status, as a reminder of how services must be humble as they only represent 10 percent of the concept of health. “What people fundamentally want is to live a good life, and not be surrounded by systems,” he said.

He then urged participants not to use co-production to perpetuate business arguing, “Products must enhance life, not burden people. Institutions should be fundamentally bottom-up; communities should instruct people at the top on what their needs are.”

Reflecting on the discussion, a participant talked about how each individual’s story is different, saying, “With decision-makers, it's about considering how to budget effectively to provide appropriate care, but with patients, it needs to be how to improve their lives and create a better experience.”


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Sowing the Seeds of a Global Conversation - The Salzburg Questions Series
The #allmylifeQs hashtag has received more than 10.4 million impressions on Twitter and been used in more than 3,500 tweets
Sowing the Seeds of a Global Conversation - The Salzburg Questions Series
By: Katie Witcombe 

Outreach administrator for the Cicely Saunders Institute reflects on Salzburg Questions series

This article first appeared on the EAPC Blog on Monday, December 11.

In response to Human Rights Day yesterday, 10th December, Katie Witcombe, Outreach Administrator for the Cicely Saunders Institute and one of the facilitators of the Salzburg Questions series, explains the importance of using digital campaigns to shine a spotlight on neglected issues and open up discussions to people all over the world.

When the seed of an idea for a multidimensional series of questions was planted at the Salzburg Global Seminar in 2016, its capacity for growth was unknown. At a meeting to consider global opportunities and challenges in palliative care, which was attended by international experts in the field and facilitated by Professor Irene Higginson of the Cicely Saunders Institute, it was decided that an interactive, digital debate would be the most inclusive way to initiate conversations about the major issues currently facing palliative care provision and how best these can be tackled.

A global conversation, including monthly Twitter ‘launches’ to coincide with international awareness days, corresponding blog posts, podcasts, videos and reports, was planned for the following 12 months with academic and clinical leads spearheading the campaign from around the world. Since its conception, the Salzburg Questions series has achieved a reach which has surpassed expectations; there has been an average of nearly 500 views for each blog post, the #allmylifeQs hashtag has received more than 10.4 million impressions on Twitter and been used in more than 3,500 tweets, and the online reach has extended to 182 countries. Monthly topics have included the inequality of palliative care provision in low- and middle-income countries, the emotional and financial impact of caring for a loved one at the end of life and the future research needed to improve care for vulnerable groups such as refugees, people with complex physical symptoms, and those living in poverty. The series has given project teams and researchers from world-leading institutions the opportunity to showcase their most recent research into global healthcare trends, place of death, how to support an ageing population and treatment for non-cancer conditions. These issues affect millions of people worldwide, and the application of this work into actual clinical practice has the potential to markedly improve the quality of life for patients and families approaching the end of life.

Ultimately, the Salzburg Questions series has highlighted the appetite that exists for discussions about the issues affecting palliative care, and the role that online platforms such as Twitter have to play in these global conversations. In this digital age, closed-room discussions are becoming a thing of the past and impact can be measured in re-tweets and shares. Twitter discourse is a democratisation of the decision-making processes which have governed research for so long; people from all demographics and backgrounds can now help to shape the direction of future work by signposting the areas which they feel need the most investment. In the aftermath of Human Rights Day this weekend, an increased awareness of vulnerable or neglected groups should be celebrated, as should the involvement of patients, carers and families in these discussions. The blog posts published monthly by the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) may have been produced by experts in fields as diverse as global health inequity, patient and carer psycho-social needs, advance care planning and epidemiology, but it is the responses from researchers, clinicians and members of the public which have enabled this series to gain momentum and relevance over time.

From tiny seeds, tall oaks can grow, and we hope that the roots that were laid over the course of the campaign will continue to flourish. The enthusiasm and engagement with which this series of questions has been met is a clear signifier of the conversations which people from all over the world are ready to have about the lasting need for high quality, effective and accessible palliative care.

Links and Resources

•    Catch up on the global Twitter discussions using the hashtag #allmylifeQs. The nine Salzburg Questions have been debated throughout 2017.
•    Read all nine posts published on the EAPC Blog in the Salzburg Questions series.
•    Find out more about the ongoing work of the Cicely Saunders Institute.
•    Find out more about the programmes and strategic aims of the Salzburg Global Seminar.
•    Follow Prof Irene Higginson @ij_higginson
•    Follow Cicely Saunders Institute @CSI_KCL

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Gael Surgenor - I am Driven to Make a Difference in People’s Lives and Make Things Better
Gael Surgenor, pictured above, sitting in the Chinese Room at Schloss Leopoldskron (Picture: Salzburg Global Seminar/Mirva Villa)
Gael Surgenor - I am Driven to Make a Difference in People’s Lives and Make Things Better
By: Mirva Villa 

Director of community and social innovation discusses challenges affecting South Auckland

“I think the big challenge for us is the growing gap between people who are doing well, and people who are really disadvantaged: in employment, in incomes, in education and in health. There’s a big issue around child poverty in New Zealand. Recently we had a change of government and the prime minister took on child poverty as her responsibility, so that really shows how important it is to the new government,” Gael Surgenor says, speaking at the Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals.

Surgenor is the director of community and social innovation at The Southern Initiative (TSI), a program which is part of the Auckland Council family. Its purpose is to amplify innovation in South Auckland.

The region has the biggest concentration of social and economic challenges in New Zealand, according to Surgenor. The population is young and  the level of unemployment is high, the incomes are low, and there are a lot of health issues.

“But it also means that South Auckland has a lot of opportunities,” Surgenor says, adding that it’s an area of economic growth. “It’s also a very creative community, it’s diverse, it’s young and there’s a whole lot of assets and strengths associated with that we we need to tap.”

TSI focuses on three main priorities. It grows the shared prosperity of people living in Auckland, it builds resilience in the community, and empowers families and children.

Employment and skills–improving initiatives have been put in place to help especially the young people to find jobs, and for local entrepreneurs to secure their place in the economy.

One of the initiatives to empower local youth was to invite them to have their say on local matters through an online platform. The young people can upload their own ideas, or respond to questions or calls and receive micropayments in return.

“Young people have fed back to us that it has created a safe space to share their ideas, to have a voice and help them to think. It’s not like Facebook where you like what someone has uploaded. In order to earn the micropayment, you have to think about the question and create a response.”

Young people have been asked to share their views on a variety of issues. Surgenor explains that South Auckland has a big problem with window washers - people who approach cars at traffic lights in anticipation of being paid for the service. A 16-year-old window washer was recently killed after being run over by a car, so getting young people to think about the dangers of it is important. Another call asking young people’s views on child poverty received around 200 responses.

Building resilience in South Auckland is focused on what new technologies enable, and what that’s going to mean to the future of work in the area.

“South Auckland has been a community that’s been very heavily impacted by the waves of social and economic change, so we want to make sure that the community is a bit more resilient to the change that’s coming,” says Surgenor. South Auckland has a very strong DIY-culture, she adds. New technologies have enabled people to innovate and create.

The third focus of TSI is on Whānau: families and children thriving. Health and social care services in New Zealand are delivered by the central government agencies, so the council aims to empower families through other means.

Surgenor has spent her whole career working in community development, social justice and human rights. From starting at a community law center, to working for Ministry of Social Development and now for the past five years at Auckland Council, she’s always been driven by one, simple thing: “making a difference in people’s lives, making things better”.

Seeing how the support and accompaniment of the council helps to drive positive change in the community is something Surgenor has found fulfilling.

“One really rewarding thing is working with a group of grassroots leaders, like the parent leaders from our cluster of six schools, and observing the confidence and the development of those leaders, and their empowerment and what they are making happen for themselves… and their community.”


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Building Healthy Communities - Aligning Incentives to Address Social Determinants of Health
Helen Buckingham in conversation at Salzburg Global Seminar
Building Healthy Communities - Aligning Incentives to Address Social Determinants of Health
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Participants consider how aligned financial incentives could better support hospitals

In among the discussions at Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, participants have been asked to consider how aligned financial incentives could better direct and support hospitals to address the social determinants of health.

On Friday afternoon, Jay Bhatt, Helen Buckingham, and Mike Nader took part in a panel discussion to explore the question in further detail. Each panelist chose to modify the question and tackle it from a different angle.

Nader, executive vice-president and chief operating officer at the University Health Network, in Canada, suggested people needed to look at how to align the “health ecosystem” to promote better health. He highlighted Canada as an amalgamation of many health systems where each province manages its own health delivery. These provinces are structured in different ways.

Many systems are volume-based, according to Nader. The more you do, the more money you get Nader said the concept of how we fund health should be flipped on its head.

In addition to this, Nader also said people needed to look at how to incentivize good transitions, care and support upstream and downstream of hospitals.

Buckingham, a senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust, in the United Kingdom, said she was interested in what stopped people from making the decisions they ought to take. She said what drives people to do the things they do is fulfilling their ambitions and potential. It is difficult to design a financial system which would make someone do something they wouldn’t do in any event.

Success relies on the data and the people who deliver it. Buckingham called for more people who have a greater understanding of what drives clinician behavior, patient behavior, and managerial behavior. Participants heard there were opportunities to develop local arrangements that prevent money from being a barrier, reduce gaps, and allow money to be the enabler of change rather than the driver.

Bhatt, the chief medical officer at the American Hospital Association, reframed the question. He asked: what are we for when accelerating health? The answers to this question can help guide the strategy. He said people knew investing in the social determinants of health could make a difference, but the evidence supporting this was still emerging.

The people who sit on the board of trustees often don’t understand the benefits of investing in community health and why it is the right thing to do, according to Bhatt. He suggested it was up to others to convince them.

In response to this discussion, one participant remarked that for a panel about financial incentives the conclusion seemed to be money isn’t everything. Another table discussed how changing payment models and incentives was perhaps necessary but not sufficient to change health systems.


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Building Healthy Communities - The Role of Metrics in Influencing Health Creation, Support and Care
Patricia Frenz, director of the School of Public Health at the University of Chile, speaking during Saturday's panel discussion
Building Healthy Communities - The Role of Metrics in Influencing Health Creation, Support and Care
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Participants review how metrics can drive health care sector toward better alignment with other sectors

On the third day of Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, participants considered the use of metrics to drive the health care sector toward better alignment with other sectors and broader accountability to communities in support of population health.

Tracey Cooper, chief executive of Public Health Wales, began the discussion by informing participants about the Well-being of Future Generations Act, a piece of legislation passed in Wales in 2015. Its intention is to help improve the country’s economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being.

As one of several public bodies listed on the Act, Public Health Wales is expected to work toward achieving seven well-being goals. In the Act, a sustainable development principle exists which asks organizations to bear in mind the future when making decisions.

Cooper explained how she and others looked at the return of investment particular actions would lead to. When presenting this information to others, Cooper said the “reality landed.”

Anna Matheson, senior lecturer in public health at Massey University, said her interest was exploring health inequalities. She questioned whether long-term monitoring of aspects of community organizations was required. Matheson demonstrated the usefulness of case study methods for understanding social complexities.

She said it should be recognized that there are pre-existing relationships and activities going on within communities. The sensemaking process has been a useful way of taking data back to the community.

Patricia Frenz, director of the School of Public Health at the University of Chile, said metrics were about good data, valid indicators, and meaningful indexes. The starting point is people having a shared vision and an understanding of what dimensions need to be measured and interpreted.

In Chile, one of the concerns is the number of people who are invisible to the health system and don’t benefit from available services. Frenz said Chile had participation mechanisms in place to ensure the communities are identifying their needs and are involved in the health system.

Mahmood Adil, medical director at the NHS National Services Scotland, said every country has a different way of collecting and using data. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation locates concentrations of deprived areas across Scotland and helps authorities collect data on the social determinants of health. Specialist intelligence teams are in place to help authorities interpret this data.

Adil said people needed to find ways to share knowledge on the challenges everyone faces. That said, he warned people should remember there is someone’s life behind data and the process needed to be humanized.


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Building Healthy Communities - The Smart Utilization of Technology
From left to right - Graham Adams, Lynna Chandra, Selina Brudnicki, and Toyin Ajayi
Building Healthy Communities - The Smart Utilization of Technology
By: Tomás De La Rosa 

Participants review ways in which technology can support better health

Participants started the third day of Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals by discussing how new technologies, or novel applications of older ones, can assist in transforming health services, as well as how these technologies can create a more open, connected and collaborative institutional culture of hospitals.

The session was led by Graham Adams, Toyin Ajayi, Selina Brudnicki, and Lynna Chandra. Each discussed ways in which technology can transform health.

Brudnicki said involving patients was key to developing effective tools to help patients manage their own health. She explained how University Health Network, in Toronto, addressed gaps in the sharing of data between hospitals, primary and community care by having patients access their own medical information and make corrections to their record.

Gauging on technology’s role, Ajayi, chief health officer of Cityblock Health, said when considering what she is trying to build, she asks herself whether technology can help at all. And although she does believe it can, now is not the time. “We have tools that are in place to record data and produce bills, but we need to produce full information of patients as people,” she said.

To produce said information, she said building care teams that are in place to create relationships with patients is necessary, saying, “We cannot think of technology as a replacement of humans in care, it should be an augmentation for people.”

“Why don’t we look at technologies that will bring down the hospital walls, rather than creating more barriers in the system?” said Chandra, co-founder of Absolute Impact Partners, highlighting how the system has lost people’s trust and technology should be used to rebuild it.

Adams, CEO of the South Carolina Office of Rural Health, told participants that when people talk about population health and the life of a community, we need to ask how to make sure we have a vehicle that allows everyone at a local level to have access to their information.

Participants heard and discussed the lack of linguistic fluency between clinicians, health systems, and technology developers. Ajayi argued that a solution would be common competency between clinicians and technologists.

Participants continued to discuss the relationship between health and technology among themselves. One participant said that A.I. and visual algorithms can help identify visible threats, but ultimately decisions should be made by someone who understands the patient and their context.


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Building Healthy Communities - Steps Hospitals Can Make to Act on Social Determinants of Health
Alison Verhoeven, chief executive of Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, was one of four panelists for the discussion
Building Healthy Communities - Steps Hospitals Can Make to Act on Social Determinants of Health
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Participants consider how hospitals can realign their mission, practices and institutional networks to address the social determinants of health

To address the social determinants of health, hospitals may have to consider realigning their missions, practices and institutional networks.

Pablo Bravo, Marianne Olsson, Juan Pablo Uribe, and Alison Verhoeven considered the best ways for hospitals to do this during the second panel discussion on the second day of Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals.

Uribe, director general of Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, asked how health care professionals within hospitals could learn from one another and ensure knowledge was maximized. He called for a better performing system, one where each part is doing the right thing at the right time.

Missions are important for institutions. If another mission is put forward, that is something for another organization to pursue, according to Uribe. He said he and his colleagues strived to provide the best possible care that Bogotá requires, and they wanted to be connected and coordinated upstream and downstream.

Verhoeven, chief executive of Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, suggested Australia had a high-performing health system, but challenges remained in terms of how rural and remote areas accessed health, and how the indigenous population experienced health.  

Participants heard there were opportunities to have structures for consumers to co-design services that meet the needs of communities genuinely and authentically. Verhoeven said data could be linked to inform how to better design services.

One way in which hospitals can realign their practices to address the social determinants of health is through advocacy. Bravo, vice president of community health at Dignity Health, revealed his employer’s advocacy efforts ranged from health care related issues to issues such as access to clean water and affordable housing.

Participants also heard how vacant land had been made available by Dignity Health for farming activities. Meanwhile, facilities no longer useful have been transferred to developers to create low-income housing.
Bravo said this was only possible through working with partners. Dignity Health is focused on providing care to its patients and doesn’t have the capacity or expertise to expand into areas like the construction of housing.

Olsson, an independent consultant, discussed how she helped launch a new hospital in the poorest area of a city in Sweden. Its purpose was to reach a part of the population not served by others.

The key to success is combining data and dialogue. It’s important not to get stuck on fixed concepts when changing health care systems. Olsson said health care was in a better position than others to be the driver of a movement for a healthier community and act as the inspiration for other authorities to follow.


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Building Healthy Communities - Working Together for Better Health
Sir Harry Burns (right) argued organizations should make a greater effort to do things with people
Building Healthy Communities - Working Together for Better Health
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Participants discuss how other sectors can collaborate with hospitals in support of better health

Many hands make light work, as the saying goes. The more people who help with a project, the more comfortable the task becomes. Participants started the second day ofBuilding Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitalsby considering how other sectors could more effectively and proactively collaborate with hospitals in support of better health.

They were assisted in their thinking by Sir Harry Burns, Rev. John Edgar, Rebecca Davis and Mark Rukavina. All four took part in a panel discussion.

Burns, a professor of global public health at the University of Strathclyde, said it was important to involve as many sectors as possible when finding solutions. There is never going to be one answer. In a society which is governed by rules of efficiency, organizations may act as if they exist to do things to people. Burns argued organizations should be doing things with people and asking what they need.

Rather than strictly focusing on their needs, Edgar said his organization, Community Development for All People (CD4AP), worked with people and communities based on their assets, hopes, and relationships. Edgar, CD4AP’s executive director, said after listening to people’s hopes and the changes they wanted to see, they saw notorious developments when it came to housing-based health.

Davis told participants how she had worked with hospitals to understand their recruitment and employment practices. She suggested leaders who wanted to develop a more diverse workforce must ensure there is better cultural understanding in hospital wards. To reach valid conclusions, it’s important to not only look at research but also combine it with local experience and the realities of the communities that are being served.

Participants heard the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, in the United States, in 2010, meant non-profit hospitals had to undertake community health needs assessments every three years. This provided an avenue to understanding the assets and issues communities had.

Rukavina, the business development manager with the Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation, said hospitals had an opportunity to engage with vulnerable, low-income and under-favored communities and change the perception of the health system.

In response to this discussion, participants considered the existing structures in society that make it difficult for people to address issues and the need to break down walls.


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Toyin Ajayi - Health Care Interventions Don’t Always Lead to Better Health for Communities
Toyin Ajayi, pictured above, sitting in Max Reinhardt’s study at Schloss Leopoldskron (Picture: Salzburg Global Seminar/Mirva Villa)
Toyin Ajayi - Health Care Interventions Don’t Always Lead to Better Health for Communities
By: Mirva Villa 

Cityblock Health co-founder describes her interest in building new models of care for all

Toyin Ajayi likes people. That is what led her to become a doctor and develop new models of care. She believes health care systems are in need of a new perspective when delivering health. Speaking on the second day of the Salzburg Global session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals, Ajayi says, “I think we are all much more complex as organisms existing within an ecosystem than we are if we focus on just the biology within us.”

In addition to her role as a family physician, Ajayi is the co-founder and chief health officer of Cityblock Health, a recently launched New York-based health and social services company with the goal of offering better integrated health and social services for people with low income and complex care needs. The connection – or even contradiction – between health and health care is at the basis of Cityblock Health’s work. What is this contradiction about, exactly?

“It is a fact of most of our health care systems that we become quite good at doing things to people, and for people: prescribing things to people, doing procedures, and offering interventions that in themselves are health care, but don’t always in aggregate lead to better health,” Ajayi replies, while sitting in Max Reinhardt’s study.

To back up this point, Ajayi gives an example: a person sleeping outside on the streets who develops an obstructive lung disease from smoking and being exposed to lots of other environmental factors. When they access the health care system, Ajayi suggests the focus typically will be on managing their respiratory problems through “aggressive interventions.”

She adds, “We will give them medications, we might put a breathing tube down their throat to breath for them, we might prescribe them additional tests, additional therapies… Those things, in absence of addressing their need for housing, don’t actually make that person healthier in the long term,” says Ajayi. According to her, health care systems have been narrow-minded in their approach. They don’t address the totality of reasons why people have become unhealthy, Ajayi argues. The health sector needs to make a conscious effort to shift their thinking on seeing people holistically.

“Being able to make that transition from more health care to better health requires us to think about things that we’ve never really thought about in health care;” Ajayi says. “Things like transportation, education, access to healthy food, access to housing, social support and community, and love and engagement and trust and empathy – these are all very unfamiliar parts of our armamentarium as health care professionals, but are integral if we actually want to improve the health of communities and populations.”

Ajayi became passionate about the subject while completing her residency training at Boston Medical Center. Some of the patients came to her with problems that far exceeded her ability to treat them.

“I recognized very quickly that if I didn’t understand their ability to take those medicines, their ability to understand the instructions I was giving them, if we didn’t have a trusted relationship, if they didn’t have a fridge to store the medicines, food to eat with their medications, social support and family support to encourage them and keep them engaged, then I could write as many prescriptions as I wanted and it wouldn’t actually improve anyone’s health or well-being.

“I got very interested in thinking how we build models of care to enable doctors like me, frankly, and other professionals who are very passionate about helping people to make better choices for themselves, and live the lives they want to live, to actually gain the skills and experience and the tools to do that and be part of that for them.”

Cityblock Health’s journey has only just started, and the team is working hard to make sure their services and tools will respond to the needs of their future patients.

Commenting on what keeps her moving forward, Ajayi says, “I just fundamentally can’t accept that in 2017, in a country that has such a wealth of resources, some people continue to suffer, continue to face worse outcomes and restricted opportunities based on where they were born and the resources that are available to them. I just cannot accept that we can’t do better than that, and I’m motivated by the idea that we must.”


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Building Healthy Communities - Reflecting on a Culture of Health
John Lotherington and Hilary Heishman set the scene for the program ahead
Building Healthy Communities - Reflecting on a Culture of Health
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Participants meet at Schloss Leopoldskron for start of five-day program

Health happens where we live, learn, work, play, and pray. That’s just one of the thoughts participants considered on the first day of the Salzburg Global Seminar session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals.

Around 60 participants from 16 countries met at Schloss Leopoldskron, in Salzburg, Austria, on Thursday afternoon for the start of the five-day program, which is being held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Over the next few days, participants will look at developing strategies to enhance effective collaboration and information-sharing between hospitals, social services and community organizations. They will also consider new approaches for hospitals to address the social determinants of health.

This session is part of Salzburg Global’s multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century.

John Lotherington, a program director for Salzburg Global, and Hilary Heishman, a senior program officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, kickstarted the session by taking part in an on-stage discussion.

Beginning the conversation, Heishman suggested health care in the United States was effective at treating people with illness but was less effective at keeping people healthy.

Things that contribute to being healthy in the long-term start early in life, participants heard. Heishman said several factors which enable people to be healthy don’t sound health-related. Education, work, housing, and civic engagement were some of the examples highlighted which can have an effect.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, established in 1972, is committed to building a culture of health. Heishman said, “Within a culture of health, everyone has the opportunity to live the best life they can.”

While there are several obstacles to developing this culture, there are also opportunities to help make it more of a reality. This includes new work with data, information, and alternate payment models. As more people in health care understand the social determinants of health, it might become easier to set up appropriate systems.

In response to this discussion, participants considered the definition of health and what society’s expectations of hospitals were. One participant suggested if a hospital’s role was to change, consumer fears would have to be allayed along the way.

These talking points, and more, will continue to be discussed in the days ahead, as the session continues.


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Amy Little - The Biggest Challenge is Raising Awareness that Dementia is a Medical Condition
Amy Little at the Salzburg Global session, Changing Minds: Innovation in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities
Amy Little - The Biggest Challenge is Raising Awareness that Dementia is a Medical Condition
By: Oscar Tollast 

Executive lead of Global Alzheimer’s and Dementia Action Alliance (GADAA) speaks to Salzburg Global

When Amy Little decided to attend the Salzburg Global session, Changing Minds: Innovation in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, she did so for one reason: “It’s a global session with people from all aspects of dementia and many different parts of the world, so that fits in perfectly with the work that I do…” she says, speaking in Schloss Leopoldskron's Robison Gallery.

Little leads the Alzheimer Society’s international work and is the executive lead of the Global Alzheimer’s and Dementia Action Alliance (GADAA). The latter of the two is a network of international civil society organizations looking to champion global action on dementia. Its steering committee includes the Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Disease International, Age International and Dementia Alliance International.

“The premise of the network is that after the G8 global action on dementia that was initiated in 2013, there was a realization that we needed to mainstream dementia, and we needed the non-dementia world to realize the global problem and how they could actually be part of the solution.”

The Alliance acts as a bridge connecting international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). Little says, “[They] could be from the disability sector, human rights, older people and aging, women's organizations, international development. [It’s] looking at that spectrum of INGOs to help them realize that dementia is a global problem and that actually it can be part of their agenda as well.”

GADAA works with these organizations to raise awareness around dementia and support advocacy efforts. Further down the line, the network is looking at ways it can disseminate tools and best practices to interested parties.

In her role at the Alzheimer’s Society, Little helps share the UK’s experience of dementia and forges partnerships with other countries “to take global action on dementia forward.” The Alzheimer Society supports the UK Department of Health as a delivery partner. Little says, “One example is the Global Dementia Friends Network. We are working with 27 countries who have or are in the process of developing Dementia Friends. We want that number to go beyond 27 obviously. We have shared our program and resources so other countries can adapt those.”

Various countries are at different stages of development when approaching dementia, which Little admits is a challenge. She says, “Sometimes I describe it as the elephant in the room. I come and talk about dementia, and at first, you get a blank face: ‘Why are you talking about dementia?’ There is still that stigma and assumption that dementia is a natural part of the aging process rather than a medical condition. The biggest challenge that we have is that awareness that dementia is a medical condition.”

Little says this challenge applies to every country, including those seen to be leading on dementia. “I have spoken to people from ministries of health who claim, ‘We don’t have this problem in our country.’ It is a big, big challenge we have got to meet.”

According to the World Health Organization, the number of new cases of dementia each year worldwide is nearly 7.7 million, suggesting one new case every four seconds. Last year, the Office for National Statistics revealed dementia was the leading cause of death in England and Wales in 2015. While data such as this highlights the impact of dementia, Little asks, “Why in that case don’t more people know about it?”

Speaking on the fifth day of the session, Little says she’s found the experience “very enriching” and is grateful for the time and space to talk more in-depth with her fellow participants. “It has gone too quickly,” she laughs. “Five days feels like a long time, but it has actually gone very, very quickly. It feels like there is so much more we can do and should be doing. It seems to me the purpose of the Salzburg sessions – or one of the purposes – is to foster those relationships that then more happens after as a result.”


The session, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and The Mayo Clinic, with support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Tsao Foundation, and the University of Texas.

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Building Healthy Communities - The Role of Hospitals
The session is being held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson FoundationThe session is being held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Building Healthy Communities - The Role of Hospitals
By: Mirva Villa 

Health care professionals to convene at Schloss Leopoldskron for five-day program

People live longer than ever before. The average life expectancy of people has been climbing up dramatically over the 20th century. A recent study estimated that boys and girls born in 2030 can expect to reach their mid-80s or over in many developed countries like Japan, France, Switzerland, Germany and the UK.

These advancements in life expectancy are news to be celebrated. With the longer life, however, comes the challenge of maintaining health throughout a person’s life. Health care professionals today not only need to respond to the needs of the health care needs of aging population, they also need to take a more pro-active role in creating health.

Salzburg Global Seminar’s session on Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals brings together 60 participants from across the globe to discuss how the health sector could respond to these challenges. The five-day program, which begins on Thursday, is being held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and seeks to discover new approaches for hospitals to address the social determinants of health.

Hospitals will need take up an increasingly active role in cross-sector initiatives, considering the impact of housing, education, food, public safety and employment on health. During the session, participants will aim to develop new strategies to enhance effective collaboration and information-sharing between hospitals, social services and community organizations.

Key questions that will be addressed during the session aim to support this all-encompassing approach on health. Participants will discuss the impact of financial incentives and application of new and older technologies, and the best practices for engaging other sectors, citizens and patients in the transformation needed to create a culture of health. 

The aim of the program is to provide opportunities for information-exchange and global networking among diverse sectors that have an impact on health, and to develop action plans with both local and global scope. Participants will co-create a Salzburg Statement identifying the best practices on how governments, businesses and civil society can collaborate with hospitals in supporting health initiatives.

Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of the multi-year series on Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century, launched by Salzburg Global Seminar in 2010. The forum has brought together a diverse range of health care experts from across the world to discuss various aspects impacting the future of health care and overall health, such as use of data in health care and improving health care in low and middle income economies.


The session, Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Hospitals is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session, follow #SGShealth on Twitter and Instagram.

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Fellows to Produce Salzburg Statement Focused on Dementia-Friendly Communities
Participants from the Salzburg Global session, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia Friendly Communities
Fellows to Produce Salzburg Statement Focused on Dementia-Friendly Communities
By: Tomás De La Rosa 

Fellows present recommendations on the fifth day of Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities

Participants from 14 countries have agreed to develop a Salzburg Statement to use as a framework when approaching governments and organizations on dementia care issues.

The decision was made on the fifth day of the Salzburg Global session,
Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, which is part of the multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century.

Leading up to this, 40 participants had spent four and a half days discussing the stigma surrounding dementia and what a dementia-friendly community entails.

They also took part in plenary sessions addressing various aspects of life with dementia, including how innovations in dementia care can reduce the stigma surrounding the condition and make a difference in people’s lives. Participants also reflected on the benefits of a timely diagnosis and the role of arts in mitigating the impact of dementia.

On the fifth day of the session, participants presented six sets of recommendations addressing different elements that make up dementia-friendly communities and how to apply them in a global context.

After their presentations, participants agreed a Salzburg Statement would be the prime vehicle to bring together these proposals and take decisive action moving forward.

The first group, which addressed community empowerment, produced a strategy oriented toward giving self-confidence to people with dementia and the people around them through education and tools, active engagement in professional care, and knowledge of their legal rights and how to access them.

Through this approach, they hope to help create more safe spaces for people with dementia through professional acceptance of family leadership, community networking and social conversation platforms, and the creation of a general environment of inclusiveness and dignity.

The second group looked into research priorities within dementia-friendly communities. These were established based on the needs of those living with dementia and their carers. The first of these priorities focused on issues such as the role communities can play in screening and addressing people with dementia and caregivers at the time of diagnosis and providing initial educational and care plans.

The second priority was community-based care and services, which includes focusing on support for challenges people with dementia may face, caregiver support, and supportive social structures. The last priority suggested looking at alternatives to institutionalization for people with disabling dementia, how to manage complications, and how to make end-of-life care more humane.

The third group designed a roadmap providing guidance for effective dementia education and training programs. Its elements included target groups; skills, knowledge, and attitudes at different levels; consideration of needs; learning methods; insurance of accessibility; and culturally appropriate systems. Through it, the group hopes policymakers, educators, local communities, researchers, individuals, and institutions, would be able to design more effective dementia-friendly communities.

Inspired by their meetings in Schloss Leopoldskron's Max Reinhardt Library, the fourth group proposed the creation of an information library on dementia. It would be publicly accessible and professionally curated in consultation with dementia-friendly initiatives. The library would also introduce Wiki-style entries for dementia-friendly projects and organizations, which would contain work details such as their mission, goals and progress, contact details, location, and crowdfunding links.

The fifth group focused on dementia-friendly innovations in medical care. Their project looked into how communities and individuals can have a role in health facilitation for front-line staff, such as medical carers, to learn the needs and wants of people with dementia. Through this, they’d be able to provide care navigation, resources to a wider team in more complex issues, and prepare for life-course stages.

The final group explored the steps to build on to further awareness in dementia-friendly communities. This "Global Communication Network on Dementia" would help transform ideas into actions across various countries. This group suggested the moment is prime for introducing the project, as there is a "worldwide need for an open source network." Among other actions, this would allow people to exchange best practices for care and build awareness of how communities can be dementia-friendly. The network’s core belief is, "Together we can build bridges, relationships to broaden horizons and inspire each other to improve the lives of people with dementia and carers."

Veronique Roger, a representative from session partner Mayo Clinic, said the outcomes from this session would allow the different parts of dementia care to be more synergistic. To finish she added, "We have an opportunity to go after the goals we have set for ourselves [...] It will never be enough, but if we start now we will have more than what we started with."


The session, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and The Mayo Clinic, with support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Tsao Foundation, and the University of Texas.

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Innovation in Dementia Care - Building Inclusive Communities
The first panel discussion on Thursday saw participants explore successful models to understand community strengths and weaknesses (Picture: Amalia Fonk-Utomo)
Innovation in Dementia Care - Building Inclusive Communities
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Participants begin third day of session with talks on action toward dementia-friendly work

The third day of Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia Friendly Communities started with two different panels on dementia-friendly work.

The sentiment echoed throughout the morning was that becoming a dementia-friendly community is an ongoing process. Participants debated what it meant to be dementia-friendly, and whether being dementia-friendly always means being dementia inclusive and dementia capable as well.

The first panel enabled participants to develop a greater understanding of the work that takes place in dementia-friendly communities and what happens behind-the-scenes.

The conversation began with Jason Foo explaining the ongoing work in Singapore, which has included training Dementia Friends and dementia-friendly organizations. More dementia day care centers have also been set up.

Foo, the chief executive officer of the Alzheimer’s Disease Association in Singapore, said he and his colleagues recently explored the question: is having a dementia-friendly community the same as being dementia inclusive? As an add-on to that matter, what does dementia inclusive entail?

For something to be dementia inclusive, it must be empowering and provide freedom of choice for the person with dementia, Foo said. This way of thinking was reaffirmed when Foo and his colleagues had a conversation with someone with younger onset dementia. She told Foo and others she had the right to claim back her pre-diagnosis life.

For example, while building more dementia day care centers is a positive step, people with dementia who attend them shouldn’t be made to feel they are being locked up. Foo said he and others considered how places and activities could be made more dementia inclusive, which is one step further from being dementia-friendly so that people with dementia can have a real quality of life and dignity.

DY Suharya, founder of Alzheimer Indonesia (ALZI), and the regional director of Alzheimer’s Disease International Asia Pacific Region suggested a dementia-friendly community is defined as a place or culture where people with dementia and caregivers are empowered, supported, and included. This means understanding their rights and recognizing their potential.

When she established Alzheimer Indonesia, she paid particular attention to its branding and the messages it communicated. The tagline, “Do not underestimate memory loss,” was created following two months of discussion. Suharya said every country and city could have their own methods for raising awareness, but the bottom line is activating people’s potential to support people with dementia.

Fellows from Indonesia shared an example of the campaign held by ALZI, where people wearing purple campaign shirts take photos of themselves at famous landmarks. This encouraged more and more people to get involved, causing a snowball effect.

When identifying a dementia-friendly community, it is important to establish who the primary service provider is and its level of capability. That was the view of Kate Gordon, a health policy analyst and grassroots advocacy strategist. Just because a program may have served people with dementia for a long time, it doesn’t mean it is the most capable.

Organizations that provide services for people who potentially live with dementia should strive for training periodically to make sure staff know best practices when it comes to recognizing the condition, have effective communication skills and be able to refer people with dementia and their caregivers to specialized services.

Participants were introduced to a free tool which can assess organizations and how capable they are. In some cases, organizations may feel attacked when having to review their performance, but this is an efficient way of helping communities move forward. It is also a useful tool for decision-makers to see what progress has been made.

Reducing stigma was once again brought forward as a method to make communities more dementia-friendly. In countries like Nigeria, where a word for dementia doesn’t exist, providing more information on the condition through the work of the ambassadors has proved to be a valuable way to help the local communities. One participant noted that southern states in the United States often had similar challenges to countries like Nigeria, regarding lack of knowledge and their attitudes toward dementia. Promoting understanding of the condition would help ensure high-quality care.

The possibility of creating a global symbol for dementia-friendly initiatives was discussed. While the benefit of unified symbols was seen, a participant said the focus should be on breaking down the unique problems of each sector and the challenges posed by different public institutions.

Another participant remarked that labels are not important. Ensuring that the community steps in to help is the key, and people don’t shy away when they see a confused person.

Building a movement around dementia care, and activating existing communities is a positive way of moving forward. A participant from the UK noted volunteers want to become increasingly involved in the dementia cause.

Collaboration, identifying the champions and reaching out to them was seen as the key to building a successful campaign. Several participants said there was a need to keep the individual with dementia in mind – whether it was to plan movements, evaluate services or build inclusive communities.

Global networking, sharing successful case studies across the world, and pooling together the knowledge of caregivers were other valuable means.


The session, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and The Mayo Clinic, with support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Tsao Foundation, and the University of Texas.

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William Hu - “There’s a Lot of Good Work Going On, but Not Enough Credit Is Given to the People”
William Hu, pictured above, has played an active role internationally in promoting dementia-friendly communities
William Hu - “There’s a Lot of Good Work Going On, but Not Enough Credit Is Given to the People”
By: Mirva Villa 

Leading physician scientist reflects on challenges building dementia-friendly initiatives

“I hope that we can come up with a concrete action plan to disseminate and share the best practices in dementia-friendly initiatives and communities,” says William Hu, speaking on the third day of Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia.

Hu, an assistant professor of neurology at Emory University, has his eyes set on the future. Trained
as a neurologist and neuroscientist, Hu spends a lot of his time working toward improving the early diagnosis of dementia, and for the past two years has been involved in promoting dementia-friendly communities.

“We have been trying really hard to have an international forum where the lessons from the countries that have been doing dementia-friendly communities for some time can be shared with other countries that are just gearing up to do this.”

When Hu heard about this Salzburg Global session, he saw its potential in contributing to global efforts on improving dementia care.

“I was very excited when I heard that this was happening,” he says. “This really is a continuation of the global effort to talk about what a dementia-friendly community actually means, and how we get there.”

There are great efforts globally toward creating dementia-friendly initiatives and promoting inclusive communities, but several challenges hinder the rate of progress.

Hu says, “One is finding a driver for the initiative. Most of us are doing this as addition to our day jobs, and so finding somebody who will take it on as their primary focus has been a challenge not only felt in the States but also elsewhere.

“Number two, [the] challenge really is the resources and funding. How are you going to get the signage [and] the website hosting? How are you going to pay for travels to learn dementia-friendly practices from elsewhere?

“And finally, a huge challenge is convincing decision-makers that this is something worthwhile doing. The decision-makers usually have a set of goals of their own, and now we’re trying to convince them that having a dementia-friendly community or practice is a positive thing. But how do we compete with other goals such as profit margins, quality measures and the request of shareholders?”

Hu’s day job is closely linked to the dementia cause. His laboratory focuses on using spinal fluid, plasma imaging and neuropsychological measures to provide the most accurate diagnosis as early as possible.

“What that means is that whenever somebody has very mild symptoms of forgetfulness or word-finding difficulties, we can tell very early on whether the Alzheimer’s changes are present in the brain,” says Hu. Part of his research is patient-oriented, which has allowed him to frequently meet people with dementia, with the conversations going beyond the clinical responsibilities of Hu’s work.

“We get to hear a lot about their concerns on the day-to-day level, which is really what got me into dementia advocacy and dementia-friendly communities.”

Speaking further on what kind of actions he hopes to come out of the session, Hu hopes to see ways of recognizing and promoting the work of ordinary people in dementia care.

“I know firsthand that there’s a lot of good work going on but not enough credit is given to the people who do the good work. A lot of the time it’s the people who have been trained by the professionals, so it’s regular citizens doing the good work. How do we feature these people?”

Hu reflects on the story of two customs officers at Heathrow Airport, who went out of their way to help out a woman confused about where she was traveling. “I’m sure that was not in their job description, but they did it. So how do we reward them, and how do we provide incentives for others to follow their example? That’s what I’d like to get out of this.”

A lot remains to be done for dementia-friendly communities. What motivates Hu to keep working in this field?

“The spirit of people living with dementia and their caregivers. It’s very inspiring to talk to them and hear of their life’s accomplishments and what they still hope to accomplish in spite of the disease. There is a strong human will in illness that comes out, and I’m constantly humbled by interacting with people living with dementia and hearing what insight they have into the disease, but also bigger things in life.”


The session, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and The Mayo Clinic, with support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Tsao Foundation, and the University of Texas.

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The Role of Arts in Mitigating the Impact of Dementia
Left to right - Paul Camic and Sebastian Crutch discuss the relationship between arts and dementia
The Role of Arts in Mitigating the Impact of Dementia
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Participants explore how the arts can lessen the impact of dementia and maintain communication

The role of arts and culture can never be underestimated. The sector acts as a significant source of influence in many areas of society. On the fourth day of the Salzburg Global session, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, participants considered how the arts could mitigate the impact of dementia, improve communication, and enhance quality of life.

They were guided in their discussions by clinical health psychologist Paul Camic and neuropsychologist Sebastian Crutch. The conversation began with Camic providing an overview of the relationship between arts and dementia in the UK. Participants heard how various artists came together to undertake projects with people with dementia.

Crutch then reflected on the work of William Utermohlen, an American painter. After being diagnosed with dementia, he began painting a series of self-portraits. This enabled artistic reflection and exploration of what he was living with. Arts isn’t just a form of intervention, according to Crutch, it’s a part of life.

During the panel discussion, participants were introduced to several positive examples of art being used effectively. This included a nod to BBC Radio 3’s Why Music? residency, which saw presenters explore choral music and how it can help improve the lives of people with dementia.

Camic showed a clip from the film Alive Inside - A Story of Music and Memory, which reinforced this view. It highlighted how one elderly man became reinvigorated when listening to personalized music and found it easier to communicate. He benefited from a charity called Music & Memory.

In response to this clip, one participant asked whether there was potential to produce a similar film concentrating on the work taking place in developing countries.

Another participant said that if the film was shown in her country, members of the public would find it hard to believe what they saw.

She suggested the film could be used as a tool for raising further awareness and helping people with dementia.

Arts can play a role in breaking down the stigma surrounding dementia, providing communities further opportunities to engage with people with dementia.

Art programs should ensure people at different stages of dementia are included, one participant argued. One way to fix this could be to embed arts and music in the daily care of people living with dementia.


The session, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and The Mayo Clinic, with support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Tsao Foundation, and the University of Texas.

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Projects Involving Cross-Sector Collaboration Discussed at Hong Kong Leadership Program
Participants of Leadership for Inclusive Futures for Hong Kong
Projects Involving Cross-Sector Collaboration Discussed at Hong Kong Leadership Program
By: Michelle Dai Zotti 

Participants identify underlying factors behind most pressing issues affecting Hong Kong’s society

Hong Kong and its residents, once filled with optimism, are faced with a growing sense of uncertainty about the future. Rising inequality, low social mobility, and a growing generational divide are causing deep rifts in Hong Kong society. The younger generations, who feel not having benefitted from globalization and the territory’s growing integration with Mainland China, are challenging Hong Kong’s identity under the current political framework of “one country, two systems.” In addition, the World Economic Forum’s recently published 2016-2017 Global Competitiveness Index shows a drop in Hong Kong’s competitiveness, from seventh position to ninth, highlighting the city’s struggle to innovate and remain relevant on the global stage.

To discuss these issues, explore underlying tensions, and develop pathways moving forward, 25 young Hong Kong leaders from local government agencies, businesses and social enterprises, and civil society organizations participated in the Leadership for Inclusive Futures in Hong Kong leadership weekend program. The program developed by Salzburg Global Seminar in partnership with The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities was held from November 17 -19, 2017 in Hong Kong.

The intensive three-day program kicked off with a public event on Friday evening with Ahmad Alhendawi, Secretary-General of the World Scout Movement and Salzburg Global Fellow, providing a keynote speech. As the first-ever United Nations Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth and having held many other important positions in his early career, Alhendawi shared his personal experience in promoting youth engagement on the local, national, and international level. He called on organizations to open up to younger generations and encouraged the youth to “show up, speak up, engage and listen.” Alhendawi also stated that leaders should think bold and should serve others. The inspirational keynote speech was followed by a panel discussion on “Visions for an inclusive Hong Kong by 2030.”

The panel, moderated by Salzburg Global’s Vice President and Chief Program Officer Clare Shine, saw Alhendawi and two other distinguished guest speakers, Ronny Tong Ka-wah, non-official member at the HKSAR Executive Council, and Lau Ming-wai, chairman of the Commission on Youth, in Hong Kong, discussing the role of youth leadership in shaping a more sustainable and just future in Hong Kong and beyond.

The panel talked about the importance of thinking bold, having the courage to take risks, and the ability to create a following. There was disagreement on whether leaders are made or born but all panelists agreed that young people should be given the opportunity to experience and interact with new and different thinking stakeholders. The role of institutions is to provide exposure to young people and to change incentives within a society like in Hong Kong, where the education system is merely focused on measuring performance through testing and grades.

The program continued the following day giving the 25 selected local leaders the opportunity to learn from and engage with experts and dive deep into discussions about current tensions afflicting Hong Kong society and to analyze underlying issues of societal polarization.

During a panel discussion on “Fragmented Society: Social Cohesion and Identity in Hong Kong,” distinguished guest speakers described polarization as a global phenomenon and not a problem limited to Hong Kong.

One panelist spoke about the government’s role in serving not only as a service provider but also as a facilitating agent offering citizens opportunities to engage with officials online and offline and by appointing more young people to committees. At the same time, the speaker encouraged participants to engage and take advantage of resources provided by local government and Mainland China authorities.

According to one panelist, the biggest challenge currently faced by Hong Kong is to celebrate diversity in a united way under the “one country, two systems” framework, through which Hong Kong is given greater autonomy under China’s sovereignty. The speaker spoke about the need to try listening to and understanding each other, managing expectations, and focusing on promoting common objectives.

The second panelist spoke about globalization dividing our society into “winners” and “losers.” Those who cannot cope and are left disenfranchised by this ever-changing and interdependent “offline” world create new identities online finding others sharing the same belief. To counter this fragmentation of society, it is imperative to engage all people, including those who feel disenfranchised, through online and offline platforms.  

During a second panel on “Bridging Divides for an Inclusive Hong Kong: Conflict Mediation and Effective Advocacy,” experts with government experience shared suggestions and approaches to understanding and managing societal conflicts in the Hong Kong context.

Using a shared and agreeable terminology, finding an effective third-party mediator, keeping communication, listening, being empathetic, and focusing on common goals rather than demands and positions were some of the suggestions that the speakers shared with the group. It is increasingly difficult to disagree nowadays. People prefer to engage only with individuals thinking the same way, and difficult topics like race in the United States are being avoided. One of the panelists expressed the importance of disagreeing; the key is “to disagree without being disagreeable.”  

In the afternoon, the participants were divided into three groups. Facilitators walked each group through a different case study assignment that involved conflict transformation and has ongoing local relevance. Participants were asked to apply their personal experience and knowledge gained in the previous discussions and to work collaboratively to find an effective strategy. Each group shared a summary of their conversations.

At the end of the second day, participants were asked to think about who they don’t know how to talk to and to identify challenges that mattered most to them with the aim of encouraging participants to brainstorm potential topic proposal and project ideas. The participants organically divided into six groups discussing the following identified themes: ethnic minorities inclusion/elderly care; change; unaffordable housing; future of work; education; international exposure/competitiveness.  

On the final day of the program, experts presented and exposed participants to examples of local and global cross-sector partnerships through which specific issues have been tackled. The panelist encouraged the group to think of challenges as opportunities and to take advantage of resources made available in times of crises. The themes of focusing on shared goals, listening and understanding one another, and finding compromises were reiterated during this program segment.

In the afternoon, participants continued their project idea discussions started the day before and consolidated into five small groups. At the end of the program, each group presented potential project ideas involving cross-sector collaboration. Discussions on projects feasibility, implementation, and concrete follow-up actions are ongoing.


The session, “Leadership for Inclusive Futures in Hong Kong”, is organized by Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) and funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. To learn more see: www.salzburgglobal.org/go/588

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Innovations in Dementia Care - Reducing the Stigma
Participants began Wednesday’s discussions by reflecting on the stigma surrounding dementia
Innovations in Dementia Care - Reducing the Stigma
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Participants begin second day of discussions by reflecting on the stigma around dementia

Stigma is difficult to define, but you know it when you feel it. That was the message which started the second day of the Salzburg Global session, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities.

The message was delivered by William Hu, assistant professor of neurology at Emory University, as he moderated a discussion which explored how stigma around dementia varies from country to country and the different ways it is being addressed.

Raising awareness of dementia and improving education is not just about providing communities with a greater understanding. It’s also about changing the self-perception of those living with dementia.

Chris Roberts, a Dementia Friends Champion and Ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society, said parts of the media had accentuated the stigma around dementia, and that society had reached a point where people failed to realize there was a beginning and a middle to every illness.

Roberts, who has a diagnosis of mixed dementia, vascular damage and Alzheimer’s, suggested people should stop using the word “dementia” and start referring to the different conditions by their own names.

Participants considered the different ways in which the stigma around dementia is reinforced. They reflected on the misuse of language and the patient and carer roles which are often assigned at the point of diagnosis.

One participant said stigma should be challenged from the ground up through education. This point was echoed by another participant who called for a change in curriculum that would provide more opportunities for students to interact with people living with dementia.

Participants shared experiences between themselves throughout the session. The group heard how one man living with dementia in Nigeria was unable to openly share his experience, despite wanting to. The people around him would not let him. The stigma was so strong they feared they would be accused of witchcraft.

To reduce the stigma, a new behavioral change will have to be generated. In Indonesia, the media has played an important role in this regard. A series of multimedia campaigns have increased interest in the subject and has led to requests for more people with dementia to tell their stories.

Advocates and people living with dementia can continue to breakdown barriers by engaging with people from their own countries and communities.


The session, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, is part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This year’s session is held in partnership with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and The Mayo Clinic, with support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Tsao Foundation, and the University of Texas.

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Leadership for Inclusive Futures in Hong Kong
The HKFYG Jockey Club School of Global Leadership launches with the goal of supporting the emerging leadership in Hong Kong. Photo: HKFYGThe HKFYG Jockey Club School of Global Leadership launches with the goal of supporting the emerging leadership in Hong Kong. Photo: HKFYG
Leadership for Inclusive Futures in Hong Kong
By: Mirva Villa 

Salzburg Global hosts joint session with newly launched HKFYG Jockey Club School of Global Leadership

Hong Kong’s unstoppable surge from being a fishing village to colonial port city to now becoming one of the world’s foremost financial centers is an outstanding success story.

However, this climb has not been without its difficulties: social divides between different generations and socio-economic communities deepen, housing prices continue to soar, and the tensions are running high both in the regional and global politics.

Now, local young innovators are starting to reject the model of “economic development at all costs,” and instead are embracing the idea of greater social, economic, and political inclusion in Hong Kong.

To support young leaders on their journey to become positive local change-makers with global perspectives, Salzburg Global Seminar, together with the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, will hold the session “Leadership for Inclusive Futures in Hong Kong” in Hong Kong, November 17-19.

The session marks the launch of the HKFYG Jockey Club School of Global Leadership, a joint initiative between HKFYG and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, with a new leadership centre to open Spring 2018 in Fanling, as the “the pioneer in leadership education and training for Hong Kong”. The intensive two-day program starts with a high-level launch event, including a keynote speech and a panel discussion on Visions for an Inclusive Hong Kong by 2030.

Funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the program will bring together a select group of young Hong Kongers who are innovators from the public, private, and civil society sectors – providing the rising generation with a chance for cross-sector networking, collaboration, and opportunities for honest discussions about shaping the future of Hong Kong.

The mixed-method approach will see the participants take part in plenaries presentations, small working group discussions, and skill-building workshops facilitated by the expert faculty, including from Hong Kong government and corporations, U.S.-based experts, and Salzburg Global staff. The program will delve deep into the areas of interest for innovators in 21st century Hong Kong. In addition to hearing from experts in economic, social and environmental issues, the participants will learn about peaceful conflict resolution, civic engagement and multi-lateral cooperation and negotiation.

During the session, participants will aim to identify underlying factors behind the most pressing issues affecting Hong Kong’s society. They will reflect on ways to achieve a cohesive and inclusive community, focusing on the methods with which civil society organizations can work together to address the concerns among Hong Kong’s citizens.

The ultimate goal of this new initiative is to build a new leadership cohort in Hong Kong that are ready to respond to these challenges and give them concrete tools with which to drive change in their community. This inaugural meeting will pave way to the creation of a network of young leaders from Hong Kong, and mainland China, that will together creating a more inclusive Hong Kong.


The session, “Leadership for Inclusive Futures in Hong Kong”, is organized by Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) and funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. To learn more see: www.salzburgglobal.org/go/588

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Surin Pitsuwan – Asia Must Develop a Common Sense of Urgency Toward Environmental Issues
Surin Pitsuwan delivering the keynote speech of Session 591 at Schloss Leopoldskron's Great Hall
Surin Pitsuwan – Asia Must Develop a Common Sense of Urgency Toward Environmental Issues
By: Louise Hallman and Tomas De La Rosa 

Former ASEAN Secretary-General says Asia must run its own sustainability efforts

As a former Secretary-General of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Thailand, Surin Pitsuwan is no stranger to the developments of Asian countries, their international and financial relations, and how to build a better future for the region.

Speaking about the value and importance of the session, The Asia We Want: A Clean and Green Asia, Pitsuwan highlighted how the session had brought together many of Asia’s talents scattered around the world creating positive change as technocrats, diplomats, scientists, and members of civil society, and gave him hope for the region’s future.

“We do have a lot of expertise [in the region], but being spread around the world. [...] If we try to bring them together and get them focused on some of the issues...of a green and clean Asia – it’s rather heartening to listen to them taking the issue very seriously, bringing their own expertise and their own experiences, to bear on the issues in front of them.”

Recognizing the scope of the challenges ahead, Pitsuwan argued that a grand, coordinated response is needed: “The problems are too big for any one individual, one discipline or one sector. Certainly don’t leave it to the international institutions, don’t leave it to the private sector, don’t leave it to the academic institutions... We need cooperation, we need coordination and we need certainly passionate commitment from the younger generation because the world is theirs,” he said.

While he hoped the next generation of leaders would find new, innovative solutions, he urged them to remember and build on all the good foundations that have been laid down before them, recalling the famous words of Sir Isaac Newton: “If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

When asked about elements that put ASEAN’s sustainability efforts in jeopardy, Pitsuwan urged ASEAN “to be conscious of the fact that...there are some [skeptics] that are in positions of leadership and power.” But he remained optimistic: “That could turn around” as these prominent skeptics begin to recognize that environmental degredation and climate change will negatively impact the global community as a whole. This growing common sense of an urgent challenge “has driven the global community to try to help and collaborate and support Asia’s search for their own solutions.” 

These solutions need to be wide-ranging. and region-led “We need a multi-dimensional approach to many of these global challenges or even regional challenges... [National leaders] need to understand the context and complexity of all these problems,” he said.

“ASEAN will have to get together and adopt a common approach... [We need to] create our own resources, our own funding, raise the awareness among our own people... It has to be a regional approach, it has to be a collaborative effort among the countries in the region,” he urged.

This regional approach is all the more important, Pitsuwan argued, in light of the West turning inward, as exemplified by Brexit and US President Donald J. Trump’s “America First” foreign policy: “It is sending us the signal that we can’t depend on the generosity of the rest of the world forever,” he said.

Pitsuwan hoped that upon leaving the session, the Fellows would take their new knowledge and networks back with them to the region and use and build on them in the years of their careers to come. While the 25 young leaders who took part in the Salzburg session still have long careers ahead of them, the time to act is now, not far ahead in the future, he warned. “If we’re not careful, [environmental degredation] is going to go beyond the point of return.” 

But Pitsuwan remained optimistic: “That sense of urgency and sense of collective awareness [that was displayed in Salzburg] is extremely inspiring – powerful.”

Salzburg Global Seminar is sad to have learned Surin has passed away since he attended the session. We share our sincerest condolences with his family.


Session 591 - The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia- is the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation. For more information on the Session, please click here. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session on social media, follow #SGSasia.

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Fellows Begin Building a Community for the Asia They Want
Fellows of the inaugural session of the new series The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional CooperationFellows of the inaugural session of the new series The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation
Fellows Begin Building a Community for the Asia They Want
By: Tomas De La Rosa 

First session in new multi-year series sees Fellows leave with a renewed optimism for their region

The first session of new multi-year series The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation ended in decisive manner with representatives from 14 countries committing themselves to continue working for a greener and more sustainable Asia.

Throughout the four days of the session, A Clean and Green Asia, 30 of the region’s rising leaders in environmental development, green technology, and sustainability policy discussed how to ensure a low-carbon and more sustainable future, which would harmonizes with both nature and the fast-growing urban development the region has experienced in the last 20 years.

As part of the session’s final plenary discussion, participants shared how the session has provided them with the tools to face some of the challenges they face at work on a daily basis. One participant said the session had allowed them to be more mindful of the variety of ways in which communities are affected by similar environmental issues. Another said they were going back to work with a renewed sense of commitment to engage with more people with differing points of view.

Participants also expressed hope that the network established in Salzburg will keep them connected, with a reunion planned in six months in order to share the various practices that have enabled their respective projects and organizations to be successful. Through this, they hope to establish common goals and frameworks that allowed them to remain on the same page.

During the session, the participants took part in skills-building workshops focused on working with policy and decision-makers, how to promote regional collaboration, entrepreneurial thinking, and public engagement. Through these workshops, participants were given tools to become effective agents of change in their respective fields and countries. The four workshops addressed different environmental issues that affect local communities across Asia, and how private and public sectors can collaborate to develop country partnerships in the region. Discussion topics included how to achieve low carbon societies, how small-sized climate projects can gain access to proper financing, how communities can play a more impactful role in ensuring waste management is done responsibly, and how regional collaboration is essential to solve the urgent issue of widespread air pollution.

Toward the session’s conclusion, and as part of the efforts to incentivize collaboration, many made open invitations for fellow participants to come visit communities in different countries in Asia that are affected by some of the issues discussed in the session. These visits would allow them to have firsthand experience of these issues, as well as gain new a perspective on the various effects these have across the Asia region.

Session co-facilitator Niall O’Connor described the four-day session as a first step for the subject and “a platform to establish relationships.” For him, the fact that four days did not allow for enough in-depth discussion was an advantage for the long-term value of the multi-year program as it encourages participants to remain connected in order to foster cooperation in Asia.


The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia is the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation

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Ninth Salzburg Question to Launch on World Science Day for Peace and Development
Irene Higginson, the director of Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, speaking at Salzburg GlobalIrene Higginson, the director of Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, speaking at Salzburg Global
Ninth Salzburg Question to Launch on World Science Day for Peace and Development
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Latest Salzburg Question considers what future research is needed to improve care for people

An online conversation about end of life care will continue on Friday when the ninth Salzburg Question is launched.

The last question in the series will ask people to consider what future research is needed to improve care for people with advanced illnesses and those toward the end of their lives.

The
Salzburg Questions series started earlier this year on February 20 and has engaged people from all around the world.

Those who have been participating in the discussion have been using the #allmylifeQs hashtag. Between the launch of the series and November 10, the hashtag received more than 10 million impressions on Twitter and was used in more than 3,300 tweets.

The launch of the ninth question will coincide with World Science Day for Peace and Development.

November's question is - What future research is needed to improve care for people w advanced illness & towards the end of life?

Irene Higginson, the director of Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, will help lead the discussion.  

The Salzburg Questions series has nine questions on matters involving palliative care. Each month, different individuals and institutions at the heart of the debate have shared a different question coinciding with an international day.

These individuals and institutions were involved in Session 562 - Rethinking Care: Toward the End of Life. Other Salzburg Global Fellows who have led discussions so far include Agnes Binagwaho, Lynna Chandra, Suresh Kumar, Sheila Payne, Emmanuel Luyirika, Richard Harding, Bruce Chernof, and Stephen Connor.

Salzburg Global Fellows are encouraged to take part in the conversation on Twitter on the day and afterward. They can also take part by sharing blog posts around each question.

Blog platforms could include ehospice, the EAPC blog, Palliverse, and the IAHPC Newsletter.

Participants on Twitter have already linked to research, podcasts, and papers during their discussions.

If you hold a debate, workshop or Q&A event on a Salzburg Question, please film it so it can be uploaded to a dedicated YouTube channel. Send your video to katie.witcombe@kcl.ac.uk.

A Twitter list of Salzburg Global Health Fellows has been created. If you would like to be added to this list, please let us know by subscribing or contacting us on Twitter at @SalzburgGlobal.

List of dates, questions, and people leading discussions

20 February 2017 - World Day of Social Justice - Why aren't countries accountable to commitment on #EOL care for vulnerable people? - Agnes Binagwaho

20 March 2017 - World Happiness Day - Is dying well as important as living well? - Lynna Chandra

07 April 2017 - World Health Day - How have you prepared for your death? - Suresh Kumar

15 May 2017 - World Family Day - Will caring for your dying loved one bankrupt you emotionally and financially? - Sheila Payne

20 June 2017 - World Refugee Day - 145 countries signed bit.ly/2ah31bH why do refugees have limited access to quality health care and #EOL care? - Emmanuel Luyirika

11 July 2017 - World Population Day - How and what do you measure to ensure quality palliative & EOL care? - Richard Harding

28 September 2017 - International Right to Know Day - Doctors, Nurses, do you want to die the way your patients die? - Bruce Chernof

13 October 2017 - World Hospice and Palliative Care Day* - Do you know how to access #palliative care when you need it? - Stephen Connor

10 November 2017 - World Science Day for Peace and Development - What future research is needed to improve care for people w advanced illness & towards the end of life? - Irene Higginson

*This year's World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is taking place on Saturday, October 14. We will launch the question the day before to generate more discussion.

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The Asia We Want - Building Community Through Regional Cooperation - A Clean and Green Asia
Participants will be able to develop joint projects for future implementation and benefit from ongoing collaborationsParticipants will be able to develop joint projects for future implementation and benefit from ongoing collaborations
The Asia We Want - Building Community Through Regional Cooperation - A Clean and Green Asia
By: Tomás De la Rosa 

First session of new multi-year series will support young leaders working to advance inclusive low-carbon development in their communities

In a recent report published by the Guardian, the headline read: “From Miami to Shanghai: 3C of warming will leave world cities below sea level.” Data from Climate Central suggested such a temperature rise would “lock in sea-level rises that would redraw many coastlines.” Climate change is everyone’s concern, but what this report highlighted, in particular, was the significance of its threat to Asian coastal megacities, including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Bangkok, and Tokyo. While these coastlines have yet to be redrawn, millions of people in Asia have already begun to feel the effects of climate-influenced extreme weather events, air pollution, water insecurity, and other threats.

From Monday, 30 participants from 14 countries will address several key questions centered around sustainable development and ensuring a low-carbon future when they convene at Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria. They will take part in the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation - The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation – A Clean and Green Asia.

The majority of participants attending are rising leaders from ASEAN+3* member states and India. They will be joined by Asia experts from other parts of the world to provide comparative insights.

Ahead of the session, several participants have already begun to outline their vision for the Asia they would like to see when it comes to matters concerning the environment. Among others, these individual testimonials include calls for greater compliance and transparency, equitable growth, unity, a clean energy transition, and a "business as unusual" approach to support the global demand for sustainable development.

The four-day meeting will see participants look into various issues pertaining to sustainability in Asia, such as how communities can coordinate sustainable urban development and the practices leaders can look into to ensure collaboration toward a low-carbon, clean energy future. They will also examine local partnerships as tools for sustainable innovation, regional frameworks being used for environmental cooperation, and what efforts Asian countries can make to establish collaborations and the positive effects these could bring.

Participants, based on their experiences and shared insight, will also discuss case studies of communal cooperation internationally, and in Asia, to identify potential opportunities to adapt strategies for their contexts and to foster international collaboration. They will work together to develop pilot projects that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals and bring environmental benefits.

This session is the first of the new multi-year series, The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation. The series aims to establish a shared vision and commitment to Asian community development, to build a reputable cohort of rising leaders and provide a comprehensive analysis of collaboration opportunities. It also seeks to develop the participants' skills to identify systemic barriers that impede regional cooperation and generate practical cross-border projects and community initiatives.

Salzburg Global Program Director Tatsiana Lintouskaya said, “Rising leaders in Asia are aware of their responsibility to steer transition to sustainable and climate resilient economies and are strongly committed to Asian community development inspired by cooperation at local and global levels. The Asia We Want: Building Sustainable Communities Through Regional Cooperation is there to support and empower young leaders working to advance inclusive low-carbon development in their communities. We aim to expand this program in the coming years and build a dynamic cross-border network for practical collaboration and lasting results in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.”

*Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, plus China, Japan, and South Korea.


Session 591 - The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia- is the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation. For more information on the Session, please click here. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session on social media, follow #SGSasia.

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Qingchan Yu – “A Credible Alternative to Fossil Fuels Is Critical”
Yu says financial cooperation is a policy priority to help poor member countries to embark upon renewable energy developmentYu says financial cooperation is a policy priority to help poor member countries to embark upon renewable energy development
Qingchan Yu – “A Credible Alternative to Fossil Fuels Is Critical”
By: Qingchan Yu 

To strengthen the cooperation on renewable energy development in Asia, take the Great Mekong Sub-region as an example, suggests energy and climate expert

Yu will be a participant at the upcoming session in the series The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation. All participants were invited to share their own vision for “the Asia we want.”

The Great Mekong Sub-region (GMS) – Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, has a big population of 235 million in total – two-thirds of the US population. So far the region has an average energy consumption per capita of 1,268 kWh/person/year, which is half of the world’s average level. Rural electrification rates are still quite low, at 24 percent and 20 percent in Cambodia and Myanmar respectively. However, rapid economic growth in the GMS has meant rapid growth in the demand for energy.

As one the fastest growing regions in the world, the electricity consumption and electricity peak demand have experienced very high growth rates – a trend that the governments of the GMS countries expect to be sustained for at least the next five to 10 years. A credible alternative to fossil fuels is critical. The GMS countries are still at an early stage in developing their renewable energy (RE) resources.

To make the GMS countries less dependent on imported fossil energy, notably oil and gas, and to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the Thai government plans to increase the use of alternative energy sources (solar, wind, biomass, and mini-hydropower) from 12 percent currently to 25 percent by 2021.

The government of Cambodia sets a long-term target of producing biodiesel and bio-ethanol to displace 10 percent of diesel consumption and 20 percent of gas consumption by 2030. By 2025, the share of RE sources in total energy consumption is projected to increase to 30 percent by the government of Lao PDR, with mini-hydro projects and biofuels expected to be the main sources of RE.

Myanmar’s government plans to use domestically produced biodiesel and bio-ethanol as substitutes for 10 percent of imported oil and gasoline by 2020. Renewable energy sources are still at a preliminary stage of development in Vietnam. The government plans to increase the share of renewable power generation, from 3.5 percent in 2010 to 4.5 percent by 2020, and possibly to 6 percent by 2030.

For the purpose of bridging the developmental gap and accelerating the role of RE in GMS countries, a mechanism should be set up for the technical transfer, cooperation, and the best practices for sharing to promote RE deployment in the region. Capacity building should be at the center of cooperation in the region.

Given the fact that financing is the most crucial challenge, financial cooperation is a policy priority to help poor member countries to embark upon RE development. Therefore, field research, pilot projects, and policy improvement should be conducted with intimate collaboration between international partners and multi-level stakeholders in Asian countries and the world.

Qingchan Yu is the program manager of the Energy and Climate program at GEI. Since joining in 2009, she has led the team’s work on sustainable development, US-China bilateral climate cooperation, and international climate agreements across the state and private sectors.


Session 591 - The Asia We Want: Building Community Through Regional Cooperation I - A Clean and Green Asia- is the first session of a new multi-year series held in partnership with the Japan Foundation. For more information on the Session, please click here. To keep up to date with the conversations taking place during the session on social media, follow #SGSasia.

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