Monash to give taste of what’s to come at World Health Summit

The 2023 World Health Summit (WHS) will be held this week (15-17 October) in Berlin, where Monash University’s Professor Christina Mitchell and Professor Sophia Zoungas will officially commence their terms as the International Co-Presidents of the global gathering.

Last year Monash University successfully bid to host the WHS Regional Meeting in Australia, only the second time it has been held in the Southern Hemisphere, which will be held in Melbourne next year (April 22-24, 2024)

The 2024 Regional Meeting will focus on shaping the future of health across the Asia-Pacific region, exploring key themes including:

• Thriving communities and health: Living well and living well together
• Climate change and health: Priorities for responding to the climate emergency
• Geopolitics and health: Achieving equity within and across borders.

According to Professor Zoungas, “bringing the spirit of the World Health Summit to Australia, and to our vast, diverse, ancient and complex region will provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand the challenges we face, to build collaborations, and to co-create pathways forward,” Professor Zoungas said.

Over three days in Melbourne, delegates will hear perspectives and insights relevant to key issues for us here in Australia, as well as those impacting our neighbours and colleagues across Asia and the Pacific.

Challenged to focus on solutions and systems change, thought leaders and key decision makers from across the region will consider the questions: What would it take to achieve and sustain better health and wellbeing for people in Asia and the Pacific over the next 5-10 years? What are the strengths we have to build on? What are the systems that need to change or evolve?

Monash University will be providing a preview of WHS Melbourne 2024 at the meeting in Berlin, hosting a symposium chaired by Professor Zoungas, with speakers including Dr William May, the Dean of Fiji National University’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and Dr Claudia Stoicescu, from Monash University in Indonesia.

Professor Teo Yik Ying, from the National University of Singapore, and Professor Chang-Chuan Chan, from Taiwan National University will also feature. The session will explore the impact of these three themes, with a strong focus on public health issues directly affecting the Asia-Pacific.

The symposium in Berlin, according to Professor Zoungas, will highlight some of the major health hurdles in our region. “We want to provide the delegates in Berlin with a preview of what we will be focusing on in next year’s regional meeting in Melbourne, with an emphasis on some of the most complex but important challenges we are grappling with, like shifting the needle on inequities, curbing the rise of non-communicable diseases, and putting health at the centre of economies,” Professor Zoungas said.

According to Xiaoxiao Kwete, writing last year in the Global Health Research and Policy Journal, the term “global health” is relatively new – defined by academics at the start of this century, as an area that focused on health issues with a global concern and with the goal of promoting global health equity.

Monash University is a part of the M8 Alliance – a network of 28 leading health centres and research institutions worldwide, which together form the academic backbone of the World Health Summit.

Monash, which draws on its global campus network, skills and capabilities, including from the Asia-Pacific region, is a foundational member and key contributor to the M8 Alliance.

Monash University’s Interim President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Susan Elliott AM, said Monash is proud to be the first Australian university to host a regional meeting.

“As a member of the M8 Alliance, Monash University is helping to shine a light on public health in the Asia Pacific region at the 2024 World Health Summit Regional Meeting next April,” Professor Elliott said.

“We are proud to have been selected to host next year’s meeting in Melbourne, and we look forward to collaborating with the leading universities, experts and thought leaders from across the Asia Pacific to advance public health knowledge, awareness and outcomes throughout the world.

“Monash is a global health leader and, as a university, it’s our job to be spearheading the response to the world’s most significant challenges of our time. The 2024 World Health Summit Regional Meeting is a key component of Monash’s global health commitment.”

The University is a prominent participant at the annual WHS and last held the International Presidency in 2011.

According to Professor Mitchell, Monash is truly a regional leader, championing the cause for the region we are in.

“We have a unique position as an Australian university with a transnational footprint, Australia’s most global university with a very strong presence in Asia Pacific,” Professor Mitchell said.

“Monash looks forward to working in close partnership with our Asian Pacific colleagues to facilitate an effective forum where knowledge exchange and global connectivity among public health leaders transitions into addressing some of the greatest challenges of our region.”

Professor Mitchell added that climate and health will be a major focus of both Berlin and Melbourne meetings.

Monash researchers and European partner institutions will come together at the University’s Prato campus on 27-29 November for the Grand Challenges in Health and Climate meeting to explore major challenges at the intersection of climate and health and identify new collaborative programs.