40 years of Ottawa Charta on Health Promotion: Reorienting health systems for equity and empowerment - A vision still ahead of its time? (working title)
Founder of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
Professor Kickbusch has had a distinguished career with the World Health Organization and continues to advise the organization. She was key instigator of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and WHOs Healthy Cities Network as well as other settings projects such as health promoting hospitals. She has received many prizes and recognitions and was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz) and the WHO Medal for contributions to global health.
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Leading transformation of complex systems
John Holmberg is a Professor of Physical Resource Theory at Chalmers University of Technology and holds Sweden's first UNESCO chair in sustainable development. He leads a research group at Chalmers "Navigating Sustainability Transitions", which currently has a main focus on systemic transformations in healthcare. He was the Vice President of Chalmers 2007-2016 and is currently the vice chairperson at University of Borås. He has been/is advisor to the United Nations Headquarters in New York in the preparation of Agenda 2030; to UNESCO in Paris in the expert group for the UN-Decade on Education for Sustainable Development; to UN-Environment in Nairobi; to EU on Eco-efficiency; to the Swedish Environmental Technology Council (Swentec); Sahlgrenska University hospital in Gothenburg and to Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, Stuttgart.
In many countries healthcare systems are undergoing a transition, where prevention and proactive health promotion as well as specialised health care at home are becoming increasingly important alternatives to traditional healthcare. This development is partly driven by an aging population, a rising prevalence of chronic diseases, and the need for more cost-effective care models.
Specialised health care at home is a clear example of a systemic transformation, where organizational, cultural, and structural aspects must be addressed to achieve long-term and sustainable effects. It challenges established structures and requires extensive changes in areas such as ways of working, technology, regulations, and financing models. The process of change is particularly complex, as it demands integration and collaboration across different levels of care, professions, and solutions.
Many organizations within the healthcare system are experiencing a growing tension between the need for change and the difficulty of truly addressing their challenges. Breaking old patterns is seen as both risky and difficult, and measures taken are often experienced as too marginal in relation to the challenges. The lecture will show some ways of how to get out of this dilemma.
The lecture builds on knowledge on and experience from systems innovation and transformation of large societal systems. It departs from the keywords of UN's Agenda 2030 and points out the importance of understanding the difference between complicated and complex systems and the different logics behind improving and transforming. It also positions levels of learning that are necessary to transform complex systems, and the kinds of processes that can help navigating such transformations in practice. It ends with some observations regarding leadership for sustainability transformation.